U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Republicans are no longer the silent minority within the Latino community. In 2012, for the first time, they are being embraced by more Hispanics.
Esther J. Cepeda, a Washington Post columnist who’s writing appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, said, “Despite the fact that delegates to last week’s Republican National Convention were 98 percent white, take a look at the headliners: former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. New faces are being showcased by the GOP.”
Cepeda said Republicans need to capitalize “on the now-broken stereotype that the Republican Party is only for rich white people who don’t care about minorities, the poor or women.”
It might take some getting used to for Latino conservatives “to come out” to their more liberal friends. Cepeda said they “have spent their lives surrounded by liberal peers who, despite claiming to be inclusive, think nothing of calling minority Republicans traitors to their race or ethnicity, elitists, sellouts and, lately, anti-women.”
Veronica Vera, a Puerto Rican freelance writer and public relations specialist, told Cepeda that though the spotlight treatment has been new, minority Republicans really aren’t. “I don’t think that it was as rare as what’s been depicted. I think the real difference now is that Republicans, who up until this point haven’t really done a very good job of reaching out to the Hispanic community, now know that they have to showcase their Hispanic support,” said Vera, an Air Force veteran who grew up on the south side of Chicago and spent a lifetime defending her conservative beliefs.
Read Cepeda’s entire column on Hispanic conservatives.