6/5/07- It's not everyday you hear Hillary Clinton talk about the infidelity in her marriage. In fact it's rare you hear her discuss it at all. But she talked about it at the 1st Democratic debate this week.
So what will Hispanics think of all this Hillary marriage talk?
On Machismo
Latino "machismo" is a long held notion. In many Latin American countries, such as in Central America where my wife is from, it is not such an unheard of thing, to have a few mamacita's outside of marriage. A couple of my son-in-law's have done it, and 1 of my daughters-in-law once ran into her husband & his mistress once while running errands in town.
So the difference here, is of course we are talking US, and no longer Latin American culture. And thus there are several groups of US Latinos:
Foreign Born Hispanics
For Hispanics born in Latin America, the infidelity issues Hillary discusses may not be such a big deal. Infidelity, in their home countries, is often not unheard of among high-powered politicos- to say the least. (Bolocco & Menem anyone?)
US Born Hispanics
But for Hispanics born in the US, infidelity rates were about the same as those for non-Hispanic Americans (Univ. of Chicago 1994 study). Seems things change a bit on this side of the border (I will say though..it's still 25% cheating rate for Americans which is still pretty huge.)
The Hillary Effect
Hispanics in the US may have an empathy for Hillary in that she went through such a difficult time in her marriage, and give her greater respect and perhaps even votes for that suffering. Further, Hispanics are overwhelmingly Catholic, and subscribe to the notion of forgiveness. So that empathy, shown by Hillary, could be a Hispanic vote winner.
Next, again, Hispanics believe in God, and talk about their beliefs often. Hearing a Presidential candidate talk about the role of faith in their life, is also a winner among religious Hispanos. Hillary talked about how her faith in God, got her through the hard parts of marriage and infidelity.
I'm not a Hillary supporter or detractor, in fact I haven't figured out my candidate support yet. But what I will say is- she's got a good Hispano strategy, so far...
My 2 Cents.
(I will throw in my usual snide remark here, and say how fitting Soldad O'Brien moderated it...A female, minority anchor- of various minority backgrounds- including Hispana. Nice touch Democrats. )
-El Pundit