An Interesting Take on Gender and Ethnicity

I was listening to Jaime Abeytia's radio show on my way home for lunch today.  He was talking about a woman running for some local office.  She apparently married a white guy and for campaign purposes had to start throwing her Spanish maiden name in the mix to soften her whiteness for the election. 

I love this topic because it shows how inherently racist our society is.

On his show Jaime correctly asserts that the altering of a candidate's name to better reflect their original ethnicity is almost exclusively a trait of communities with large Hispanic populations.  There has been some of this type of name reorganization, if you will, in Polish and Irish communities in the past, but never to the extent that we see the Hispanics do it.

Obviously this situation happens more often with females than males.  Females often take their husband's name when they get married.  You will find some male candidates who have a white devil for a father and Hispanic mother will pick up their mother's maiden name out of convenience when they decide to run for office.  All of this is absolutely hilarious to me and rightly brings these candidate's decision making abilities into question.

I have often joked with people that to get elected in the Lower Valley that it's best to be a Hispanic female.  My big finish to the monologue usually advises that the perfect name for a Lower Valley candidate would be "Female, Hispanic."  Changing your name to that would almost guarantee a win in any race.

Years ago a colleague of mine and I were discussing a rather heated local race taking place in a southern California city where one of the candidates had brought her Spanish last name out of retirement for the election.  His question to me was a hard one to answer, he asked "who should be more offended, her husband whose name isn't good enough for her anymore, or the voters who are supposed to vote along ethnic lines instead of on the issues?"

That's a tough question.  I would say both the husband and the voters should be a little put out.  However, the voters are the reason this is a practice in the first place, so they can live with the reality they built.

The husbands of these women have to wonder what about their last name is so bad that they have to sneak their old one back into the mix.  Would they be doing this if their husband's name was Ruiz instead of Smith?  All of a sudden the husband is a white devil who she loves dearly, but not publicly.  It's as if she is saying, "I love you babe, but your whiteness is bad for my image."  I liken it to a white woman in the south being in love with a black man, but worried about how it would look if they appeared in public together.  In fact, it's no different.  She is saying, in this case, that her husband's ethnic background is not acceptable to others, therefore she would like to distance herself from it if only by a hyphen. 

Women have a choice when getting married to either take their husband's name or keep their own.  I offered to let my wife keep her last name.  My name is rather long and hard to spell and pronounce. It causes lots of inconveniences and I was happy to keep my wife from being frustrated.  She took the name anyhow and has regretted it every single day since.  The good news is that she's way too proud and stubborn to admit I was right and she was wrong, so she's kept the name and doesn't complain much.

I would advise all women who are Hispanic and in love with a white devil that they consider keeping their name just in case they want to run for office in El Paso in the future.  It just makes the ethnic pandering so much easier.

The addition of a Spanish surname to a candidate's current WASP name does say a lot about the electorate.  If there wasn't something to the strategy, we wouldn't see it being repeated in nearly every election cycle.  It obviously works.

When a candidate decides that their WASP name isn't going to work for an election, they are really saying that the voters in that district are ethnicists/racists.  They assume the voters would be turned off by the idea that they may be white.  In order to avoid the appearance of being white, they put a Spanish name in the game to do battle with their WASP image brought on by the fact that they (hold your nose here) MARRIED A WHITE GUY! 

(Yes, I know that Hispanics are of the white race blah blah blah)

A few years back a really intelligent and nice guy named Troy Hicks ran against Representative Eddie Holguin.  Hicks made no bones about his chances when asked about them on the Paul Strelzin show.  He said that his anglo last name would be a disadvantage.  Strelzin took a moment out of his daily routine of interviewing himself to chastise Hicks about that comment.   You would have thought the guy said Hitler was a role model for diversity. 

Hicks went on to give Holguin a pretty good run for his money, but unfortunately he's dropped out of sight since then.  I really liked the guy and thought he'd be a great elected official if given the chance and it's not because he's white.

The charge of racism followed Hicks after his little bout with honesty on a live mic (don't you wish more politicos would have bouts with honesty).  He was the poster child for our ethnic separation in this community even if he was merely an observer.  The hypocrisy was so thick around this statement that you could have sold it by the pound after hacking it away with a machete. 

Never had those like Strelzin, who were filled with righteous indignation over the statement, said a word about the reclamation of Spanish maiden names in order to appeal to voters who they knew would only vote for someone with a Spanish last name.  The act of pandering to a certain race or ethnicity had been taking place well within the view of the public for decades.  It only became a problem when a white guy pointed it out. And at that, the problem was that the white guy pointed out.  Somehow it was wrong for a white guy to point out what is essentially the fact that we vote in this city along racial and ethnic lines.  At least we do in certain parts of town. So much for calling it how your see it. 

It should be noted that Mayor Cook and that Senator Shapleigh are white.  Shapleigh has not had a Hispanic opponent to my knowledge and the Mayor's closest competition in the last election was a white guy (Gus Haddad).  Take from that what you will.

In closing, I think it's ridiculous for anyone to vote along racial or ethnic lines.  A white guy is as likely to screw me as a guy from any other race.  Assuming that because someone has a German last name like mine makes them just like me, or a fan of my same values, is stupid.  We're all individuals whether or not our government likes it or not.  You are more than your ethnicity!  I want you to vote accordingly.  If being Hispanic is the only qualification you look for in a candidate, then you deserve whatever you get from them when they are elected.  Good leadership knows no color.

Comments

[susie]

And khro had the nerve to call me a racist. They are the racists against people who have differnt culture than ours.

[Robert]

DK, you didn't mention Robert Francis O'Rourke who smartly changed into "Beto" O'Rourke shortly before he ran for District 8.

[blog reader]

robert is right about orourke. beto is short for roberto in spanish and not robert in english. maybe the maid called him beto.

byrd never took her husbands name at all and he is anglo. hillary added her father's name in after he died. all political moves.

[abby]

I recently heard Heinie mention that Reps. want to divide people because during the election, McCain made a poll in So. Car. about would voters be ok if they found out that McCain had a black child. I guess that's what Heinie said because it was such incoherent babble that it's obvious that Heinie needs some serious pyschological help for that sick, demented brain of his. I mean he made about as much sense as when B.O. said that there are 57 states or he plans to shoot a rocket at the moon. It'll be quite a sight to see these communist/neo-nazi Democrat piles of shit, fuck up Afgan and Iraq just like they did during WW1,WW2, Korea, and Vietnam.

[Mike]

"It'll be quite a sight to see these communist/neo-nazi Democrat piles of shit, fuck up Afgan and Iraq just like they did during WW1,WW2, Korea, and Vietnam."

It's certainly been fun watching the Rethuglican jackboot douchebag goon fuckers fuck Iraq and AfghanISTAN up for the past 8 years. They're really god damned good at invading but when it comes time to winning, rethuglicant's screw the pooch every time because they're fucking idiots. All of them including the dike whore abby who makes my language look like that of a nursery school choir boy.

Go suck a fat cock, abby.

[Serious]

David,

I suggest you screen the typs of people like the previous two.....I'm sure they have a point somewhere but their type of delivery moves thinking people away from your site.

[obama]

Fuck, you are really stupid or just made most of this shit up like you are fond of doing with other topics.

Just because candidates try a particular tactic, doesn't mean it works. If that was the case, then every single Hispanic surnamed candidate would have beaten their opponents. But that's not the fucking case is it? Perhaps they resort to this tactic because they are fucking morons? As far as Hicks is concerned, he was almost as unlikable as you. An obnoxious prick who admitted he would have been sucking on susie's and the rest of the progressives' cocks and who by the fucking way, trotted out pictures of his Mexican wife and kids every fucking chance he got. Shapleigh and a Hispanic opponent? Are you really that fucking dumb? The last mayors race... or any mayors race? If your stupid fucking theory had any validity at all, every single last mayor would have been Hispanic. Dumbass.

[blog reader]

I agree with serious. Remove the offensive comments - it has no place on this blog and adds nothing to the conversation.

[Mike]

Any updates on the Texas Senate race?! I have anxiously been looking forward to a new article that DOESN'T involve Norma Chavez.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that ANY post on that blog would be interesting.

Get to work Dave. You opened this can of worms. Now you're obligated to make updates so that your loyal readers (or you!) don't confuse that blog with this one. LOL

[Half breed]

There was a precinct chair race by a woman name Jan. She lost to Able Rodriguez and then she started running as Jan "juana" Engels. She wins now.

Hispanics will vote for Hispanics all things being equal. Just as whites vote for white and blacks will vote for blacks, all things being equal.

People have a right to know if someone is Hispanic or with Hispanic heritage.

[Suzanne Fabian]

All things being equal, so whites just vote for whites etc???

Thanks for speaking for me, even tho you don't know what you're talking about.

How did Obama get elected? Was it the black minority vote that got him there? Or was it whites that just voted straight ticket democrat, being equally ignorant in responsibility of their vote?

What is the latest excuse to categorize people?

None of these excuses answers the question in a fair way.

Just why do people have a RIGHT to know if someone is of Hispanic heritage? Or are you really saying that people have a right to know if they are NOT Hispanic, especially in the borderland?

Politicians that use whatever guise it is that they think will get them votes must not think too highly of their platform, and voters that just vote by race are giving away their vote out of ignorance or laziness if they don't do the research needed to vote for the best qualified in all aspects- despite their race.

There are good and bad people in all races

[Orale]

In El Paso Suzanne, a white judge's greatest fear is a Hispanic lawyer filing against them.