TV REVIEW : PBS Documentary Studies Latinos’ Clout

There was a time when “Power, Politics and Latinos” would have been an oxymoron. As a PBS documentary bearing that title notes, however, the Latino electorate’s potential political clout is growing. The key word is potential .

The hourlong program (at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15, and at 8 on KVCR-TV Channel 24) initially makes its case with statistics on the nation’s fast-growing Latino population: 22 million--9 million of whom are registered voters, the bulk in such electoral-brawny states as California and Texas. Although implicit in these numbers is the assumption that Latinos will visit the ballot box in sufficient numbers to make a difference, there’s the mitigating factor, expressed tonight, that it’s hard to think about voting when you’re “poor and focused on basic survival.”

Anglo media have traditionally relegated Latinos to the shadows of U.S. society, with television in particular rendering Latinos virtually invisible, except when it comes to stories about violent crime and obligatory coverage of holidays.

“Power, Politics and Latinos” is an antidote, delivering a message of self-empowerment. “We don’t have a say in Los Angeles and we’re ignored by the media, and you expect us to take it lying down?” declares Xavier Hermosillo, chairman of the Latino group NEWS for America. “No way!”

Filmmaker Hector Galan flashes back to June’s fiercely contested Democratic primary for the 30th District congressional seat in Los Angeles, his cameras following the campaigns of the favored Leticia Quezada and the eventual upset winner Xavier Becerra in their quest to succeed longtime Latino officeholder Edward Roybal. The result is an intimate look at grass-roots politics and a refreshingly mainstream depiction of Latinos that contrasts with those TV pictures of Latino looters amid rioting in parts of Los Angeles following the Rodney G. King beating trial verdict (we’re told tonight that one-third of the businesses lost during the violence were Latino-owned).

The implication here is that this campaign, with several Latinos running, is self-empowerment in action and a metaphor for Latinos assuming control of their own destiny. However, the program omits a crucial statistic--the percentage of Latinos who voted in the primary. And it fails to explain why there would be a net gain for Latinos if the heavily favored Becerra wins in November, filling a seat that another Latino has held for three decades.