Identity Politics in Texas Primary

The problem with “The Mainstreaming of Latino Politics” (Opinion, March 17), about the recent Sanchez-Morales contest for the Texas Democratic gubernatorial nomination, is that its author, Gregory Rodriguez, is guided by the perception that Mexican Americans are only identified with an immigrant story. In that, candidate Dan Morales is a Mexican American because he matches that perception, but not his gubernatorial rival, Tony Sanchez, “who traces his Southwestern roots to 18th century Spain.” Nonsense.

Actually, Sanchez is a descendant of Spanish colonists of the northern territory that eventually became Texas, whose inhabitants, after Mexico’s War of Independence (1810), became Mexicanos; then, after the Mexican American War (1846-48), Mexican Americans--that designation reinforced by intermarriage with 20th century Mexican immigrants.

These early Tejanos, or Mexican Americans, are a sizable and influential demographic in south Texas. Besides oilman Sanchez, it includes Lauro Cavazos, former secretary of Education under Bush the elder, and Maj. Gen. Marc Cisneros, who headed U.S. Army forces in the Panama Canal during the Manuel Noriega capture.

In his mudslinging strategy for heavily Latino south Texas, Sanchez portrayed himself as the authentic Mexicano, partly because of his early ancestral pedigree, and his rival as a falso, made vulnerable by his poor command of Spanish. And it worked--he got two-thirds of the Latino vote in that part of the state.

Joseph Platt

Professor Emeritus of Chicano

Studies, Cal State Fullerton