His rallying cry echoes the late César Chávez, the Latino activist who inspired legions with three simple words, “Si, se puede!”
The loose translation — “Yes, we can!” — has become Barack Obama’s call to arms.
But now, some are asking: Can he?
After a dismal showing among Hispanics in his Super Tuesday showdown with Hillary Clinton, can Obama entice this key voting bloc? And, if not, what might that say about a color divide that extends beyond Black-White in an ever-expanding brown America?
Going forward in a neck-and-neck race, the ability to win Hispanic voters will prove vital in the March 4 primary in Texas, where nearly 25 percent of eligible voters are Hispanic. It could even push a tight race into one camp or the other in places like Maryland and Washington, D.C., where the Latino share of eligible voters in this Tuesday’s primary hovers at just 3 and 4 percent, respectively.
“Let’s face it,” said popular Spanish-language radio host Luis Jimenez, “Hispanics will vote for a woman president before voting for someone who is African-American.”
While the overall tally of Super Tuesday’s string of contests was hardly conclusive in determining the ultimate Democratic presidential nominee, the results among Hispanics spoke volumes: Clinton, exit polls showed, won 63 percent of Hispanic voters, helping propel her to victory in places like Arizona and California, where a whopping 67 percent of Hispanics backed her.
