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Welcome to Dodge City. |
Hispanics labor to find a voice By Tim Vandenack DODGE CITY - If all the Hispanics living here took part in the political process, says Rudolfo Madrid, the impact would be considerable. "Dodge City belongs to Hispanics," said the grocery store and bakery owner, referring to the sizable Latino population here. "We can change all Dodge City if we want." As it is, however, Madrid, a legal resident from Mexico City, can't vote because he isn't a U.S. citizen and, as such, stays out of politics. "I'd like to participate, but I can't," he said. Although Hispanics, mainly Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, make up a significant and growing chunk of southwest Kansas' population - about 40 percent collectively of Ford, Finney and Seward counties - the group's political clout is hardly commensurate. A glance at elected leadership from around the area reveals just a handful of Latinos, and observers are quick to note their absence from many things political, notwithstanding the efforts of a core group of activists. "They're basically underrepresented," said Larry Daniels, chairman of the Ford County Democratic Central Committee. Many, like Madrid, aren't citizens and can't vote, accounting for part of the phenomenon. But other factors also hinder Latinos' generalized political involvement here, even as their numbers climb: * An overriding concern with making ends meet. "They're not interested in politics," said Maria Armenta, a secretary at an automotive garage here and a U.S. resident for the past 11 years. "They come to make money and send money to their families in Mexico." * Unfamiliarity with the U.S. political system. "I'm afraid I might vote for the wrong person," explained Teresa Martinez, a naturalized U.S. citizen who is a saleswoman at a furniture store here but shies from politics. Many Hispanics may have been born here, she adds, "but because their parents didn't vote, they don't vote." * A dearth of organizational efforts by the two major parties. The media has become the major means of political communication, explained Dodge City Community College sociologist Michael Ryan, who studies Latino affairs, but Spanish-speaking Latinos have few outlets to receive messages, given the lack of media in their language. "There have to be grassroots organizational efforts," Ryan said, although a more potent Spanish-language media could also help. Still, as the children of relative newcomers like Madrid pass through the U.S. school system and learn about the workings of government and the power of the ballot box, many say that the influence of Latinos is bound to flourish. "Hispanic voters are not a potential force; they are a certain force," said Dave Rebein, a Dodge City lawyer active in the Republican Party. "It's just a matter of when they fully come into their empowerment." Packing plants fuel growth In 1980, Hispanics accounted for around 9 percent of the total population of southwest Kansas - that is, Clark, Ford, Finney, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Meade, Morton, Seward, Stanton and Stevens counties. Since then, their numbers have skyrocketed, due in large part to the arrival of meatpacking plants. Their growth rate here has outpaced the rest of the state, and in 2000, Latinos accounted for more than a third of the 141,000 residents in the 14-county area, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. The figures are particularly strong in Finney, Seward, Ford and Grant counties, where Hispanics accounted for 43.3, 42.1, 37.7 and 34.7 percent of the population, respectively. Nonetheless, nearly 40 percent of the Latinos in the 14-county area are not U.S. citizens, according to the Census Bureau, which makes them ineligible to vote, whether they are legal or illegal residents. Rebein likens the current situation in southwest Kansas to that in Texas or New Mexico before Latino clout came to the fore. As newcomers in those states have become more familiar with the U.S. political system and attained U.S. citizenship, their voice has gotten louder. "It'll be that way in our area; we're just a little behind," Rebein said. "I think we'll be amazed at the change in the next 10 years." While many agree with that assessment, what that empowerment may mean to the Republican-dominated landscape of southwest Kansas remains an open question. Ask longtime Hispanic activist Lydia Gonzales of Garden City and she recalls when Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy met with Cesar Chavez in the late 1960s in support of the labor leader's crusade for migrant farm workers' rights. "I think most of (the Hispanics) tend to lean toward the Democrats," she said, because of the party's historic role as a scrapper for minorities and the working classes. Ask Rebein and he notes that many Hispanics in Dodge City are small-business owners who might be more mindful of Republican calls to keep taxes down and government small. The Republican Party's focus on family values, too, could score points with Hispanics, given the dominant role of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, where most of the Latinos here have roots. Ask the Hispanic newcomers themselves, however, and some don't seem to have much of a clue about the difference between the parties, which gets to the issue of education. "I don't know anything about politics," said Armenta, the secretary. "It's too complicated." Teresa Krusor, vice chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party and a Hispanic, has been tabbed to lead Latino recruitment for the party. Ryan, however, warns that the wide, sparsely populated areas of southwest Kansas could bode against effective organization. Ask Madrid, the grocery operator, who is also the father of five children born on U.S. soil, and he says the brunt of the effort to increase participation will have to be done at home. "I'm going to tell my kids not only to vote and participate, but if they want, to go join the Army," he said. "It's their country. My kids belong to the United States." Reporter Tim Vandenack, based in Dodge City, can be reached at tvandenack@hutchnews.com or at (620) 227-2712, ext. 203.
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