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Al Madrigal Says What Everyone's Thinking But Won't Say About Cruz & Rubio (WASPs of Latino world)
Latin Times ^ | May 7, 2015 | Cedar Attanasio

Posted on 05/07/2015 1:24:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Al Madrigal appeared on Jon Stewart’s satirical Daily Show Wednesday as the “Senior Latino Correspondent,” where he performed a takedown of the leading presidential candidates’ attempts to court Hispanic voters. He called Hillary Clinton’s recent immigration promises “pandering,” and implied that they were an empty echo of Obama’s similar promises in 2008. The scene culminated with a comedic reveal of “El Jebe,” -- A.K.A. former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- whose Mexican-American wife, professed love for guacamole and Spanish speaking abilities make him Madrigal’s “Hispanic” candidate.

"Most candidates are scrambling to go after Latinos now, but Jeb Bush started his outreach program in 1974," a joke directed at Bush’s courtship of his wife, Columba Bush, who was born and raised in Mexico. "He literally married into the demographic."

Madrigal’s boldest jabs were directed at the two Cuban-American candidates, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Both have been called the first serious Latino candidates for the presidency, but neither are running on pro-immigrant platform. In the skit, Jon Stewart asks Madrigal if he’s excited about the two Latino candidates. At first, Madrigal’s character pretends not to understand.

Madrigal: I guess those guys are technically Latinos. I mean there’s a lot more to ‘being Latino’ than being Latino [long pause].

Stewart: Because they’re weak on immigration?

Madrigal: Well, maybe -- but mainly because they’re Cuban; a small and -- I gotta be honest -- snooty subset; they’re like the WASPs of the Latino world. You can’t expect the bulk of us non-Cuban Latinos to go crazy for two Cuban guys who threw away a path to citizenship for a path to the White House.

Twitter reactions were very positive, and Latino Rebels called the bit “brilliant.” Why? Because Al Madrigal just said what everyone was thinking but wouldn’t say. Cuban-Americans are Latinos, obviously. Yet in the realm of U.S. politics they have absolutely nothing in common with Mexican-Americans, Guatemalan-Americans, El-Salvadoran-Americans, etc.

That’s not stereotyping on Madrigal’s part but a legal reality based on the prejudice of American immigration policy for the past 50 years. Due to America’s unique hatred of the Fidel Castro regime, we’ve allowed a completely open border with Cuba, admitting any Cuban migrant with no distinction between political and economic motivations. Until the “Wet feet, dry feet” policy was forged in the mid 1990s, American officials would actually go out to sea and pick up Cuban immigrants trying to reach U.S. soil. Cuban-Americans have had to struggle integrating like any other group, but they’ve had the privilege -- which some would say is undue -- of easy legal status.

Compare that to the workers championed by César Chavez, the Mexican and Central-American migrants who faced horrid labor conditions exacerbated by illegal status. That’s the difference “between being Latino” and being Latino. For Chicanos and Central American activists, immigration isn’t just about economics; it’s part and parcel of the civil rights movement. Marco Rubio has a very inspiring story in his stump speech about his Cuban father working behind a bar in the back of the room so that his son could speak in front of a podium at the front of the room. Thats an inspiring story, but it doesn’t articulate the unaddressed needs of tens of millions of Latinos. Too many Latino voters have a family member or a neighbor who not only stands at the back of the room, but waits ready to bolt for the door.

There’s no unspoken rule that Cuban-American politicians have to be anti-immigrant. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is an example of a so-called “WASPy” Latino who’s also fought hard for undocumented immigrants. As many have pointed out, minorities don’t have to have to run on a minority platform. But immigration is bigger in 2016 than say, affirmative action in 2008. What Al Madrigal points out is that most Latino voters won’t see these “two Cuban guys” as their voice, not because they’re excluding minority issue from the heart of their campaigns, but because they’re running on the wrong side of those issues. And being part of a perceived “snooty subset” doesn’t help.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: 2016election; aliens; amnesty; civilrights; cuba; dailyshill; dailyshow; dailyswill; demagogicparty; election2016; florida; illegalimmigration; immigration; jonstewart; marcorubio; memebuilding; mexico; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rubio; tedcruz; texas

1 posted on 05/07/2015 1:24:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Republican candidates need to stand up for AMERICANS. They will win in a landslide. AMERICANS vote. Citizens from other countries don’t.


2 posted on 05/07/2015 1:34:02 PM PDT by dandiegirl (BO)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Unbelievable (but oh so predictable). In summary, Mexican, Latin American, and South American immigrants, legal or illegal, want to install in this country the very same destructive socialist policies that caused the devastation they ran from in the first place. It appears they also are just a bit racist as well since they seem to judge whether someone is "Latino" largely on their skin tone.

As for the implication in the article that Cesar Chavez was some type of champion of Latino immigration, he and his brother used to beat up illegals crossing the border, and he used to hand out rolls of dimes to union field workers so that they could call if they saw illegals trying to work the fields (which is where the phrase "drop a dime on someone" came from). He was no champion of illegals, or even of legal immigrants. On the contrary, he viewed them with contempt since they represented competition for the work that he wanted exclusively for his union members.

3 posted on 05/07/2015 1:41:09 PM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oh those Troubling White Hispanics are at it again....


4 posted on 05/07/2015 1:43:21 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: noiseman

Indeed. Chavez regarded the illegals as “scabs”. They made it hard for poor Mexican Americans get get a decent wage for the most backbreaking work.


5 posted on 05/07/2015 1:46:51 PM PDT by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
cedar? the authors name is cedar??

of the cedars of hollywood family..presumably!




6 posted on 05/07/2015 1:52:10 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Madrigal: I guess those guys are technically Latinos. I mean there’s a lot more to ‘being Latino’ than being Latino [long pause].

Sure there is. You need to support leftists, too.

What assholes liberals are.

7 posted on 05/07/2015 1:53:44 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A Cruz W.A.S.P. and proud of it.


8 posted on 05/07/2015 1:54:23 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (BeThe Keystone Pipe lik ProjectR : build it already Congre)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Cubans, those whose home country really has become a Communist hell-hole, don't understand the trials and tribulations of those latinos who say they are trying to escape countries who are just now BECOMING Communist hell-holes?!? Really?!? That's the "funny" argument?

Guatemala and Central-American Latinos should take note that what they are fleeing, the onslaught of Communism in their countries, is EXACTLY what the Democrats and Hillary and her Liberal nut companions want to establish IN America!!

Just thinking about the stupidity in rushing to America to avoid Communism and then voting for it's inception here seems to be the "funny" part of that whole skit!!
9 posted on 05/07/2015 1:57:15 PM PDT by ExTxMarine (Public sector unions: A & B agreeing on a contract to screw C!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So I guess that they are “white Latinos”.


10 posted on 05/07/2015 1:59:10 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (A free society canÂ’t let the parameters of its speech be set by murderous extremists.)
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To: skeeter

The most racist people in the world are white liberals.

If you don’t fit into their box of per-conceived ideas(as a Jew, black, Hispanic, whatever), you’re not “authentically” whatever you are.

I’m a Jew-of-Jews sabra born in Israel, and am not authentically Jewish according to the marxists


11 posted on 05/07/2015 2:00:08 PM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: Jewbacca
I’m a Jew-of-Jews sabra born in Israel, and am not authentically Jewish according to the marxists

You're in good company. According to those a-holes, Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas isn't black.

12 posted on 05/07/2015 2:04:44 PM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well I guess Rubio and Cruz better start wearing serapes and sombreros if they want to appeal to “latinos.”


13 posted on 05/07/2015 2:14:53 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

WASPs could save country again. We should be so lucky.


14 posted on 05/07/2015 2:20:53 PM PDT by AdaGray
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To: Jewbacca
We shouldn't be surprised. Progressives think they are the final arbiters of right and wrong, protectors of the weak and oppressed (meaning their supporters) and saviors of the earth.

Its no wonder they believe themselves the determiners of ethnicity, too.

15 posted on 05/07/2015 2:21:59 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Many Cuban immigrants faced imprisonment under the Castro regime. Many doctors, lawyers, and other professionals fled the country. The children of a Cuban doctor who fled Castro attended my grade school back in the sixties. They were forced out of Cuba.

The immigrants south of the border are entirely different. Nobody is threatening them with jail. This idiot Madrigal decided to smear two great Americans because he wants a flood of illegals coming into the country.

16 posted on 05/07/2015 2:24:41 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Due to America’s unique hatred of the Fidel Castro regime, we’ve allowed a completely open border with Cuba, admitting any Cuban migrant with no distinction between political and economic motivations.

Okay, but why do we have a completely open border with Mexico?

17 posted on 05/07/2015 2:26:03 PM PDT by x
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