I am Dominican-American, and I see a missed opportunity among dark-skinned Latinos, Dominicans included. Black Americans opened a door that we walked through, and too many of us forget it.
The case against my view deserves its due. Latin America has long treated race as a blend, called mestizaje, rather than as fixed boxes. Latinos also fought their own civil-rights battles, such as Mendez v. Westminster. So it is no surprise that when Pew asked Afro-Latino adults their race, only a quarter said Black.
Still, the door was opened by Black Americans. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was won mainly by and for them. Its 1975 extension reached “language minorities”, people of Spanish heritage among them, and required bilingual ballots where they were numerous. Barbara Jordan, a Black congresswoman from Houston, backed the extension, and it covered Hispanics in Texas.
I see the debt go unpaid in two ways. Among Dominicans, it is anti-Haitian attitudes toward our neighbors on the same island. A court ruling there left hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless. Here, it is voting for politicians who would roll back the civil-rights protections that cover Latinos too.
I am not asking anyone to check a new box. Hold the label lightly and the debt firmly. That means solidarity with Black Americans, a more open mind about the border back home, remembering who opened the door, and voting accordingly.