West Side Ramona
| 🌹 | |
| Era | The Seventies |
|---|---|
| Age | 40-46 |
| Home | West Side, San Antonio, TX |
| Demographic | urban Southwest, Mexican-American, working-class |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | hispanic |
A hospital aide on San Antonio's West Side who votes Democratic because the Democratic Party organised in her neighbourhood and the Republican Party never did. She represents the Mexican-American voter of the 1970s, organised but not radical, whose support both parties take for granted.
Who they stand for
Texas kept its poll tax until 1966. Its Mexican-American precincts were controlled by a Democratic Party run from downtown business interests, and San Antonio's West Side is where that arrangement broke down in the 1970s. Ramona represents working-class Mexican-American Catholics who vote Democratic by default and who were being organised for the first time. The Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and Willie Velásquez's Southwest Voter Registration Education Project both began in San Antonio. La Raza Unida, a Chicano third party, ran Ramsey Muñiz for governor of Texas in 1972 and nearly cost the Democrats the state. Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS), founded in 1974 on the West Side's Catholic parishes, best represents her politics. It met in church halls and demanded drainage, paved streets and better schools.
Her congressman, Henry B. González, denounced the militants as racists in reverse, and her group split between him and them. In 1973 the Supreme Court's decision in San Antonio v. Rodriguez left the Edgewood school district underfunded. In 1975 the Voting Rights Act was extended to Texas, putting federal law behind her right to vote. Nixon gained ground among Mexican-American voters in 1972 because his campaign asked for their votes.
Playing to them
For Ramona, a president's visits to her neighbourhood matter as much as his policies, and often more. A president who visits the West Side, funds the schools that the state underfunds, supports bilingual education and treats the hospital's wages as a political question wins her support. The farmworker movement is her clearest sign of a president's sincerity, so a president who supports César Chávez and the grape boycott is trusted by her on other issues too. She does not forgive the Texas Rangers, the state police force, condescension, or a Democrat who takes her vote for granted. A president who ignores her loses her to abstention or to La Raza Unida, not to the Republicans. Her doubts concern the Democratic Party itself, not its ideology. She is uneasy about the angriest speakers at community meetings, so a president does not need to embrace the militants, and gains by presenting himself as the calm alternative.
Winning her costs Delta Earl, who regards federal school money and the Voting Rights Act as a federal occupation of the South, and it costs Sun City Dot. Nonna Concetta and Hamtramck Stan are won by the same wage policies that win her.
Where they live
The five states where West Side Ramona makes up the largest share of the electorate in the seventies:
- New Mexico
- Arizona
- Texas
- California
- Colorado