Obama Latinos in Iowa

Support for Senator Barack Obama has been increasing steadily in the early caucus state of Iowa. Primarily, this has been due to the diligent efforts of one Joan Kato. Her efforts are detailed in the following New York Times piece:

By most accounts, Hispanic leaders here say that among the Democrats the Obama campaign has been the most aggressive in reaching out to them.

"We are reaching out to nontraditional people," said Joan Kato, head of Hispanic outreach for the Obama campaign. "We can't expect the voters to come to us, so we are going to them and showing up at events to build trust."

The Obama campaign has sent Ms. Kato and her crew to over 50 Latino events in the state, is lining up Spanish-speaking supporters to work on caucus night, has printed literature in Spanish and English explaining the caucus process and has a Latino steering committee in every region of the state.

"We've been heavily courted by Obama," said Dawn Martinez Oropeza, an activist with the Iowa Allies for Immigration Reform. "Obama has been the only one there right from the beginning — we've gotten V.I.P. tickets to events, he's been on conference calls with Latino leaders and they've always had booths at Latino events. He's tried to make a more personal connection with the community. From the others, we've gotten no invitations to anything."

Humor y familia

Latinos are known for having large families. And when you have large families, you never know who you'll find out is actually related to you!

This is why Senator Obama enjoys engaging in some humor, when talking about his new-found cousin, Dick Cheney. As related in the Baltimore Sun recently:

It doesn't help when you put my cousin, Dick Cheney, in charge of energy policy," Obama said. "We've been trying to hide this for a long time, by the way. Everybody's got a black sheep in the family."

Obama's Heritage and the Midwest

According to Telepgraph UK reporter Toby Harden, he has encountered several people in Senator Obama's mother's hometown of El Dorado, Kansas, that believe or fear that Obama is a Muslim or even a radical. In fact, the articles states that contemporaries of his grandparents and others signalled they would be reluctant to vote for him despite his link to their town. Although Senator Obama was raised in a secular environment and has been a committed Christian for two decades, the rumours and smears persist. It is clear that because of these baseless smears Senator Obama's faces an uphill battle here and other midwest towns on his route to the Democratic nomination or even the presidency. However, Senator Obama's campaign is about change and he will define America in the 21st century.