There Is No Homogenous Latino Catholic Vote
*The truth is that there is no homogenous Latino anything. Even the Spanish we speak has nuanced differences. So religion, and Catholicism specifically, are folded into that idea. What this writer says is that there are blatant conflicts between faith and politics, and to think that there is a unified catholic Latino vote is to follow an illusion. This is useful information in preparation for the Pope’s U.S. visit in September and the coming presidential election. VL
By Hosffman Ospino, The New York Times
Will American Catholics take to heart the teachings of the Pope Francis on “care for our common home” when going to the voting booth? And at a time when nearly half of all Catholics in the United States are Latino, will this Latin American pope have any influence on their political convictions, and thus, on the 2016 election?
[pullquote][tweet_dis]… the idea of a unified “Catholic vote” is an illusion.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]Perhaps — but the idea of a unified “Catholic vote” is an illusion. Elections in recent decades have demonstrated — sometimes appallingly — that American Catholics actually tend to vote in blocks inspired more by political and ideological allegiances than by the convictions that supposedly unite us as a religious group.
What’s more, [tweet_dis]contemporary American Catholicism is incredibly diverse in terms of demographics, cultures, languages and political worldviews.[/tweet_dis] In particular, Latino Catholics are far from being a homogeneous group.
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[Photo by Alwyn Ladell/Flickr]
