Why Latinos loved John McCain
SAN DIEGO -- Now that John McCain has been laid to rest, it's worth paying tribute to his special relationship with Latinos -- especially Mexican-Americans in the Grand Canyon State.
The Arizona senator "got" Latinos, and Latinos "got" him. In ways the national media never understood during his presidential campaigns, McCain and la comunidad were blood brothers.
I saw the bond up-close in the late 1990s, as a reporter and metro columnist at the Arizona Republic. Even in a city that was then about 25 percent Latino, the number of Latino bylines at the paper could be counted on two hands. I got grief from whites who thought I was too Latino and Latinos who thought I was too white. In fact, my Latino colleagues and I took so much abuse that the reader advocate playfully nicknamed us "the pinatas."
I think McCain figured out pretty quickly that my job was no fiesta, and so he reached out with a compliment or an encouraging word -- something he would do repeatedly over the years.
McCain & Latinos. What a pair these two rascals made. They spoke the same language: God, family, country. They had the same values: honor, sacrifice, hard work. They dearly loved this land, and they didn't hesitate to defend it. And they had the scars and medals to prove it.
For McCain, I bet what drew him to Latinos had something to do with what former President George W. Bush said in the eulogy he gave for his rival for the 2000 Republican nomination.
"There was something deep inside him that made him stand up for the little guy, to speak for forgotten people," Bush said.
Poorly served by both parties, and lost in a black-and-white paradigm that has no room for them, Latinos are the quintessential little guy forgotten by the powerful and influential.
Yet McCain never forgot them. And they never stopped appreciating him, routinely giving him more than 60 percent of their vote in his Senate campaigns.
Twice, McCain was recognized for his service to the Latino community by the National Council of La Raza. In 2008, it was NCLR President Janet Murguia who herself noted this fact when introducing McCain at the NCLR's annual conference in San Diego. I was in the room. Ten feet from where I was sitting, as McCain took the stage, a small group of gray-haired Latino veterans with their military caps on stood at attention and saluted.
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