The Latino engine driving The Bernie Express

SAN DIEGO -- Coming out of left field, the 2020 election has produced the ultimate odd couple: Bernie Sanders & the Latinos.

How important were Latinos to Sanders' victories this week on Super Tuesday? Well, he triumphed in states with significant numbers of Latinos -- prevailing in Utah (14.2%) and Colorado (21.7%) and was poised to take the biggest prize of all, California (39.3%).

As usual, the trickster was Texas (39.6% Latino). The purple state usually confounds the experts and keeps political observers guessing. For most of the night, Sanders and Joe Biden were neck and neck in the Lone Star State, separated by less than a single percentage point. The state eventually went to Biden, thanks in large measure to his steadfast support from African American voters and the fact that Tejanos (or Texas Latinos) tend to be more conservative than their counterparts in other states in the Southwest.

Even so, according to exit polls, Sanders beat Biden - the new front-runner -- by 20 points among Latinos in Texas.

So, Mr. Sanders and the Latinos. That's a thing now? You bet.

Who could have imagined that a 78-year-old white democratic socialist with a history of opposing legal status for undocumented immigrants to protect U.S. workers from the nuisance of competing with them would owe much of his electoral success to a tribe of Democrats who respect immigrants for doing the kinds of crummy jobs that Americans don't want to do anyway, tend to be drawn to youthful candidates and often despise socialism for destroying the Latin American countries their ancestors fled?

Before Bernie the Explorer discovered the heavily Latino (read: "Mexican American") Southwest -- first Nevada, where the senator dominated the caucuses, and then the Super Tuesday states -- Sanders' interest in all things Latino seemed limited to whatever was on the No. 3 combination plate at his favorite pseudo-Mexican restaurant in Vermont.

Suddenly, the two are inseparable. But, honestly, I don't even know how they found each another. They come from different worlds, believe different things and live in different parts of the United States. They have different opinions about protectionism, nativism and socialism.

They also seem to have different work ethics. The Vermont senator has avoided the private sector like the plague and cashed government checks for 40 years. In 1971, according to various accounts, he was kicked out of a hippie commune in Vermont for spending his time talking politics instead of doing chores. Latinos start more businesses than any other ethnic group. And they not only do their chores, but -- when you count immigrants -- everyone else's.

Sanders and Latinos certainly seem to be living in different Americas. The senator seems to think our country's best days are behind her and that the United States is a corrupt oligarchy where those who control the wealth also control everything else. Why, you can imagine him saying, America is no better than Cuba.

Latinos are natural optimists, convinced that it's OK if today isn't great because tomorrow can always be better. And the 4% of Latinos of Cuban descent know an absurd comparison when they hear one.

Latinos are also different from one another. We're not a monolithic "bloc," and we never have been. We're divided by age, income, education level and country of origin. We lock horns over whether we're rural vs. urban, white collar vs. blue collar, partisan vs. independent or immigrant vs. native. Some of us identify with Mexico or Puerto Rico or El Salvador, while others consider ourselves first and foremost Americans. And in this election, some of us want the kind of complete socioeconomic transformation that Sanders promises, while others just want to send Donald Trump into retirement.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gave Sanders the blessing early on in this campaign and christened him "Tío Bernie." It was clever branding. Latinos expect their uncles to be a little loco, but we love them anyway.

The Sanders campaign was also pretty smart. Throughout the Southwest, it spent its money not only on TV ads but also on setting up an effective and well-organized ground game. In Nevada, the Sanderistas marched in six months before the caucuses and sent volunteers to knock on doors in Latino neighborhoods.

The direct marketing approach paid off. According to entrance polls in the Silver State, Sanders won 51% of the Latino vote. And the duel in the desert was just a warmup to Super Tuesday.

This election year, Latino voters are the engine powering The Bernie Express. That may not be easy to understand, but it's impossible to deny.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.