The Latino Vote?

I couldn't be more tired of hearing the term "Latino vote". Who are these amorphous Latinos? Where did they come from?

Just to be clear, here is a little something about my family background:

My mother is an immigrant from Peru. She was educated in a convent school and came here when she was 18 to work as a nanny for a family in Marin County, CA.

My father was born in Upland, CA, the fifth of ten children to a mother from Michoacan who walked across the border in El Paso, TX when she was six years old in 1909.

I check the box marked Hispanic/Latino/Chicano.

I am proud of my heritage and the legacy that has allowed me to earn a college degree.

So, back to my original question: Who are these amorphous Latinos? And when did they start voting with one mind? I don't have to look beyond the confines of my own family to realize how foolish it is to categorize Latinos as some kind of monolith.

I'll spare you the suspense. I voted for Obama. If I had to guess, I'd say my mom voted for Hillary, but to tell you the truth I don't really know. (I'm tempted to call her right now.) My dad probably voted for McCain. I have cousins who are Republicans and uncles and aunts who are dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. My point here is that we are a family. We share grandparents and direct history. We were raised in much the same way with a strict work ethic and a belief in family. My father and two of his brothers are veterans. Between the 25 or so of us who share blood ties across two generations - add another handful for my cousin's kids who are eligible to vote - you probably have a fairly representative scope of the spectrum of politics in this country.

So please, spare me the platitudes and stereotypes of the "Latino vote". Spare me the single voter issue crap about immigration. Spare me the insult of imagining that I am a demographic and not a full-fledged human being.

there's a first time for everything

someone recently suggested to me that i should start a blog. i have to confess that i don't read a lot of blogs so i don't really get the rules here. i think ranting is generally involved, but i don't feel much like ranting just now.

i'm not sure why we are so interested in the mundane details of other's lives...
are we really so starved for voyeuristic entertainment that it is necessary to read about someone's pathetic and inconsequential day at work? i have my own inconsequential job, thank-you-very-much and if something of consequence happens you will likely be the last to know.

i'm sure that reality tv plays into this somehow. something about the way we consume entertainment. and when i say consume, i mean it in the most destructive, rampant, thorsten veblen type of conspicuous way.

welcome voyeurs. we'll see how i feel about posting into the ether of the worldwide web.