SNAP! Luis Alejo on Watsonville's Protest of Shriver Visit

July 26, 2006
Santa Cruz Sentinel

Luis Alejo: Shriver's visit hypocritical

The recent visit by California first lady Maria Shriver to Watsonville last week was a hypocritical publicity stunt attempting to utilize Latino families as background stage props.

Some may not agree with the student protesters who cut her visit short, but the students had every legal right to do so, remained within the peaceful realm of protest, and had very legitimate arguments for their demonstration.

It was no coincidence that Watsonville was chosen for such a high-profile, politically motivated visit. Watsonville is about 80 percent Latino and huge numbers are immigrants and farmworkers. A recent poll shows that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ratings among Latinos have dropped to record lows with only 12 percent saying they would vote for him in November and 60 percent disapproving of his job performance. In response, the governor launched a campaign to reach out to Latinos a few weeks ago at the National Council of La Raza Conference in Los Angeles, and at other events aimed to draw more attention from the Spanish language media. Now, his wife is doing part of his public relations work as well.

Campaign experts say that the governor will need to capture at least one-third of the Latino vote if he is to be re-elected in November. In fact, no Republican has won a gubernatorial race without such support from Latino voters according to California Target Book co-editor Tony Quinn, who has tracked ethnic voting patterns for the last 20 years.

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