Hispanics are darker in skin color and there are some with African roots, notably Puerto
Ricans and Dominicans. Scholars cite visibility as a principal reason for the inability of
African Americans to follow the trajectory of European immigrants (McLemore 1972).
Republicans perceive Hispanic identity as residing closer to ethnicity and hope
their trajectory emulates that of the European immigrant. While the term assimilation
carries a supremacist flavor, there are few negative associations attached to striving for
inclusion in the upper echelons of the economic strata. Portes defines assimilation as “…a
sequential path from initial economic hardship and discrimination to eventual
socioeconomic mobility arising from increasing knowledge of American culture and
acceptance by the host society” (1996, 48).
Importantly, definitions of what it means to be American are changing. The
descent of the WASP archetype and the discredited notion of the “melting pot” have
given rise to competing notions of what it means to be “American” (Gans 1979; Alba
1990) . Glazer argues that “a common life did create a common culture, habits, language,
a commonness which parallels the commonness of other nations with their more
primordial sense of commonness”(1987, 3). Undoubtedly, on a superficial level, aspects
of Hispanic culture are becoming part of the national culture. From mainstream stars like
George Lopez to the rampant use of chipotle, Hispanic culture is being interwoven in the
national fabric. Through this explanation, the rocky relationship that ensued between
Hispanics and the Republican Party was part of the natural “sequential path” experienced
by European immigrants.
There are various manifestations that a Hispanic identity might take. Cuban
immigrants, for example, did not face formal discrimination and have many members in
the middle class. Conversely, those who identify as Chicanos “have a legacy of conquest”
9
Convention