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There is a need for scholarly
study of political participation among Dominicans residing in
the United States in order to address the lack of substantive
information regarding the voting patterns of this group. In the
meantime, an abundant amount of information has been produced
concerning Latinos, their political behavior, and voting habits.
Dr. Henry Flores, of St. Mary’s University in Texas, makes
the observation that “[t]he existing data on Latino voting
behavior can be classified in two categories: nationally aggregated
data and data that reflects voting patterns among Latinos in specific
states. The existing national level data has limited applicability
given the diversity of the Latino population and lack of a comprehensive
“pan-ethnic identity. Thus, many researchers who study Latino
political behavior have devoted a considerable amount of time
to studying either Latinos, as an aggregated entity, or as specific
subgroups, such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. For instance,
some studies, to be discussed below, have found that despite their
long tradition of political activism in their countries of origins,
some Latinos groups in the United States, when compared to other
racial/ethnic groups such as Whites non-Hispanics or Blacks non-Hispanics,
tend to have a very low level of political participation (in terms
of voter turnout) in local politics.30 In fact, the 1990 Latino
National Political Survey (LNPS) found that, while Puerto Ricans
and Mexicans voted at lower levels than Cubans, they actually
participated at higher levels than Cubans in non-electoral activities.Thus,
sweeping assumptions of political behavior or participation of
Latino ethnic groups cannot be made.Data that is available at
a more localized state level cannot aptly be used to study Dominican
political behavior since most of the focused studies or polls
have been in traditionally non-Dominican populated states (e.g.
California, Texas) or neighborhoods (e.g. East Harlem).32 Flores
recognized the William C.Velasquez Institute (WCVI) as the premier
nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing research and data
analysis for the general public (www.wcvi.org). Yet, WCVI’s
polls have been mainly done in California, Texas, New Mexico,
and Illinois. |
Thus, the collected data does
not reflect 14 Dominican US citizens in large representative numbers.
In the last few years, WCVI has included New York and Florida in
national surveys and conducted localized studies on Miami-Dade County
in Florida. Unfortunately for Dominicans, the latter poll exclusively
focuses on Cuban-US concerns. Thus, a question remains unanswered:
what is the political behavior of Dominicans in the United States
as compared to the rest of the Latino population, or even within
the major Latino subgroups? Given that Dominicans have become the
fourth largest Latino subgroup in the United States, there is a
need to know how this group performs politically in this country.
Current population projections, provided by the CUNY-Dominican Studies
Institute, estimates that by 2010 Dominicans will be the largest
Latino group in New York and possibly even the third largest Latino
ethnic group in the country. Political Participation, Voter Registration
and Voter Turnout Bello explained the predicament of Dominicans
using the current cadre of data that exists, “The majority
of the current studies about Dominicans are based on the‘intellectualization’
of what the ‘conventional wisdom’ says about Dominicans;
or on problematic theoretical inference—this is, using theories
valid for other Latino communities and applying them to the Dominican
experience; or finally, are [sic] based in partial surveys that
focus on [sic] narrow aspect of the community with questionable
statistical methodology. For example, the Hispanic Federation has
produced Latino political participation reports and conducted annual
socio-economic surveys but it is limited to New York City. Other
predominant national surveys, such as the LNPS done in 1990, only
focus their findings on Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cubans.The scanty
evidence that exists concerning Dominican political participation
in the United States shows that this group, contrary to other newly
immigrant Latinos, quickly has begun to play an active part in the
country’s political process. Indeed, a 2003 national survey
conducted by The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute showed that
U.S.- Dominican citizens, when compared to Mexicans, Salvadorians, |
and Puerto
Ricans, 15 exhibit a higher level of political participation.The
survey also showed a higher percentage of Dominicans followed
US politics in the news, helped people register to vote, wore
campaign buttons, and distributed fliers for candidates running
for US office, compared to the other Latino subgroups surveyed.
To date, such political activism and engagement has resulted in
the effective election to office of 25 elected Dominican- American
officials throughout the United States. As it stands no one has
determined, at the national level, how many US Dominicans are
registered to vote and act upon the right to cast their vote.
The current data on voter registration is based on identification
of Hispanic surname analysis that can be obtained from voter registration
records. The data is an estimate that misses all Latinos who do
not have traditional Hispanic surnames and counts those individuals
who have adopted a Hispanic surname through marriage or otherwise.
Moreover, one cannot distinguish ethnic groups based on this information.
This places Dominicans at a particular disadvantage for a few
reasons. Given the migratory history within the Dominican Republic,
a multitude of Dominicans hold non-Spanish surnames. In particular,
many can possess French, English, Jewish and Arabic last names
in such significant numbers that non-Spanish surnames can be traced
to towns in the Dominican Republic. For example, many English
or Jewish sounding last names such as Shepherd and Cohen can be
traced to particular migratory patterns that have occurred over
the course of Dominican Republic’s history. For example,
during the 1930s the Dominican Republic was among the few countries
to accept Jews fleeing from Europe, when much wealthier nations
were turning them away.
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