What are the voting patterns and values of Latinos?

While doing research for this question I ran into a quote said by a Harvard Political Scientist. He said “Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves--from Los Angeles to Miami--and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream." I thought this quote was really interesting because he expained the immigration of latinos in a negative light, and claiming that they rejected the values of America. This got me thinking: What are the American values? What are the Hispanic values? Where do the two intersect? I did some more reading and research to figure this out.

It is no doubt that the population of hispanics is huge, and that political candidates struggle to win their vote. 13% of Americans are Latino; this is the biggest minority group in America. Such as during the 2008 presidencial campaign, McCain and Obama struggled to gain the votes of this large portion of the population by advertising commercials in Spanish concerning the economy. But, was this enough? I did some more research to figure out what hispanics look for in a candidate and what issues they were most concerned about.

From the first article I read, Hispanics and Latinos were said to be a very diverse group of people. Their diversity has come from the different countries that they come from, but what separtes them more is politics. It is said that the most democratic of Latinos are Puerto Ricans, the most conservative are Cubans, and the ones that voted both Republican and Democratic were Mexican-Americans. Even though that they may be separated politically, their interests still remain the same. I especially liked what Ana Gomex-Mallada, a Havana lawyer, said "Whether you're from Puerto Rico ... whether you're Cuban or an illegal alien, it’s always going to be about education, learning English and having access to the American Dream." Even though the latinos may be one of the most diverse groups, they all share in common their strive for education, and having the ability to pursue happiness.

I thought it was very interesting that the political scientist, quoted earlier, said that latinos were a threat to the American culture, but isn't the American culture cherished because it is so diverse?At the end of one of the articles the author said "that's a problem the Founding Fathers resolved long time ago: Create a political community that respects cultural and religious differences".When this country was being made by the founding fathers, it was understood that there would be differences,but they made it a point to respect them. It would be best to search more about how America has viewed the latinos, especially politically, to gain a better understanding of how, or if, this has affected their voting rights.