Latino-Americans Become Unofficial Face of Politics Abroad

"I think interest in the country for Venezuelans will always be there," the 27 year old said. "You will see us all watching CNN en Español to see what is going on."

Since first being elected in 1998, Hugo Chavez, the charismatic former paratrooper and self-styled revolutionary, has thrust Venezuela into a major role in the hemisphere and his re-election in December will likely keep Roche's birthplace in the news.

Roche and other young Latinos living in the United States sometimes have found themselves the targets for questions, criticisms or compliments concerning the recent shift to the left in Latin American politics from Americans seeking to better understand a region in the midst of change. Since December 2005, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela have elected or re-elected left-leaning presidents.

Roche, a Chavez critic, argues the media give a false impression of life under his leadership.

"Chavez has become the new bumper sticker for the left," said Roche, a self-described subscriber to the principles of social justice. "Especially here in the United States and New York, the confrontations are seen as black and white, rich and poor."

Roche admits that as a light-skinned, college-educated child of upper-middle-class parents, she does not fit the profile of a Chavez supporter. Americans sympathetic to Chavez often cite her appearance in discounting her criticisms, she said.

"The big argument they have with me is that I am white and I don't look like the Latin stereotype," said Roche. "They say I was socially removed."

The politics of race and status
Susan Cruz, director of Sin Fronteras, an organization dedicated to rehabilitating teenage gang members in California and Central America, sees race as the principal determinant in how young Latino-Americans judge leaders such as Chavez.

"Of the factors contributing to political affiliations, first and foremost is skin color," she said. "The politics of color are very important throughout Latin America and people with darker skin tend to sympathize more with Chavez."

The majority of Sin Fronteras' Latino patrons -- youths predominantly descended from poor, indigenous communities -- identify with Latin American iconoclasts.

"The kids have leftist tendencies, not necessarily because they understand the philosophies or know who Karl Marx is," Cruz said. "What they do grasp is that these are the only people who stand up -- supposedly -- for those who have nothing, for people who are underrepresented. It's a Romantic view."

She says many of the young Salvadorians she works with have a clear bias in favor of leftist groups like the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN is the Spanish acronym).

"The FMLN has done nothing for the youth of El Salvador, but the loyalties that these kids maintain toward these leftist parties is a conscious decision to choose the lesser of two evils," Cruz said. "One thing we try to educate them on is that they don't have to settle."

Leaders as symbols
The lack of opportunities for youth in El Salvador prompted Heverth Castellon's parents to move his family to California in 2000. Now living in South Carolina, Castellon, 21, has become a proponent for change in El Salvador.

"In El Salvador ... we use the dollar while the Salvadorian currency is not used," he said. "When you see this, you feel that your country has converted into the puppet of another country and that people in the government are permitting all of this."

Castellon wishes Salvadorian politicians would exert more autonomy from American influence and admires regional leaders who do.

"One thing that I favor about Che Guevara, Chavez and other people like that is they govern in their own ways," Castellon said.

Although many young Latinos revere Chavez, Cruz said, stop short of hero worship.

"With Chavez, he's already getting to the point of being in power for long enough that people are starting to get concerned," she said. "One of the things that we talk about with these kids is how the oppressed can one day be the oppressors."

Gauging young Latino attitudes
Louis DeSipio, an associate professor of political science at the University of California Irvine, suspects a disproportionate number of young Latinos in the U.S. -- as compared to their generational peers south of the Rio Grande -- would oppose the rise of the left in Latin America. DeSipio has found most of those who emigrated to the US come from the middle and upper classes, while the lower classes formed the bases for the recent electoral victories of Chavez, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales, among others.

"[Migration] tends to be more of a wealthy thing, so you're more likely to get people in the opposition than people supportive of the change," said DeSipio, who monitors civic and political participation among immigrant communities.

But gauging the perceptions of Latinos in the United States -- particularly Latinos in their twenties or late teens -- on the leftward shift in Latin America would require a survey with many "careful measurements" taken within the past 10 to 12 months, according to Pew Hispanic Center director Roberto Suro.

"I can tell you flatly, nobody knows," he said.

All conversations on correlations between Latino-American youth and politics in their countries of origin or heritage should begin with the assumption that "the level of knowledge about Latin America in general is not very detailed," Suro said.

A generation more removed
Ildemar Cerruto, 19, was born in La Paz, Bolivia, which elected Morales as president in 2005. Having lived in Gaithersburg, Md., for nearly 18 years, Cerruto largely ignores current events in South America.

"Other friends will bring up Bolivia. They will say, 'what's up with your president?'" said Cerruto. "Normally, I don't care, because I'm not really interested in politics."

Still, Cerruto resents what he perceives as negative attention begot by Morales. Morales' appearance -- he is Bolivia's first indigenous president -- is one reason for the distaste.

"You know how in the US you have rednecks? Well [Morales] is like the Bolivian equivalent of a redneck," he said. "All of our presidents, they don't look that way."

Mary Waters, a Harvard University sociology professor specializing in the formation of racial and ethnic identity among the children of immigrants, said children's political views typically correspond to those of their parents.

"Most of the second generation tends not to be interested in the politics of their parents' home countries," Waters said. "As much as they do care about politics, it does tend to pertain to what their parents think."

Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, editor of El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language daily in New York City, thinks times are changing.

"This generation has new ideas, they are more critical," said Vourvoulias-Bush, previously a research associate for the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan global affairs think tank. "Generally this generation in the United States and in Latin America, they question the thoughts and ideologies of their older brothers and parents more."

-- By Josh Miller, Generation Next