Obama, One Giant Step For Mankind. Transcending Race As An American

Issue Date: Volume 2, Issue 9 - 03/03/08, Posted On: 3/2/2008 Texas State Representative Juan García

Juan M. García is a Democratic state representative from Corpus Christi, Texas. He is a Commander and flight instructor in the U.S. Naval Reserve. García is one of the few elected officials in South Texas to endorse Obama's presidential candidacy. When did you first meet Barack Obama? We were law school classmates at Harvard as were the two women we would ultimately marry. We both took non-traditional routes after graduation from there. He, after being president of the law review a very prestigious position that is historically a direct feeder to clerking for a Supreme Court justice or going to a blue-chip law firm, went to Chicago to organize in the community and to write his book. I also took a non-traditional path. I went to be a Navy pilot and our paths have crossed ever since. I guess I got to know him best playing intramural basketball. I will tell you it is surreal to watch a basketball buddy be this close to being leader of the free world and commander in chief. Corpus Christi is heavily Hispanic and certainly the Clintons have a long relationship with South Texas. Can Obama make a dent in that relationship? Well, it is interesting. You reference the Clinton brand name relationship with South Texas but it is interesting demographics. The time they spent here doing field work for McGovern was in the early 70s. You have to remember that the average Hispanic in South Texas is 40 years old and the average Hispanic voter is 26. For many of these folks, the McGovern ties are kind of lost on them. There is a new generation of folks and what resonates with them is this idea that Barack like so many of us down here is the product of a mixed marriage. Like so many of us down here is a son of an immigrant. Like so many of us down here has lived in a different country. Even in California which is arguably her most significant win thus far in terms of the folks who physically went to the polls on Super Tuesday he won California. She was able to carry the state when you factored in all the early voting and that put her over the threshold. And the only analysis I think you can take from that is that for those folks who voted after he got on the ground, after he was introduced by trusted surrogates, after they went to the rally and after they became familiar with his record - for those folks he won. For us, the challenge is to make those same introductions. It looks like there is Hispanic underrepresentation of delegates in South Texas vis a vis Austin and Houston. Is that accurate? It is. Texas has the most arcane primary-caucus hybrid in the country. I think those senatorial districts are going to look very different after the next Census. In many of these South Texas senatorial districts, the division of delegates is such that she has to win 62.5 percent of the vote to get three out of four delegates. And that's ambitious. That's hard to see her doing throughout South Texas. Maybe that's going to happen but I have to tell you it doesn't feel that way. You have some Hispanic members of Congress endorsing Obama but what is the situation in South Texas? No question, the bulk of the establishment is with senator Clinton but I think that is a function of being the First Lady for eight years of an Administration during which relationships were grown and favors were granted and projects were worked on together. In some ways you can argue, the race for Barack is less against senator Clinton than against the clock. This is arguably the most well-known woman in the world. Not only is Barack a relatively new commodity nationally but especially in our community where so much of our population relies on Spanish-language media and has not had the introduction over the past year that the rest of the country has had.