cover image THE RISE OF HISPANIC POLITICAL POWER

THE RISE OF HISPANIC POLITICAL POWER

Jose de la Isla, Jose De La Isla, . . Archer, $22 (336pp) ISBN 978-1-931122-04-7

This chronological account of the growing influence of Hispanics in U.S. politics over the past three decades is heavy on facts, but lacks a compelllingly synthetic style to move it into trade book territory. Beginning with Pres. Richard M. Nixon's attempts to buy the Hispanic vote in 1972 and ending with a brief look at the effect of September 11's terrorist attacks on U.S.-Mexican border policy, journalist de la Isla provides meticulously culled facts and anecdotes from newspapers, magazines and his own experiences as a public policy analyst and commentator, but many of the stories and events mentioned deserve more explanation and context. The careers of influential Hispanic politicians like Bill Richardson, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Edward Roybal are dutifully traced in a chapter titled "The Insiders," for example, but the reader will be hard-pressed to understand what truly motivates these leaders and their activities. Likewise, the fury of Cuban-Americans over the Clinton administration's handling of the Elián González case and how it affected Florida's vote in the 2000 election is introduced, but explored only briefly in the final chapter. The book is most enlightening when it addresses the struggles and ignorance Hispanic-Americans faced on their way to becoming a political force, most notably the attempts to "package" them into a single, stereotypical mass. The book is thus a solid research tool for public policy junkies and students of history, but it fails to shed much new analytic light on what drives such a complicated and significant political bloc. (Jan.)