Traveling journalist Mike Gonzalez visits NHIOP to discuss stereotypes

Liz Torrey, Culture Editor

On the evening of November 17th we at Saint A’s and at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics were fortunate to welcome Mike Gonzalez to the Institute as a guest speaker in the Bookmark Series. He spoke to students, staff and the public about hispanic voters and the stereotypes that have become attached to minorities.

Born in Cuba, Mike Gonzalez came to America when he was 14. Since then he has lived in Belgium, France, Spain, Hong Kong and South Korea, and has spent months living in from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Panama and Cyprus, among others.

Gonzalez earned degrees from both Columbia College and Emerson College and has spent the majority of his life traveling the world as a journalist. He began his career with the Boston Herald before moving to Agence-France Presse, an international news agency headquartered in Paris.

From there he went on to work for the Wall Street Journal, eventually serving as editor of the editorial pages for the Asia edition. He served as a speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox during the George W. Bush administration and has written speeches for the State Department’s European Bureau.

He joined The Heritage Foundation as Vice President of Communications in March 2009, and became a senior research fellow this past June.

In his new capacity Gonzalez has written on Hong Kong, China and Latin America. His book, A Race for the Future: How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans, speaks to the reasons hispanic voters tend to vote for more liberal candidates and how conservatives can change that.

Gonzalez spoke to Saint A’s students and faculty particularly about stereotypes. He said it’s a “big mistake for conservatives to see hispanics through the prism of illegal immigration,” and that conservatives will have to break that mold in order to gain some hispanic support.

He also talked about the early immigrants to America and their histories, including the early Scott-Irish and Irish Catholics. The story of immigration is not new to America and is full of hardships, and he pointed out that unfortunately the Affirmative Action and Affordable Care Act initiatives have generally become associated with minorities, including hispanics, which doesn’t help public opinion.

After relaying some history and outlining some ways in which the American society stereotypes people, Gonzalez turned to conservatives and how they need to do things differently. “Conservatives don’t like change, so they hesitate to change their view on hispanics,” he asserted.

In order to get some support from the hispanic population come election time, Gonzalez said that change is key and that conservatives should remind Mexican Americans of the “key role they’ve played in the formation of our country”. He also said that hispanics are the only group in which non-voters tend to be more conservative. Therefore, conservatives need to work hard to increase turnout.

Gonzalez wrapped up by explaining that he’s a conservative because he wants America to continue to have the traits that attracted his family to the country in the 70s – freedom and prosperity being two of those key traits.

His hope is that garnering some hispanic support will help conservatives to look ‘less stuffy-looking’, and that in order for this to happen, the general distrust of hispanics, or ‘fear of the other’, will have to be pushed aside and replaced with understanding of different peoples (we began as and still are a country of immigrants, after all) and mutual concern for the best interests of the common man.