The Trouble with Unity

 Quoted in Sandra Lilley's feature on Latino Catholics, based on a new survey from Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life:

…“In the public imagination, people equate ‘Latino’ with ‘social
conservative,’ but these polls show that politically, thi
s is not
necessarily the case,” says Cristina Beltrán, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and Director of Latino Studies at New York University.…

“What these polls show is that particularly for Latino Catholics,
there is nothing intrinsically ‘conservative’ about being a religious or
spiritual person and party politics,” says Beltrán.…

“Latinos don’t tend to be animated by social issues like abortion and
gay marriage, but have been driven more around economic issues, or
Catholic teachings which stress social justice, like attention to
poverty,” explains Beltrán.…

If the GOP wants to go after Latino voters, says Beltrán, their best
bet would be among Latino evangelicals. Even here, as Lugo points out,
Latinos are more divided about party affiliation.

With Latinos now 11 percent of the electorate and rapidly growing,
“both parties have challenges, in terms of the changing configuration of
the electorate.”