Soccer and Voting

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The 65,000 DREAM ACT students who are potential voters will greatly affect voting outcomes. Consider their vote, plus everyone close to them (think of Juan Sebastian Gomezs's friends) --- and you get a huge voting bloc.

If you don't think soccer is political, read the second article below, by Professor Raul Ramos - about the controversy surrounding the naming of the new professional soccer team in Houston. The name, 1836 was found objectionable by enough people that it was changed to the Dynamoes...

Politicians Take Note:

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One soccer goal: recruit Democrats
Nevada's state party forms a team, planning to pitch its politics to the growing population of Latino voters.
By Scott Martelle, Times Staff Writer
August 5, 2007

LAS VEGAS — Nevada state Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, clad in a brand-new royal blue jersey with matching shorts, stepped onto a neighborhood soccer field here Thursday evening and launched a new front in the battle for the political loyalties of this city's rapidly growing Latino community.

Meet Los Democratas.

...[The] goal is to market, and party officials here are hoping Latino soccer fans will forge a connection not only with a soccer team but with a political agenda.

It's a rapidly expanding pool of potential voters. An influx of Latinos over the last 15 years has helped make Las Vegas one of the fastest-growing regions in the country; they account for about 25% of the state's residents. But for two key demographic reasons — age and citizenship status — Latinos account for 12.5% of Nevada's eligible voters, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey.

Yet that percentage is significant: The state has only 137 more "active" Republican voters than Democratic voters, according to a March tally by the Nevada secretary of state's office. And with Latino voters registered at a rate that lags behind that of the electorate in general, state Democrats hope a soccer team flying the party colors will help the party make inroads — particularly with new citizens and people just reaching voting age...

for complete article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-soccer5aug05,1,6627547.story
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MULTIPLE MEANINGS
Kicking around Houston 1836
Soccer team sends the wrong message to Latinos
By RAÚL A. RAMOS
Houston Chronicle
January 28, 2006

By naming the team Houston 1836, the newly arrived Major League Soccer franchise has chosen to identify with a year that may divide the city rather than unite it. While the team intends to highlight Houston's founding along the banks of Buffalo Bayou, the year also commemorates the defeat of the Mexican Army by a largely Anglo Texan militia at the Battle of San Jacinto. Whether by ignorance or design, choosing 1836 has the potential to alienate Houstonians of
Mexican origin, a group that is surely a large part of the team's fan base...

...The year 1836 was, no doubt, a significant year in history. As a 19th-century historian, I welcome the attention the team name brings to what I feel is a misunderstood era. But choosing 1836 sends the wrong message at the wrong time. Texans of Mexican decent constantly struggle to identify with a place that was created out of Mexican defeat. Houston stands perched to take its place among the economic enters of the Americas, thanks in great part to its sizable Latino population. This is not the time to exclude us.

This team name comes at a time of increased awareness of how mascots and names can stereotype or offend Americans. Last year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association scrutinized the use of Native Americans in team names such as the Florida State Seminoles and the Carthage College Redmen (now Red Men). Team names such as the Atlanta Braves and Washington Redskins sound anachronistic to modern ears. Not long ago the Washington Bullets changed their name to Wizards for similar reasons. Thus it came as a surprise to me, and many of my students and colleagues, to hear 1836. Some thought it was a joke when I mentioned it. Surely the team must have anticipated this response if they knew anything about Texas history.

Lately I have noticed college students taking a more cynical or media savvy approach to explaining these marketing terms. One student in my class thought the name was a ploy to get attention for the team and that the real name would could later. But all of them saw the contradiction inherent in naming the team 1836 while expecting Latino fans to attend games. Team officials state that 1836 was primarily chosen to represent the city's founding. A team name doesn't have the luxury of explaining itself.

The link to Texas secession from Mexico during the Texas Revolution is inescapable. The team logo compounds the connection by depicting Sam Houston on horseback, leading the charge against Mexican troops. What other conclusion can we draw? While the year represents Texas independence, it also raises the complicated and sometimes shameful history that came along with it. Initially seen as economic boosters, Anglo American immigrants brought slavery and failed to keep contracts made with state officials. For Mexicans, Texas secession started the process of American conquest culminating in the invasion of Mexico in 1846 and the loss of almost half its territory. Few would disagree that Texas independence was an important chapter in the imperial story of American Manifest Destiny.

Houston has undergone many transformations and reinventions since 1836. Digging the Ship Channel, the Galveston hurricane of 1900, discovering oil and sending a man to the moon all took place since then and all changed the face of the city. Naming the team1836 smacks of nostalgia for a time when Mexican people were absent or at least knew their place. Another student in class generously noted that perhaps the team took for granted Latino fans and wanted to increase Anglo interest with this team name. Perhaps soccer is already too identified with Latin America and Europe Perhaps this is retribution for the vocal support the Mexican national team receives when it comes to town.

A more sinister reading suggests the team wants Latino aficionados, but only on their terms. Those terms are leaving your heritage, identity and family at the door. The team has started its relationship with the Latino community off on the wrong foot. Short of changing the name, the team needs to make extra efforts to appear open to Latino Houstonians. Only then, and by removing Sam Houston from the logo, will the team come to symbolize the promise of a global capital.

Ramos is assistant professor, Department of History, University of Houston.

for complete article:

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:fwcVsl9igxQJ:www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/images/texforum/hou1836chron0106.pdf+%22kicking+around+houston%22+ramos&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=safari
Thanks to DeWitt Colony webpage, without spending hours digging through old papers at the library, I would not have found this important article, since the Houston Chronicle does not list it in its archives.