Adriana Gonzalez is one of 1,639 Latinos speckled among more than 24,000 University of Oregon students. She is not only a member of the largest minority group at the UO and in the U.S., but also the only Latino student involved in UO’s College Republicans, serving as the recruitment director.
The UO senior was raised in Gervais, Ore., picking strawberries in a small farming community of about 2,500 residents. The majority of the town’s residents are Latino. She shared her air with a Fiber-Fab, a large bathtub manufacturer known to release the toxin styrene in the air, according to USA Today’s The Smokestack Effect report. Both experiences have shaped her stance in pro-immigration reform and as an environmentalist.
Gonzalez never thought of herself as any different than her peers. It wasn’t until she came to the UO that she felt she was told otherwise.
“There is a certain point where you can only take so much of people expecting you to be a certain way because of the color of your skin and I am at that point where it’s enough already,” Gonzalez said. “Just because I am Mexican doesn’t mean I agree with (white privilege) or Affirmative Action.”
The political science major believes that because of the color of her skin, she has been pressured to adopt certain beliefs. After writing an essay disregarding white privilege for her American society class, Gonzalez received an email from her professor who requested to see her for portraying the conservative ideals.
Growing up Gonzalez did not consider herself a Republican. In fact, she remembers crying tears of joy for President Obama’s victory in 2008, grasping onto the promise of hope and change specifically towards immigration reform.
Five years later, Gonzalez tears have dried. As a Mexican-American daughter from immigrant parents, she is fed up with the lack of immigration reform policy, something that has not been done since her favorite president, Ronald Reagan, signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. The bill gave immigrants like Gonzalez’s mom amnesty.
According to The Pew Research Center, Obama received 68 percent of the Latino vote. Recently, Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie captured 51 percent of the Hispanic vote for his reelection, showing a change in attitude between Latinos and the Republican Party.
UO sociology and ethnic studies student Alfonso Macias also shares Gonzalez’s frustration over Obama’s unaccountability toward his promises. He has always aligned himself with the Democratic Party but now chooses to not to fully affiliate with either party.
“If a Democrat or Republican were to promise these things, personally I wouldn’t buy into it because of things that I’ve learned so far in the past,” Macias said. “But I’m still open ears.”
Macias chooses to stand in solidarity with his raza which encompasses Latinos, Chicanos and indigenous people from Latin descent. He feels that both parties exploit Latino vote for their self-interest rather than serving the people’s interest.
Sherry Cantu, the outreach director for Lane County’s Republican party, is reaching out to the Latino community.
“We have to be open-minded (and) give our message out to people who might embrace it and might want to join our party,” Cantu said. “I don’ t think the Latino community has been given many options, I think they’ve just been kind of ramrodded with (the democratic party.)”