May 5, 2007
WEST LIBERTY, Iowa -- In most Iowa communities, Cinco de Mayo might seem like St. Patrick's Day in El Paso. An excuse to drink, but without much apparent local relevance.
According to 2005 U.S. Census estimates, 2.3 percent of Iowa's population was of Hispanic or Latino descent. Nationally, it was 12.8 percent. Iowa's population of whites who aren't Hispanic is 91. 5 percent. Nationally, it was just 66.9 percent.
Perhaps the biggest complaint from non-Iowans about Iowa's first-in-the-nation status when it comes to holding its January presidential caucuses is the state's lack of demographic diversity.
"Tell them to come to West Liberty,'' Sen. Chris Dodd said here Saturday afternoon as he dropped into town for an hour to visit a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Ron-De-Voo Park.
There, in a small open space between two old brick buildings downtown that house a pharmacy and a movie theater, Dodd met about 100 people in this working-class town of 3,600. Directly across the street from the park, Hawkeye Pizza and Steak is between La Mexicana Restaurant and Buelitos Mexican American Food. Around the corner, American Legion Post 509's next-door neighbor is Acapulco Mexican Bakery.
West Liberty is 40 percent Hispanic. Over half of the students in kindergarten through eighth-grade here are Hispanic. The town's newspaper, the West Liberty Index, prints its stories in English and Spanish. The first Hispanic graduate of West Liberty High School was Manuel Sebot in 1929. For a century, people of Mexican descent have lived in this town, 18 miles from Iowa City and the University of Iowa. Many came to work for the railroad. For the last several decades, many have worked for what is now West Liberty Foods, a turkey-processing plant that employs 900.
Rod Perdue, a self-described "Caucasian with some Heinz 57 mixed in," called the plant "an 800-pound gorilla." Formerly owned by General Foods, it's the town's dominant structure.
Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, didn't encounter any sort of similar diversity in his previous campaign stop in Burlington, or in the one that followed in West Branch, the birthplace of former U.S. president Herbert Hoover. That town of 2,300 is 95.7 percent White Non Hispanic. In other words, it's typical Iowa.
Dodd gave a very brief speech to the gathering here. Several audience members were small children far more interested in their blue balloons. Dodd gave some of his remarks, including the closing ones, in Spanish. Those of Mexican descent in the audience acted as if he was fluent in the language. Dodd said he learned Spanish in the language in the late 1960s while he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Domincan Republic.
He then went from person to person slapping shoulders, shaking hands, posing for photos, kissing the occasional old woman, and using more of his Spanish when meeting the young Hispanic women selling tacos de barbacoa and nachos. Their food stand was next to the one belonging to a group of whites, who sold hot dogs, bratwursts and turkey filets. More than a few stomachs in the park were melting pots.
Dodd, said Carmen Gonzalez, "was nice," though she seemed unsure who he was or why he was visiting her town. Many of her white neighbors in the park probably felt likewise.
Most of this diverse group of people seemed far more interested in hearing a middle-aged Hispanic man strum his guitar than listen to an outsider discuss politics. It was a holiday, of sorts, after all.
Dodd and his staffers then traveled the 12 miles from West Liberty to West Branch, where he held a town hall meeting on renewable energy. Different town, different crowd, different kind of event. On this near-perfect spring Saturday afternoon, eating nachos or hot dogs and listening to music seemed preferable over politicking.
The candidate would probably have agreed.