On September 14, 2006, the National Organization for Women (NOW) will be celebrating its 40th birthday in Washington, D.C. On that day, NOW will be honoring a few certain women at an “Intrepid Awards Gala.” One such woman is Maria Elena Salinas.
Maria Elena Salinas, called the “Latina Katie Couric” and “Spanish-language TV’s Barbara Walters,” is co-anchor for the lead Hispanic TV network, Noticiero Univisión; she is one of the most-seen Hispanic women on national television. Salinas has received grand reviews for drawing attention to the Hispanic community and defending their concerns in the public square. On her website, she explains how she has furthered her mission of “informing the U.S. Hispanic population about everything from world events and political campaigns, to natural disasters and changes in laws that affect their daily lives” by means of “Spanish language television and radio and more recently through [her] syndicated bi-lingual column.” Her weekly column, published in more than 55 daily newspapers nationwide, features topics ranging from Hispanic international concerns to Hispanic-voter turnout to immigration law.
Her column also has been known to reflect an anti-abortion sentiment that comes naturally to many Hispanics. Less than a year ago Salinas used this language when supporting states’ safe-haven laws: “Women who give birth to unwanted babies have already passed the biggest hurdle: deciding to have the child instead of having an abortion. If they are unable or unwilling to care for the child, the next step should be an unselfish one: giving the child a chance at life.” A few years ago, in an article where she claimed “not [to be] writing as a journalist, or as a Hispanic-American concerned about the troubles of Latin America and Latinos in the United States…[but] as a mother,” she reacted to the Andrea Yates murders, exclaiming: “I cannot think of a more horrific crime than taking the life of an innocent child – and even worse, one you gave life to.”
This past April, the Hispanic Federation recognized her and the New York Council on Adoptable Children for outstanding commitment and contributions to the Hispanic community. And recently, Hispanic Trends conducted a poll that identified her as one of the top-15 most influential Hispanics among Latino voters.
Salinas’s popularity and influence make her an interesting character, since Latino voters are generally seen as a mystery. In 2000, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania conducted the National Annenberg Election Survey of 2000, the largest academic election poll to date. Amy Fagan from the Washington Times explained how the results of this poll show Hispanics generally falling outside the average boundaries of what defines a Democrat and Republican: Whereas 64 percent of all Hispanics thought that “the federal government should actively try to reduce income differences among Americans,” only 59 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of the general public held that view. But “on social issues like abortion, Hispanics favored or exceeded Republican views, according to the survey. Thirty-seven percent of Hispanics said the government should ban all abortions, a view held by 31 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of all Americans.”
Further, a study compiled by Everett Carll Ladd and Karlyn Bowman in the American Enterprise Institute’s publication Public Opinion About Abortion revealed a similar anti-abortion sentiment evident in the Hispanic voter that goes unparalleled in any other group. A 1992 survey shows a block of Hispanics surpassing all other polled racial groups and religious denominations in holding the opinion that abortion should be “illegal in all cases.” No wonder that NOW, an organization famous for the slogan “Keep abortion legal,” is choosing to target this demographic for their outreach efforts.
NOW’s recognition of Salinas isn’t the only sign that the organization has progressively sought to get Hispanic groups on board with their mission over the past few years. In fact, just last year NOW recognized Josie Ashton — who is known for her efforts to decrease domestic violence in the Latina community — as another “Intrepid Woman” at their gala. NOW has also started presenting Spanish-spoken workshops at its annual conference, and this past July it showcased a workshop entitled, “Immigration is a Feminist Issue.” In 2004, NOW named a new director of diversity programs, Zenaida Mendez, a native of the Dominican Republic who was recognized for years of activism on behalf of the Latina community. Mendez spoke at the Philadelphia chapter of NOW’s Women of Color and Allies Summit, saying, “Empowerment means building bridges among us as women, among us as women of color.” This summer’s National NOW Times reflects, “Bridge-building is more important today than ever, as Latinas, as African-Americans, as Asian Pacific Islanders, as native Americans, as lesbians or straight women, as white allies, to achieve a common agenda.”
NOW is bridge-building, all right. They are trying to build bridges with the Hispanic community in the ways that they can — drawing on universal Hispanic concerns of domestic violence and immigration — because they have seen little success in drawing Hispanic support for the organization’s essential, “top priority” agenda of abortion rights. If they could manage to get Hispanic support proportional to that of other minorities, NOW’s membership levels would skyrocket, their abortion-providing allies would see increases in sales, and their Democratic friends in government could rest easy in the discovery that the Hispanic voter’s mind is knowable, malleable, and on their side.
So NOW’s decision to recognize Salinas may not be as puzzling as Salinas’s decision to accept it. Is she unaware that NOW’s mission is directly contrary to the anti-abortion views held by the culture she has been trusted to represent? Or has she decided to reroute her course from one that represents the Hispanic culture for mainstream America to one that drowns her people’s unique mores under the waves of a pervasive agenda?
Salinas once stressed, “Throughout my career I have learned that the most important thing is to have integrity and objectivity. The most important thing for a journalist is to be believed, to be trusted.” She went further to say, “There’s a tremendous responsibility being the voice and image of the Hispanic community.” In the context of the honor she’ll be accepting from the largest abortion rights organization this month, one might wonder if she’s still up to the task. It will be interesting what she says at Union Station next week.
– Mary Rose Rybak is a writer living in Arlington, Va.