With narrow margins between candidates, according to polls, and many undecided voters, it is possible that Hispanic residents in Iowa could decide the result of the upcoming caucus on January 3. Nevertheless, low participation and a lack of information are nullifying their electoral potential.

Currently, there are about 37,000 Hispanics registered to vote in Iowa, and although there are no official numbers, the Iowa Office for Hispanic Affairs estimates that this year only between 5,000 and 8,000 of them will vote. In past elections, a total of 124,000 people have voted in the Iowa caucuses, a key contest because it offers the first real impression of the candidates' level of acceptance.

“We have to waken the sleeping giant that we Latinos are here in Iowa, so that we all may get respect for our dignity,” said Bernardo Ortiz, a leader of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who is dedicated to convincing Latinos of the importance of registering to vote and exercising their right to cast ballots in the next elections.

According to Ortiz, he has succeeded in registering 600 people in the past four months.

“It's a disgrace, but the hardest fight is the one against apathy,” said Ortiz, who offers educational meetings on weekends in a small dining area next to a store called La Favorita, which has been converted into an improvised voter registration headquarters.

It is estimated that 114,700 Latinos now live in Iowa, representing an almost 30 percent increase over the past seven years, according to the state's Office of Hispanic Affairs. Most of them are concentrated in Des Moines, the state capital.

The massive influx of Latinos – overwhelmingly from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador and Colombia – is a relatively new phenomenon in Iowa, a cold, rural state closer to Canada than to Mexico, but which has shown a rise in the demand for labor, especially in the construction, health and financial industries, according to the state's official figures.

Although they represent barely 3.8 percent of the population, Hispanics are shown by census data to be the fastest-growing group in the state.

“We have seen enormous growth in the Latino population, and we believe they have enormous economic potential to which not much attention has been paid,” said Deborah Whittie, director of the Village Credit Union bank in East Des Moines, where the Latino population is now concentrated. Whittie explained that for the past four months she has been working on a special plan to attract the savings of a population that, she says, has changed the face of East Des Moines in the past two years.

The influx of Latinos in Des Moines, and their participation in the area's economic life, is evident all along Grand Avenue and adjoining neighborhoods, where restaurants, shops, bakeries and other businesses with a Hispanic flavor abound.

“A time came when we could no longer serve everyone with so small a store, and it grew bigger,” explains Isela Mejorado, one of the supervisors at La Tapatía, a Hispanic supermarket which five years ago moved from a small location with a staff of two, to a newly constructed building with automatic doors, 50 employees, and over 80 parking spaces.

Nowadays the “Welcome” announcements at the airport are bilingual, there are at least four free Spanish-language newspapers, and the community relations officer at the Des Moines Police Department whose last name of Valdez is the son of a family in Michoacán, Mexico.

In spite of the relative ease with which Hispanics have become a part of the city's economic development, attempts to increase the participation in political life by those who can vote have met with several difficulties.

“Many Latinos don't even know we're going to have an election, or what a caucus is,” said Lena Avila-Robison, director of Iowa Latinos United, a volunteer organization which has been offering legal and educational advice and assistance to the Hispanic community since 1996.

“Many Latinos come from countries that have gone through armed conflicts, like El Salvador and Guatemala, and are disenchanted with politics,” explained Avila, who passes out copies of a document she carries with her in her briefcase, with information on how to register to vote. “The important thing is that they understand the power their vote carries in a democracy.”

The political campaigns are also going after the Latino populace, since they see in this fringe population an opportunity to win votes.

Such as for example Hillary Clinton's campaign. According to Sergio Bendixen, the campaign's national adviser on the Hispanic vote, Latinos' participation in Iowa has been low partly because they have not been offered incentives. “Up to now no one has invited them to come out and vote,” said Bendixen, who said the Clinton campaign is doing so by means of telephone calls and letters.

Besides the political culture brought with them from their home countries, the fact that Latinos spend a large part of their time working also affects their possibilities for voting.

“I'd like to get more involved, but I work so much that there's no time for me to even think about other things,” said Elvia Escareño, who works at the Plaza Mexico restaurant on one of East Des Moines' avenues. Plaza Mexico is open 364 days a year, closing only on Thanksgiving Day.

Another factor is that along with the Hispanic presence becoming more visible, anti-immigrant rhetoric and pressure from the authorities has increased.

It is not difficult to find programs that encourage hatred of immigrants on the fringes of AM radio, and in some evangelical newspapers, like the free monthly Christian News Happenings, Latinos are stigmatized. Last month an article on page 2 listed 14 reasons why “illegals” should be deported, and another claimed that Muslim immigration had destroyed Europe.

The most brutal effect of the rejection of some sectors of society was seen a year ago. In December of 2006, immigration authorities carried out a raid at a meat processing plant in Marshalltown, 35 miles from Des Moines, detaining 90 people. The operation, which was replicated simultaneously in other cities, resulted in the arrest of 1,282 people in all, massive deportations, and hundreds of families broken up.

“A year later our community has still not been able to recuperate from the trauma of this round-up,” said Irlanda Helgen at a Des Moines public forum attended by several Democratic candidates last week. After the operation, called the largest immigration raid in history, many Hispanics left for other cities.

“Ten years ago there was not so much hatred against us,” recalls Ortiz, who points out that the approach of the elections has revived anti-immigrant rhetoric.

That is why Ortiz and other leaders hope Latinos will exercise their right to vote in these elections. “I can't do it alone,” concluded Ortiz.