Latinos, national parks and President Obama’s reelection
Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 01/04/2012
By Ed O'Keefe
Continuing his push to identify more historic sites important to the nation’s Hispanics, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar plans to tout a new report Wednesday identifying several sites tied to Latino heritage in Colorado and New Mexico that could one day become national parks or historic landmarks ...
The report, requested by Salazar, should help his personal goal of establishing more national parks and historic sites tied to minorities. The fact that the sites are in two swing states with burgeoning Hispanic populations means that the report also could be seen as an overture to the nation’s Latino voters, a bloc being aggressively wooed by President Obama’s reelection campaign ...
Salazar, the Obama administration’s most senior Hispanic official and Colorado’s former senator and attorney general, plans to visit his home state to formally unveil the report, published late last month, that labels 3.26 million acres in Colorado’s San Luis Valley and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and northern New Mexico as areas that could one day become part of a national park or historic site.
Salazar is a native of the San Luis Valley and his family has farmed in the region for five generations, according to his official biography. The region includes “nationally significant American Latino heritage sites” and Colorado’s oldest town and church, according to the National Park Service ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/latinos-national-parks-and-president-obamas-reelection/2012/01/03/gIQAYE1sYP_blog.html