January 21, 2001
By Jaime Castillo, San Antonio Express-News

So you want to be a community or political leader in the new millennium?

In addition to the old standbys such as character and competence, you'd better mix in ample amounts of corazón and comunidad if you want the support of the nation's fastest growing minority population.

In a first-of-its-kind study by the National Community for Latino Leadership, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, Latinos ranked compassion and community service just behind character and competence when judging the qualities that make a leader worth following.

Researchers said the findings, based on a nationwide telephone survey of 3,032 Hispanics ages 18 and older, could show how the political face of America might be shaped by shifting demographics. By 2050, one out of every four Americans will be Latino, by some estimates.

"There's no question — with the population changes this country is going through — that leadership will have to reflect that diversity and work through that diversity to be effective," said Andy Hernandez, the study's senior research analyst.

"I think people know the numbers coming upon them, but I don't think they know what it means," he added.

Notable among the findings, Hernandez said, was that Hispanics don't always see eye to eye with Anglo Americans on what makes a good leader.

While most Americans agree that character and competence are key leadership qualities, Anglo Americans rank such things as assertiveness and oratory skills above compassion and community service.

José Limón, director of the Center for Mexican-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, said he had not seen the survey but considered the findings "very plausible."

"It would make sense that people who have a history of being marginalized would want a leader with compassion," said Limón, noting that African-Americans probably hold similar attitudes.

He also said many minority politicians, like former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, who has maintained a residence in the heavily Hispanic West Side, strive to stay attached to their base communities.

The randomly selected respondents to the study were U.S. citizens. No attempt was made to limit the sample to include only registered voters or those with a history of regular voting.

They were asked open-ended questions about qualities they admired in a leader. Their answers were put into broad categories, and the primacy of what researchers called the "Four C's" emerged: character, competence, compassion and community service, in that order.

Luis Farías, a spokesman for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, which represents the more than 5,400 Latino elected and appointed officials nationwide, praised the study as a groundbreaking attempt to measure the attitudes of average Latinos.

"This should help a lot in determining who our future leaders are and on what issues they will be judged upon," Farías said.

The attitudes reflected in the survey could be a partial explanation why Hispanics as a group did not rally behind President Bush's nomination of Linda Chavez to be his secretary of labor, Hernandez said.

The conservative columnist withdrew her name after it was revealed she had harbored an undocumented immigrant in her home. Before that, Chavez had been heavily criticized by liberal groups for her public opposition to such things as raising the minimum wage, bilingual education and affirmative action.

"I think many Latinos asked themselves, 'Did her leadership reflect the concerns of the community?'" Hernandez said.

While pointing up differences between Anglos and Hispanics, the survey found striking agreement within the Latino community, across different age groups as well as among Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans and people of Puerto Rican descent.

"The conventional wisdom is that there is no one Latino consciousness," Hernandez said. "But on larger issues like leadership, there appears to be consensus."

Other results from the survey are expected to be released at different times throughout the year, Hernandez said. The final effort also is to include the findings of five focus group meetings held in San Antonio, New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.

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Jaime Castillo, jscastillo@express-news.net