Long Live Diversity

For over 20 years the Mexican poet Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize for Literature 1990, used to claim that the diversity of America is the source of his greatness and not a source of weakness. Two decades later, it is a fact that the November elections will be the most diverse, ethnically and racially, history.

Although the Mexican writer laureate --Author of The Labyrinth of Solitude, one of the most revealing x-mexicano-- spirit is no longer with us, he surely would have pleased to know that the source of this diversity is the population growth Spanish in the United States.

According to a new study by the prestigious Pew, almost one in three (31 percent) eligible to vote on November 8 will be Hispanic, African American or Asian, representing an increase of two percentage points compared with the electoral cycle of 2012.

"Much of this change is due to the strong growth of people eligible Hispanic voters, particularly young people born in the United States," the report concluded. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Latinos eligible to vote increased by 17%, the highest of any ethnic or racial group.

By comparison, growth of eligible voters from Asia increased 16%, that of African Americans and 6% of non-Hispanic whites only 2%. The national average was 5%. But non-Hispanic white voters still have the highest rate of turnout.

For more information visit www.pewreserarch.org