GOP Hispanics see Maryland clout rising

ANNAPOLIS — The Hispanic population in Maryland has almost doubled in the past 10 years, but leaders acknowledge their clout in the State House has yet to match the growth.

Hispanics hold two of the 141 House seats, just one of the 47 in the Senate and no Cabinet-level posts in Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s Republican administration.

Still, Luis Borunda, 45, chairman of the Hispanic Republicans of Maryland, predicts that significant change will begin soon and continue over the next two decades.

“It would not surprise me to see a Hispanic appointment at a Cabinet-level position later on this term,” said Mr. Borunda, whose group is the official outreach arm of the state’s Republican Party. “And we will have [more] Hispanics running for the General Assembly in 2006.”

However, he thinks it will take 15 to 20 years before Maryland elects a Hispanic governor.

Right now, Sen. Alexander X. Mooney, Frederick Republican, is considered the leading voice for Hispanics in the state.

The outspoken, 32-year-old lawmaker trounced 16-year incumbent Republican Jack Derr in 1998 in a voting district that is 85 percent white. The victory made him the state’s first Hispanic legislator.

“I worked hard,” Mr. Mooney said. “I just happen to Cuban, and I just happened to get elected.”

Mr. Mooney credits his mother, Eulalia “Lala” Mooney, who he says came to the United States from Cuba after President Fidel Castro’s regime took her home and put her in jail because she was not a communist.

“She is a major part of the reason I am in politics,” said Mr. Mooney, whose father is Irish. “My mom raised us to fight for our freedom.”

Although Mr. Mooney acknowledges that Hispanics have more freedom and opportunity in the United States than they do in Latin America, he said they still have a “serious fight ahead of them” in the realms of politics and business, primarily because of the language barrier.

“Even Hispanics that speak English well have such heavy accents that it is still hard to understand them,” Mr. Mooney said. “Although their quality of work is excellent, many clients do not give them a chance. And I think it’s a shame because both the Hispanic businessman and the potential clients suffer.”

Eloisa Guzman, 45, is among those who has done well after coming to the United States in 1984. She now has restaurants in Baltimore, Hyattsville and Glen Burnie, but agrees that government could do more to improve minority business opportunities.

She suggests such basic changes as printing Spanish-language documents on how to get a job or how to start a business.

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