Stumping and Eating: “Latino” Voters and the 2012 Race to the White House

University of Maryland, College Park

Latin American Studies Center

  Stumping and Eating:

“Latino” Voters and the 2012 Race to the White House

Frederick Douglass Opie, Professor, Babson College

Tuesday, October 9

4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

0100 Marie Mount Hall (Maryland Room) 

Frederick Douglass Opie delves into the historic role food has played in retail politics dating back to this country’s European roots. He argues that historically candidates have used food to identify culturally with local voters, gain their confidence, and raise support for their candidacy. He illustrates how that has continued to be the case in the 2012 race for the White House, looking at how Latino voters are courted in battleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Frederick Douglass Opie is the author of Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923, and the forthcoming book Black and Latino Relation in New York 1959 to 1989. He is also a blogger at http://www.foodasalens.com/. Opie has appeared on the television series Appetite City and the documentary Soul Food Junkie. He also has been a guest on the popular American Public Media radio show The Splendid Table. Opie is Professor of History and Foodways at Babson College.