Despite Voter Drives, Hispanics Are Still Underrepresented

Nationally, there are a handful of elected Latino leaders serving in Congress but none from the Houston area. Houston also has never had a Hispanic mayor and has just two Hispanics on the 14-member City Council.

"The demographic growth doesn't automatically translate into political power," said Nestor Rodriguez, chairman of the University of Houston's Sociology Department and co-director for the Center for Immigration Research.

But with immigration as the impetus, Latino politics in the U.S. is reassessing and redefining itself.

Latino leadership has long been decentralized by differences in region, generation, country of origin and ethnicity. That decentralization stymies a unified front and vision for Hispanics. Observers said immigration has bound different groups, including non-immigrants who were offended by the racial overtones of some of the anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric.

The youth, who were instrumental in leading the school walkouts, marches and rallies, see their charge as building social movements to influence as a group rather than running for political office, said longtime Houston immigrants' rights activist Maria Jimenez.

The key to filling the political power void will be to invest in leadership development, said Jorge Mursuli, national executive director of the Florida-based Democracia USA and vice president of People for the American Way.

Latinos "don't have a lot of national leaders elected or otherwise so whenever there's an issue, finding someone to articulate our messages is not an easy thing," Mursuli said. "Having national leaders is a sign that we've arrived on the national landscape and that is as important as having local leaders."