In Iowa’s First Majority Latino Town, Frustrated Obama Backers Stand By Their Man

Standing on the main red-brick drag downtown, in front of La Paz Market and La Luna Mexican Products, below the lamppost flags wishing passersby a “Feliz Navidad,” you might think you were somewhere in Latin America… if it weren’t for the year’s first snowfall blowing through this sleepy town in eastern Iowa. In a state where only 5 percent of the population is Latino, West Liberty is the first town where the majority of the population belongs to the nation’s fastest-growing minority.

Hearing Jose Zacarias tell his story, it’s easy to see why. Zacarias left Guanajuato, Mexico 27 years ago to escape tough times south of the border. In his search for a better life, he came to Iowa and settled down close to some relatives in the Quad Cities. He got a job, found a wife, bought a house and had three kids.

“What Latinos really appreciate when they come here is this town – and maybe all of Iowa – suffers from hardly any crime. You can leave the door to your house open. You can leave the keys in your car. Nothing will happen,” Zacarias said, sitting in an assembly hall on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

But the easy going ways in Iowa have already been flipped on their head in 2012, a presidential election year. Republican candidates have spent months crisscrossing the state in preparation for Tuesday’s GOP caucuses and both President Obama and the Republicans see the Hawkeye State as a crucial battleground that will help determine the outcome of the election. READ MORE