Ivis Acevedo is a young woman working in a 99-cent store in
a mostly Puerto Rican district of Brooklyn. As she talks about New York’s upcoming
primary election, she cups her hands and moves them up and down as if comparing
two objects of nearly the same weight. She’s on the Internet about Obama’s
programs in India
and she found them interesting, she says, but she’s also a "Hillary
Clinton fan." She acknowledges that the prospect of a first female
president is tempting her to vote for Hillary, but she’s excited by the idea of
the first black president as well.

Ms.
Acevedo’s feeling that this is a difficult choice is common throughout the
diverse Latino communities of New York
City, and both campaigns are fighting hard for this
group’s vote. Ms. Clinton begins with a strong home-state advantage. There is a
widespread sense that she is already a close friend of the city’s Latino
communities and she has commands deep alliances with leaders of the democratic
party such as US Representative Nydia Velásquez and former Bronx Borough
President Fernando Ferrer. Mr. Obama’s campaign, meanwhile, has been looking
for creative ways to loosen her grip on the Latino vote, including marches in
Harlem and Washington
Heights, knocking on
doors, and face-to-face outreach with people in the streets.

The leaders
of Senator Clinton’s Latino outreach campaign stress the familiarity between
the Senator and the community. "She’s a friend to New Yorkers," said Karina
Cabrera, the Chairwoman of Latina PAC. "We know her, she’s a fighter. When
9-11 happened, she was the first one making sure that people’s health was
represented." Senator Clinton’s promises of universal healthcare, changes
to the immigration system, and more affordable education are attractive to
Latinos, Cabrera added. "To us, it’s a no-brainer."

Julissa
Reynoso, a lawyer on the Latinos for Hillary steering committee, emphasizes
another aspect of Hillary’s strength: the support she gets among leaders in
Latino business and social organizations. "We’re basically recruiting the
people who supported her during her Senate run, community leaders and local
democratic party groups. After the different meetings and organizational
efforts, the local community leaders brought the message to other people in the
community."

None of this
comes as a surprise to the Obama camp. "The traditional political
establishment in New York is very much in
support of the home-state senator and understandably so," said Marc La
Vorgna, the Spokesman for the Obama Campaign in New York. In response, Mr. Obama’s campaign
has attempted to find other conduits for his message, often relying on more
grassroots approaches. On February 2, for instance, the campaign organized a
march through Harlem. The next day, volunteers
visited 1,000 churches across the entire state, urging attendees to vote for
Obama after services.

Ralina
Cardona, the head of Obama’s office in the South Bronx,
described the feel of these events. "People were giving us thumbs up on
the street" as volunteers for Obama drove in a caravan through Washington Heights, she said. "We got a great
response from the merchants and we were able to plaster many of the stores with
Obama posters." The Latino community becomes enthusiastic about the
Senator from Illinois
when they get to know about him, Cardona said. "We just wish they had a
little more time to get to know him."

The
difficulty for them is that the community already knows Senator Clinton, both
through her years as the local senator and her time as first lady in the 1990s.
"I think they associate her with a time of function, a time of great
prosperity," said Diana Reyna, a city councilwoman from a Brooklyn
district that includes Williamsburg
and Bushwick, and which is 65 percent Latino. "The 90s were a better
time," Reyna said, "people were agreeing to disagree and work on
different issues. As first lady, she got a first-row seat to observe all of
that." Reyna herself, who is 34, said that like many of her generation she’s
torn between the two candidates. But members of her mother’s generation tend to
support Senator Clinton almost unwaveringly, she said, in part because of their
positive feelings toward her husband.

But there’s
another side to Senator Clinton’s powerful association with her husband’s
presidency. Ana Maria Archila is the co-executive director of Make the Road By Walking, a Brooklyn-based organization that promotes economic
equality. She said many of her organization’s clients don’t remember the 1990s
so fondly. "In Bushwick," she said, "people went through really
hard times during welfare reform. Our members who are new immigrants are mostly
for Clinton but
those who’ve been here longer are more skeptical." Some of her members
like Obama because he’s the son of an immigrant himself, she said, while others
are attracted to Clinton because she’s seen as caring about children and
families.

Members of
the community may differ on who best represents the interests of New York City’s Latinos,
but they all agree the election is the most exciting in recent memory. "This
is a real election," Archila said, describing the community’s
interest during a recent get-out-the-vote campaign. "This is an actual
choice."