Forgotten America

This weekend the Obama campaign in New Mexico ran a state-wide door-to-door canvass to boost voter registration and the list of registered postal voters in Democrat strongholds. With my background in Spanish, I was dispatched to the Hispanic areas on the outskirts of Albuquerque's South Valley. Up until now, I've been based in the North-East Heights, the leafier part of town which is divided between conservative white Republicans and latte-drinking liberal Democrat voters. To say that both areas are in stark contrast to each other would be a gross understatement. The outlying South Valley is made up of long-standing established working class communities alongside massive new estates occupied by somewhat more upwardly mobile lower middle class families.

Both types of estates juxtapose each other in their own way. The established communities are populated by people in long-term abject poverty with low levels of education, often frst generation immigrants. In contrast, the newer developments seemed to be second or third generation but were already showing signs of the emerging nouveau pauvre in America; those directly affected by the credit crunch, a slowing economy, collapsing house prices and high oil prices.

On my way around the doors in the newer parts, I saw many gas-guzzling SUVs for sale and one or two eviction notices on the doors of shiny new homes which still smelled of fresh paint. (Here you can see a photo of one of the foreclosure notices.) In the older parts of town, people seemed a lot less healthy. I'd imagine few of them could afford healthcare. In addition, they were a lot more hostile with signs saying No Trespassers and Enter at your own risk a common feature on yard fences. Nearly every house had a threatening vicious dog guarding it and a lot of people had little or no English.

Despite all of this, the people from both types of areas were the real salt-of-the-Earth kind. I got invited in to a lot of their homes for an iced water and a chat (a common courtesy to house callers in the blistering heat here). I even got invited by a few middle-aged Mexican guys to join them on their porch for a few beers because it was of course Sunday, the day of rest. Most were very receptive to the Obama message and showed great enthusiasm for coming out and voting for him, often stating that it would be their first time to use their vote.. the obvious exception being the two guys who told me they couldn't vote because they were on parole.

Coming away from Albuquerque's South Valley this evening, I was a little downbeat.. for mainly two reasons. The first being that the young upwardly mobile families of the newer developments seemed on a rocky road to the same fate as their older counterparts. The second reason is a little closer to home. Although I couldn't have felt further from home over the weekend, the newer developments somewhat reminded me of the sprawling estates along the the arterial routes out of Dublin; all dependent on a buoyant economy, cheap credit and cheap petrol; all of which are in serious jeopardy back home as much as they are here. Is this our fate too?