This year, Latinos should be encouraged by their increasing visibility and political power, as well as their growing standing in the Democratic Party. But there is still much work to do.

The Democratic National Convention did better by Latinos this year.

The amount of Latino speakers was way up from 2004, when there were several complaints about their relative paucity. This year’s convention featured Reps. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., and Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., as well as former Secretary of Energy Federico Pena and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who, of course, ran for president.

While it may have disappointed Latinos that Richardson was not strongly considered for the vice presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign knows that Latino voters should not be taken for granted. Recent polls show that only 60 per cent of Latino voters have expressed a preference for the Illinois senator, a figure that should be improved on.

Census data from 2007 reveals that minorities are making up a growing share of the population in all but 12 of 129 counties designated as “swing counties.” These counties, in states like Colorado, Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin, could help tip the balance between red and blue states.

Florida, in particular, is more likely to go Democratic in this election, partly because recent numbers show that non-Cubans outnumber traditionally conservative Cuban voters in the state’s total Hispanic voters. Their agenda is more diverse and potentially more in line with Democratic Party values.

The Democratic Party Platform for 2008, endorsed this week at the convention, mentions Latinos in connection with three concerns: their disproportionate victimization by unfair subprime mortgages; the inaccurate counting of Hispanics by the Census Bureau; and the need to reform our immigration service.

Latinos are concerned with anti-immigrant backlash, such as the murder of a Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah, Penn., as well as the government’s heavy-handed raids at a meat packing plant in Postville, Ill., and a leather factory in New Bedford, Mass. Even though the great majority of Latinos in the United States are U.S. citizens, they face a ripple effect when anti-immigrant anger becomes anti-Latino anger.

But to fully address the issues important to the nation’s Latino communities, the Democratic Party should take a close look at the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda’s just-published Public Policy Agenda for 2008. The group, which brings together 26 national Latino organizations, makes strong recommendations for addressing education, civil rights, economic empowerment, health, government accountability and the Iraq War, along with immigration.

This year, Latinos should be encouraged by their increasing visibility and political power, as well as their growing standing in the Democratic Party. But there is still much work to do.

Ed Morales is a contributor to the New York Times and Newsday and is the author of “Living in Spanglish.” He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.