A Family Weighs Democrats' Latino Credibility

All of their children were born U.S. citizens. Three Diaz siblings, 24-year-old Marisa and 20-year-old Nydia, who are attending the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on scholarships, and 13-year-old brother Alejandro still live at home. Olivia Diaz and two of her sisters are married but haven't strayed far from the family or their parents' political leanings. All but Marisa are registered Democrats. She's an independent but has never voted for a Republican candidate in a contested race.

The campaign issues that matter to them are ones that touch their lives. After the family of eight spent years in government-subsidized housing, Gilberto's job helped provide a small home with four bedrooms, including the garage, which the family converted into sleep space. His grinding work at the casino earns him basic health benefits, and he will collect a small pension to combine with a Social Security check two years from now, when he can retire. He is looking for a president who will provide universal health coverage because he worries about rising costs, but not enough differences have emerged between the Democratic candidates on the issue to sway him.

Olivia Diaz teaches at an elementary school that is 80 percent Latino and provides free or subsidized lunch for every child. It is common for some of the children, even those of legal residents, to start school speaking no English. She wants the government to make more provisions for students learning English to keep up with the ever-increasing number of federal testing standards, but she hasn't heard that topic addressed in the campaign.

Last year, a second-grader and a third-grader disappeared, and word of their father's deportation followed. "They were really bright kids, some of our top performers," Olivia said. "They had to leave."

She felt the loss personally and wants to see the next president dramatically change the nation's immigration law, which all of the Democratic candidates committed to do at the Univision forum.

After the forum, the Diaz family continued to parse the candidates' responses. Gilberto Diaz was stuck on the question about a border barrier.

"They never said, 'Why Mexico and not Canada?' " he said, sounding disappointed.

"Why don't they just say they don't want Mexicans to come in?' " asked his daughter, Marisa. "They don't want us."

"They want our votes," Olivia Diaz said.

Polling director Jon Cohen and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.