Thirty years ago, Californians passed a ballot measure that galvanized a generation of Latino voters. Proposition 187 sought to deny virtually all public services to undocumented immigrants and their children. Drafted largely in response to the dramatic demographic changes occurring in California at the time, the measure sparked a seismic shift in racial politics and energized Latino activists, some of whom would eventually occupy some of the state's most powerful political positions. The plight of undocumented immigrants and recent immigrants became an indelible part of the political narrative for a generation of Latinos and their leaders.

In 1994, the year of Proposition 187, something amazing and unprecedented happened: Nearly two-thirds of Latinos united across party lines, gender, generational lines, and national origins to vote against the bill. They coalesced into an ethno-political coalition built on the narrative of the undocumented and immigrant experience.

But as Latino politicians accumulated power and numbers over the next few decades, a strange phenomenon occurred: Latino voter turnout began to decline dramatically. To this day, Latino voter turnout in California is lower than that of any other race or ethnicity.

At the same time, nearly every quality survey of Latino voters lists jobs and the economy as their top concerns. From rising home prices to high poverty rates to barriers to education, Latinos suffer disproportionately from California's economic problems. And they have been calling for ambitious economic policies for Sacramento, especially with a growing number of Latino politicians. But no campaign or party has ever crafted a working-class economic agenda that responds to Latino concerns.

Instead, Latinos remain widely misunderstood as a victimized racial minority motivated by immigration, farm workers, and border issues. This is one of the most glaring blind spots in American politics. Even though the nation's fastest-emerging voter group is quantitatively telling political leaders what they want to hear and hear, both parties cling to the belief that they understand Latinos better than they understand themselves.

The fastest growing rates of Latino voter participation are among third- and fourth-generation U.S.-born voters. And even in California, the latest evidence suggests that the immigration policy catalysts of the last century are no longer resonating in this one. Latino voting behavior is undergoing a generational shift.

California political data expert Paul Mitchell recently pointed out in Capitol Weekly that Los Angeles County, which has the largest Latino population in the country, has seen its share of foreign-born registered voters plummet from last year. 55% to less than 9% The past two decades have seen startling changes in the Hispanic electorate: Moreover, nearly 40% of Hispanic voters were not born during the formative political events of the Proposition 187 era.

California has long been an exception for Latinos. First, California has a higher percentage of immigrants in its population than any other state, with 10.4 million immigrants. 27% of California's population They make up 23% of the foreign-born people in the country.

But despite this rich immigrant fabric, California's Latinos are overwhelmingly U.S.-born, and increasingly so. California has not seen the rightward shift of Latino voters that was so pronounced in other states until recently, but now we are seeing it, only obscured by the state's large population of older immigrants and left-leaning voters.

Economic dissatisfaction may be a major driver of this shift. Only 9% Ten percent of Latino households can afford the state's median home price. 55% of California households in the bottom 10% of incomes are Latino or black. By virtually every economic indicator, Latinos are not faring any better in a state that has more Latino elected officials than any other state.

Rising housing prices and other economic issues are increasingly causing Latinos to break from their traditional pattern of supporting Democrats and come off the sidelines, to the point where even California is no longer an exception. California Target Book's Robb Korinke (a partner at my firm, GrassrootsLab) found that Latino voter registration has shifted away from the Democratic Party in every battleground district in California since the midterm elections. At the same time, the gap between Republican and Democratic performance in Latino-heavy state legislative districts has narrowed significantly.

Are we witnessing a transformation of the Latino voter? Registration, turnout, and other data strongly suggest that direction. While many policymakers have grown up with the narrative that defined the end of the last century, it is time to recognize that we are on the brink of a new Latino political identity in a new Latino century.

Mike Madrid is a political consultant and author of the upcoming book, “The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority is Changing Democracy,” from which this article is excerpted.