Expect Latinos to get shortchanged — again. They may get bought off with a couple of high profile appointments. Bill Richardson is already mentioned as a possible secretary of state and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could also be in line for a prominent role in the new administration. As someone who made history, Obama could also make more of it by appointing the first Latino to the Supreme Court. That would buy a tremendous amount of good will.

Yet when it comes to immigration, Obama will have trouble keeping his promise of comprehensive reform from last summer. He will probably toss Latino supporters a bone by stopping construction of the border fence that he voted for in the Senate and ending the workplace raids that have caused so much disgust in the Latino community.

But nothing else. And if Latinos are paying attention and holding the new president to account, they'll know they've been used. And, if honest with themselves, they'll have something else to be disgusted about.

"On January 21 we will be here in Washington to ask for reforms and for an end to the raids" at workplaces that have seen illegal immigrants arrested and deported, said Angelica Salas, director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

"We ask the president-elect to consider immigration reform one of his 10 domestic priorities," she told reporters Tuesday, adding that she hoped reform legislation would begin "in the first 100 days" of an Obama administration.

Nationally, Bush won some 40 percent of Latino voters in 2004. This year, the Republican share of the Latino vote dropped to 31 percent, while the Democratic ticket took 66 percent.

An influx of newly registered young voters is another factor widely credited with swinging the victory to the Democratic ticket. And the Democratic nominating convention was held in Denver, the state's capital and biggest city, which gave the candidates high visibility here.

Immigration is among the most important issues to many Latino citizens, according to polls. Even though Senator McCain was co-sponsor of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that died in Congress in 2006, he took a harder line on the issue during the campaign.

Many Latinos blame conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives, such as Tom Tancredo, who represents the Denver suburbs, for sinking the bill and pushing for criminalization and mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Antonio Torres, 19, outside his family's home in Gila Bend, Ariz. Mr. Torres, a farmworker and legal immigrant, suffered catastrophic injuries in a car crash in June and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Phoenix. He had no insurance and did not qualify for Medicaid. So, less than two weeks after the accident, the hospital sent Mr. Torres, who was comatose, to Mexico. Five days later, his parents found a California hospital to accept him and brought him back into the United States. He arrived from Mexico in septic shock but survived -- and thrived.