Latino votes gather strength in the U. S.
David Brooks (Envoy) -- La Jornada -- Mexico City
Our thanks to Carlos for the translation -- [Click for Spanish Language Version ]
Los Ángeles, October 9, 2007
As he remembered the historic struggles for the civil rights of the Latino community, the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, declared today that the National Latino Congress represents the next phase of this contest by offering "an opportunity to speak with an united voice" about the great US national and foreign policy themes.
"We have to build bridges instead of walls with Mexico and Latin America," stated the mayor of a city that is almost 50 percent Latino and 47 percent immigrant. "We have, as Latinos, an special obligation to head this discussion." He considered that "the moment of greatest pride in my life, a defining moment, was when I was able to salute some million persons who marched on May first (of 2006), a sea of families that only wish to work for a better [life]."
It was the last of five days of work of the congress, where a total of three thousand persons from more than 20 states among them community leaders, immigrant leaders, Union leaders, representatives from local and national Latino organizations and elected politicians (councilmen, mayors, state and federal legislators) participated in a process to define a "Latino agenda" to include the main national and foreign policy matters of this country.
Villaraigosa recognized: "I got where I am on the shoulders of others," and mentioned the Union, civil rights and voter registration struggles led by LULAC, MALDEF and the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project (SVREP) congress organizers, among others also as the result of the struggles headed by Martin Luther King, The women's rights movement and anti-war movements. The Mayor, grandchild of a Mexican immigrant, insisted that the priorities now are to end the war (14 per cent of the population is Latino, but it makes up 20 percent of casualties in Iraq), promoting a fair immigration reform [aka full-blown amnesty], reform education and the health system to benefit all.
Therefore, he said that this National Latino Congress represents the opportunity to define and promote and agenda to benefit all in the country. "We know how important it is for this community to unite and overcome our divisions."
He recognized that the efforts of organizations like the SVREP to generate the Latino vote as it has transformed the political landscape during the last decades (he, as mayor of the second largest city in the US, is an example of it), but it is time to sum forces for the next stage. He recognized specifically Antonio González, presidente de SVREP for this: "when he calls, I go, he said of his "incomparable" namesake.
Today, Gonzalez, in press statements, characterized the congress as a success in the sense that strategic strides were made towards a "coalition of the diverse elements of the Latino community" in this country. That, he said, is necessary to influence in the national and international agenda with a Latino voice which demands, among other things, the end of the war in Iraq, a real immigration reform, the guarantee of medical service for all. and "inducing a profound change in the relations between the US and Latin America," including with Cuba and the new leftist governments in South America.
He highlighted that among the consensus achieved here, the immediate priority is "a massive mobilization of the Latino vote" for the 2008 national electoral cycle. The more than 80 resolutions adopted on matters of electoral power, migration, the war in Iraq, the environment, public health, education, penal justice system reforms and international relations with Latin America "serve as an action guide to the Latino organizations and leaders," said González.
He resumed that the objective was to define "the agenda, the content of the Latino voice in this country" and with that not only transmit it to the national level, but to also communicate with Latin America, where not so many fail to recognize this voice. "And all this is to promote, in the end, the great change that is so needed in the United States," he concluded.
Latinos, Lydia Camarillo, vice president of the SVREP, reminded, are the decisive or influential vote in states that grant some 220 of the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency. The matter, according to many of the participants here, is precisely how to exert the potential political power of the Latino community and, along with it what is sought to do with that power.
The congress managed to define, according to the organizers, the points of reference to guide the next steps towards a "Latino voice" in the United States. For many here, that is already an enormous stride. For some, the dialogue that is maturing among US-Latino, Latin Americans and immigrants could influence the hemisphere's dynamic in the medium range.
Much of what was agreed will be placed to the test during the 2008 electoral year, and the results will confirm if a more consolidated Latino force was born here and with a greater impact in this country and its relations with the rest of the Americas.
Maybe the United States Latinos are compelled to limit themselves to be the largest minority in the United State. But if they manage to build those bridges with Latin America, they would go on to form part of the great Latino majority of this hemisphere.
Maybe that is part of what began to happen here in the last five days.
