The State of the State for Washington Latinos

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think our nation needs some serious economic work.  The recent $8 billion dollar stimulus package is an attempt to inject federal dollars into the veins of society.  In general, the resonse to the stimulus package has been positive.  The average American stands to gain, especially if the average American happens to be a first time home owner or car buyer.

Part of the stimuls package includes expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to offset the economic burden for those suffering the most from this crisis: the low income-earning families.

This is great.  Our state should follow this tactic.  By instating a state wide EITC and making the federal EITC more accessible to Washington’s workers, we have a chance to pull out of the economic crisis.

On March 15, 2009 there were 4,000 international observers present to watch the Salvadoran presidential elections. They came from the European Union, the U.S. Embassy, universities from all over the United States and Latin America, U.S. churches, and lawyer associations. I was one of the 4,000 diverse international observers.

My experience as an international observer caused me to reevaluate my own research on political mobilization in Pasco, Washington. In my research, I criticized political parties in Pasco for their lack of outreach and mobilization efforts towards immigrants and minorities. In the past, political parties in the U.S. provided transportation to the polls and even went as far as feeding families in need as a way to influence their vote. This still happens today in the U.S. on a smaller scale but in El Salvador, political parties made this a regular practice during the 2009 presidential campaign.

For example, the right-wing ARENA party, who had dominated the presidency for the past 20 years, bought fried chicken from a franchise akin to KFC and fed the many families in rural El Salvador who could not afford such luxuries. Other common practices were giving away bags of rice with a political party’s propaganda plastered on the front and of course the classic ride to the polling site. In light of the extreme poverty and the material incentives that political parties had to offer, I couldn’t help but view this as a form of bribery.

It now seems to me that voter mobilization efforts, whether in the U.S. or El Salvador, would be better left to nonpartisan organizations. Instead of lamenting the fact that U.S. political parties are no longer mobilizing immigrants and minorities as they did in the past, I now see their lack of voter mobilization as a positive change. This is not to say that Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns by political parties in the United States are based on bribery. Rather, I mean to say that nonpartisan efforts to mobilize immigrants and minorities is a surer way to guarantee that the decision of the voter is truly their own. For this reason, nonpartisan organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, should consider launching a voter registration campaign and voter outreach programs when the next election cycle comes around.

Many Americans fulfill their civic duties by sending in letters or calling and emailing their state representatives to voice their concerns on particular issues. Few citizens, however, will take the effort to travel three, four, or five hours to talk face to face with their state representatives in order to change their communities for the better. This is exactly what eight-hundred Latinos from cities like Pasco, Yakima, and other eastern Washington towns did on March 13 for the annual Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day.

The eight-hundred Latino youth, adults, and elderly set a record high for the event where they voiced their concerns in Olympia over issues like education, the economy, housing, and immigration. On this day, state representatives, their assistants, and Governor Chris Gregoire herself spoke with the crowd and listened to what these citizens had to say.

This event exemplified the United State’s most valued acts, the practice of democracy, of meeting face to face to deliberate and discuss citizen’s most pressing needs.

Of course, the event didn’t happen by itself, the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization organizes this event every year. 

My research showed that community organizations like the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization make civic engagement possible among a greater number of people, no matter if they have a lot of experience at the state Capitol or no experience at all. My research also showed that community organizations are some of the most effective vehicles to increase civic participation among Latino communities. And of course, the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization’s most recent event further proves this point.

This is why community organizations in general need to be strengthened in Washington. Volunteer with a community organization or donate to their cause; when we have a working democracy where everyone has a say in the big decisions, we have a better community and a better nation.

For more information about my research, click here

voter education programs are sorely needed

If there is one thing that the many meetings we went to as a group from Seattle to Olympia taught me is that there are already laws in place to empower communities, but very little enforcement. In these laws, one finds great potential for minority empowerment, but without enforcement, they seem great, but fail to materialize. Take for instance RCW 28B which is already in the books, a section of this law requires state funded institutions of higher education to conduct voter outreach and provide voter education programs. Many institutions shirk at the requirement and fulfill it by merely placing a link on their website.

The research conducted by Tim Shadix and myself on Latino accessibility to the vote shows that vote education programs are key to increasing voter turnout. The problem is urgent: in Walla Walla Latinos are roughly 20% of the population but are only 2.5% of those who turnout on Election Day. In Pasco the figure is even more startling, though Latinos make up 56% of the city’s population, they are only 5% of those who turn out to vote. For instance, the gross Latino disenfranchisement in Franklin County could be greatly reduced if Columbia Basin College were to do more outreach.

Colleges have a tremendous potential of doing voter education program. In fact the office of the Secretary of State even has a campus outreach program in effect. However, it’s only been in place at one college campus. The problem is the person in charge of the campus outreach program already has many other, essential, responsibilities on her plate. Colleges need to take more initiative, and the state needs to be more proactive in prodding them to truly enforce the law.

Voting Rights, Political Engagement, and Legislative Action:

The State of the State for Washington Latinos

A Community Forum with Professor Joaquin Avila, Seattle University Law School, and Whitman College students to discuss new research. Moderated by Dorry Elias-Garcia,
Minority Executive Directors Coalition.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Reception: 5:30—6:30 pm Program: 6:30—8:00 pm

El Centro de la Raza
2524—16th Avenue South, Seattle