According to the latest post by Latina Lista, candidates have been invited to participate in a debate sponsored by Univision. They have all jumped at the chance, right? Not exactly. Initially the reason that some candidates turned down the offer is because they are simply not Spanish speakers. Fair enough. Univision then changed the rules of the linguistic game in the hopes of getting all candidates to participate, but still no luck. I’m not surprised that some candidates have little interest in the Latino/a vote, but I always considered politicians to savvy if nothing else. With Latino/ as representing a great amount of voting power, I have to say that I am surprised that they are not ALL jumping at the chance to win our votes. When I think about it a little further, I can’t help but wonder why that is. At the risk of sounding ethnocentric, they need our votes. But it begs the question-are enough of us voting? And if not, why not? Whether or not the political issues at hand are directly related to us as a people, inaction is more dangerous than having to choose the lesser of two evils (which is always what voting represents for me). We need to vote, especially with immigration being such a hotly contested issue for us. While I may be Boricua (and thanks to Mr. Jones Act, c.1917), and a citizen, the fact of the matter is that our beloved country is getting away with committing some awfully heinous acts against our Latino/a brethren.
So how do we approach registering to vote with people that feel (and, I might add, rightfully so) that there is nothing in it for them? How can we better communicate that even when our issues are ignored, we need to make the power of our presence felt? I certainly have no answers, but I can’t help but think about all the marginalized people of this country to whom we owe the privilege of voting to; let’s pay them homage by registering and voting when the time comes. Suffrage has a long history in this country; and history in general evidences that those of us on the periphery gain nothing without a long hard fight. Let’s begin the fight by showing up at the polls and voting.
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