LATINO PERSPECTIVE-Demographers knew this was going to happen and it finally did, California is now the third state without a white plurality. According to population figures released by the Census Bureau last week, as of July 1st 2014 there were about 14.99 million Latinos living in California surpassing the 14.92 million whites in the state.
The country's Latino population is now 55.4 million. California and Los Angeles County have the largest Latino populations of any state or county in the nation, according to the new figures. State demographers project Latinos will account for about 49% of Californians by 2060.
I believe this fact is important, the more diverse our country is the greater the possibilities for economic and political expansion, not just for Latinos but also to all Americans.
The only problem is that Latino political influence is not on a par with our population growth.
According to a report prepared for the Latino legislative caucus and other groups Latinos represent 1 in 5 registered voters, they hold 1 in 4 Assembly seats, and sit on city councils in 27 of the state's 58 counties. They hold 1 in 8 state Senate seats and an even smaller percentage of supervisorial chairs. But Latino voting strength is only half the proportion of California's population, the report said.
Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said that a disproportionately high proportion of the Latino population is ineligible to vote, either because they are under 18 or are not citizens.
Still, he said, there are many eligible Latinos who do not vote, a group he called "the great unengaged."
"One of the structural problems we have in our democracy is that if you are not a likely consistent voter, you then are structurally excluded from the process," Vargas said. "No one's going to campaign for your vote if you're not even registered to vote. And if you're not registered to vote, but only voted once in the last six elections, you're not going to be campaigned to by the candidate."
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who is an expert in Latino politics, pointed to another reason for low participation: poverty.
"People do not engage in their government, even in the most limited ways, including voting, unless they feel they have a stake in it, and there's an enormous swath of Latinos who don't feel that they are engaged in California's society," Madrid said.
We need to do 4 things…
FIRST and most important we need to lift our community out of poverty. In order to do this we have to make sure we improve our education system. We need to make sure kids graduate from at least high school, with a solid education and acquire the necessary skills to be competitive in the new economy, find jobs and start businesses. Raising the minimum wage will help as well. (If we are going to force businesses to pay more we also need to give them incentives, and help them thrive but that’s talk for another column) Raising our community out of poverty will give them the time to engage more in the political discourse.
SECOND those who are eligible to become citizens should become citizens. Citizenship fee at $680.00 is not cheap; we need to figure out ways so that the fee is not an obstacle.
THIRD we need to make it easier for voters to vote, maybe make it a national holiday like it is in many other countries.
FOURTH we need to do is get the great unengaged engaged, and this is not an easy thing to do. Our elected Latino officials need to figure out a way to better engage the community, but the responsibility also lies on community based organizations and community leaders to educate the Latino community on the importance of getting engaged in the political and civic life of our state.
Maybe if we do all of this, just maybe the Latino community will catch up a little faster.
(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader who serves as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and sits on the board of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council representing Larchmont Village. He was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected] )
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 57
Pub: Jul 14, 2014
