Trip an eye-opener for future Latino leaders

WASHINGTON — Class trips to Washington generally involve feel-good visits to the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Institution.

But for the 16 graduates of the Connecticut Latino Leadership Academy, their just-completed, two-day sojourn in the nation’s capital mixed the good vibes with healthy doses of cold, political reality.

“I didn’t realize how serious it was,” said Fabio Mazo, 27, a Democratic activist in Bridgeport. “Things like immigration and DACA (the President Barack Obama program, canceled by President Donald Trump, which gave legal status to young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents).

“It’s the real deal, but you don’t see much about it on the news because (reporters) are more interested in scandals,” said Mazo.

While the House is close to signing up enough lawmakers of both parties to force votes on DACA, the threshold hasn’t been crossed yet. Meanwhile, class members heard how President Trump has embarked on a strategy to prosecute all illegal border crossers, which necessitates separation of children from parents.

It is a policy that Latino Democrats have denounced as unusually cruel.

This was the second academy class to visit Washington in a program begun by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus to nurture a future generation of Latino leaders as Connecticut Democrats.

This year’s participants were of mixed age and experience, hailing from not only Bridgeport but North Haven, West Haven, Stamford and elsewhere in the state.

The group got to meet prominent Latino lawmakers in Washington including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

On Thursday, Gutierrez, who is leaving Congress after 13 terms, regaled the class with tales of his political origins as a streetwise Democratic operative in Chicago and aide to then Mayor Harold Lee Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor.

To murmurs of agreement, Gutierrez told the audience he plans to live in Puerto Rico while remaining active in efforts to spur voting among Puerto Ricans on the island and the U.S., who are all U.S. citizens.

Rep. Elizabeth Esty introduced Gutierrez.

Esty, D-Conn., is leaving Congress when her term is up in January in the wake of her mishandling the exit of a male former chief of staff who was abusive to Esty’s female scheduler.

Both parties are actively vying to get their candidates elected in Connecticut’s 5th District, which stretches from Danbury north and east to incorporate much of northwestern Connecticut.

Perhaps ironically, it is the Republican side that is fielding primary candidates with Hispanic origins.

Manny Santos, the former mayor of Meriden who won the party’s official nod, was born in Portugal. And Ruby Corby O’Neill, a retired psychology professor, was born in Honduras.

“At a time when the country is divided, we have two choices: continue to divide and demoralize, or we can say ‘We are better when everyone is at the table,’ ” Esty said.

“This program is about providing the tools to help people get involved,” Esty said. “You can be an organizer, a volunteer, an activist, or you can run for office. We need to empower everyone to understand that in a democracy, everyone has the same vote.”