SHOW OF DIVERSITY: Latino speakers make appeal for minority voters
PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic rebuttal to the Republican convention in Cleveland opened Monday with a softspoken immigrant from Mexico talking about her childhood journey across the Rio Grande on a raft with a doll, her mother and no legal papers.
Astrid Silva, a 28-year-old student activist from Nevada, took a prominent place in the Democrats’ opening night lineup along with Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders, adding a distinct Latin flavor intended to contrast the GOP’s calls to build walls, restore law and order, and “Send them home!”
“We risked everything for the American Dream,” said Silva, whose story was told two years ago by President Barack Obama to champion the cause of so-called Dreamers, immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as minors.
To Texas Democrats, the signal was unmistakable. Immigration — along with inclusion and diversity — will be among the most important bywords of a national gathering in Philadelphia to nominate Hillary Clinton and roll out her response to Donald Trump’s hard line on the border and other domestic policies.
“You’re going to see a lot of contrasts, and this is one of the most significant ones,” said Ed Espinoza, a friend of Silva’s and the executive director of Progress Texas, an Austin group that pushes Democratic policies. “You’re going to hear a lot of optimism. You’re not going to hear a lot of anger.”
Helping flesh out the Democrats’ case for the 2016 election were more than a dozen Hispanic speakers, including Texas activist-actor Eva Longoria, former Texas State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and New York State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a native of the Dominican Republic running to become the first previously undocumented immigrant elected to Congress.
“This scares Donald Trump,” Espaillat said. “It inspires Hillary Clinton.”
The show of diversity came amid appeals for a party unity that was cracked by DNC email leaks showing that some party staffers had favored Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders. After a day of protests, nerves seemed soothed after Paul Simon sang his folk rock classic, “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
The party’s tapestry of multiculturalism was punctuated by chants of “This is what Democracy looks like!” — meant to underscore the crowd shots on television that were sure to demonstrate a heavier mix of black, brown and young faces than were in evidence at last week’s GOP convention in Cleveland.
Gay rights also entered into the equation with retired NBA player Jason Collins, a black gay activist who has endorsed Clinton.
“It’s a stark contrast when you just pan the audience,” Houston U.S. Rep. Al Green said as he walked in the Wells Fargo Center. “This is what America looks like.”
‘Tell our stories’
Democrats also are betting that this is what significant constituencies look like in battleground states like Florida, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.
“Many battleground states are going to be decided largely by the Latino vote,” said Texas State Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, the son of immigrants from Mexico and Spain. “It’s really important for Latinos to be represented at this convention to tell our stories.”
One of the most dramatic was rendered by 11-year-old Karla Ortiz, who was born in Las Vegas of parents who entered the country illegally and fear deportation. “Soy Americana (I’m American),” the little girl said.
The slogans served a purpose.
“One of our goals as Democrats,” said Houston U.S. Rep. Gene Green, “is we win when Hispanics vote.”
Both in the two party’s platforms and in the stories that were told from their stages came two starkly different tales of Hispanics in America. Republicans were regaled with stories of illegal immigrants who kill, run drugs and drive drunk.
Democrats instead heard stories of undocumented immigrants who go to school and achieve.
“Donald Trump believes that Mexican immigrants are murderers and rapists. But what about my parents, Donald?” said California U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Let me tell you what my parents are. They are the only parents in our nation’s 265-year history to send — not one — but two daughters to the United States Congress.”
If the Republicans told scare stories about refugees and immigrants, Democrats told unflattering tales about Trump.
‘Fooled’ by Trump
One was provided by Cheryl Lankford, who heads up the local chapter of Gold Star Wives in San Antonio. Her husband, Jonathan M. Lankford, a command sergeant major in the Army, died in Baghdad in September 2007. Two years later, she signed up for Trump University to find a way to get back on her feet. She said she spent $35,000 from an Army insurance payment to learn Trump’s secrets, and has nothing to show for it.
“Donald Trump made big promises about Trump University, and I was fooled into believing him,” she said. “Now he’s making big promises about America. Please don’t make the same mistake.”
The Democratic platform on immigration, like its roll of speakers, is starkly different than last week’s GOP platform, which asserted that “we have watched in anger and disgust the mocking of our immigration laws by a president who made himself superior to the will of the nation.”
The GOP platform, echoing Trump’s call for a security wall along the southwest border, asserted that “the presence of millions of unidentified individuals in this country poses grave risks to the safety and sovereignty of the United States.”
The Democratic platform adopted Monday calls for an end to a broken immigration system “which tears families apart and keeps workers in the shadows.” The Democrats decried overuse of deportation and asserted that undocumented immigrants should qualify for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Whether the Democrats’ immigration plans would solve the problem, delegates said an important message was being sent from the convention floor.
Andre Lopez, 25, a delegate from San Antonio, said what Democrats are showing “is an important lesson on the diversity we have in Texas and across the country.”