CHÁVEZ-PETERSON

Clout growing

dential election, Cuban Americans in Florida vote differently from Mexican Americans in California. And within our region’s Latino electorate, there are differing political perspectives as well.

Politicians, pollsters and pundits routinely opine on if and how Latinos will vote, yet tend to overlook important nuances such as age, gender, education, class and ZIP code that factor into Latino voting behavior — just as with any other constituency. The campaign that cannot connect with Latinos and effectively articulate the intersecting issues that resonate with our shared values will fail to mobilize us as voters.

With a few exceptions, California leads the nation in advancing socially progressive policies (most recently, voters rejected Proposition 16 to reinstate affirmative action; only 10 states currently ban this policy as a means of achieving equal access and opportunity). Without question, forward leaning Latinos and our ever-increasing share of the California electorate are hugely influential in this trend.

Given our greater clout, Latino voters have a greater responsibility to advance social equity on behalf of all Californians. We’ve seen this in Latinoled grassroots efforts to expand rights and protections for domestic workers that played a key role in increasing the state’s minimum wage. Increasingly, the Latino community is weighing in on biased policing, education equity, housing equity, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and anti-black racism as these issues concern us, too. And it is incumbent upon Latino leaders to deepen investments in building a more participatory electorate.

As Cesar Chavez said, “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sake and for our own.”

The Latino electorate is richly diverse with complex voting attitudes. In California, Latino voters have shared a legacy of transformational dissent via the ballot box. We must therefore reject systems of inequity and exclusion. We must align with other historically and systemically marginalized groups to ensure that “We the People” truly means all of us. Sí, se puede!