The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Policy summit tackles Latino vote, government representation
HARTFORD — At the age of 23, Antonio Felipe did not expect to be thrust into the political spotlight. He had worked behind the scenes as a political organizer since his teens, but decided to run for representative after the late Rep. Ezequiel Santiago, D, Bridgeport, died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 45.
Felipe was only planning on running to fill the year and a half left on Santiago’s term, but is now serving his third term as a state representative and made state history when he was appointed as the youngest deputy majority leader in 2020.
“I fell in love with the fact that I was able to take that story and take the stories of all the people that I’ve met in the district and then give it back,” he said. “I represent a generation that was never represented before. We go through a lot of challenges that folks who are 20 years older than us have not seen.”
Felipe was one of about 200 elected representatives, educators, academics and community leaders that attended the first Connecticut Latino and Puerto Rican Policy Agenda Summit held Saturday at the Hartford Marriott Downtown. During the summit, community members and academics made policy suggestions that were most important to them for the upcoming legislative session in February.
Latinos made up 18.2 percent of the state’s population in 2022, up from 13.5 percent in 2010, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Those figures represent a significant growth in the state’s population of about 178,000 people between 2010 and 2022.
Disengaged Latino voters
Despite growing numbers in the state, Latinos are underrepresented in the state legislature
as they are less than 10 percent of legislative representatives, explained Werner Oyanadel of the General Assembly’s Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity, and Opportunity.
Latinos also tend to be politically disengaged, according to a forthcoming report presented at the conference by UCONN professors Lisa Werkmeister Rozas and Charles Venator-Santiago. Werkmeister Rozas explained that the disengagement of Latino voters is often a negative cycle. Since Latinos don’t see themselves represented among elected officials, they are less likely to be engaged in politics
and don’t run for elected office, furthering the lack of representation. She added they often feel disengaged, disenfranchised and unseen by their elected representatives.
“There is a desire to participate and be included in the process, but (Latinos) don’t feel that there is a space where they can really express themselves,” she said.
Their team held a series of Spanish-language listening sessions with a total of 180 people in New London, Hartford, Waterbury and New Haven on the issues and concerns of the state’s Latinos. They compiled key takeaways from the communities into a report that gives policymakers suggestions on housing, healthcare, language barriers, voting and
civic engagement.
Pleas for greater participation
To better represent the Latino community, Lt. Gov Susan Bysiewicz, Felipe, Rep. Hilda Santiago, D, Meriden, and Rep. Geraldo Reyes, D, Waterbury, all made impassioned pleas for more Latinos to vote and get involved on a
local level in town committees, state boards and commissions and local offices.
“I would encourage you to run for local office or for state office. Just pick an office and go for it, because that is a way that you can make a difference in your community and in our beautiful state,” Bysiewicz said.
In addition to discussing civic engagement, the one-day event featured a series of panels on issues that affect the state’s Latino residents, including housing inequality, education equity, health disparity and language access.
After the panels and a short reflection, VenatorSantiago delivered closing remarks. He announced a
growing number of publicly available data sources on the state’s Latino population and invited attendees to join working groups on specific issues.
“I’m really happy that we have legislators and elected officials…that are willing to listen to work with you to help you to shape some of these debates,” he said.