On Tuesday night, several people filed into the Las Vegas offices of the Latino advocacy group Make the Road Nevada to talk about Election 2024, hosted by Radio Ambulante, NPR’s only Spanish-language podcast. Participated in a listening session regarding
Colored pencils and paper were spread out on tables for doodling while attendees listened to one of the latest episodes of the series about Latino voting and discussed how those issues relate to their lives. Ta.
“Latinos need to vote and decide what kind of representation we want,” Etelbina Zamora Esquivel, 60, a phone banker for a progressive group, said on the episode. spoke in response.
Moderated by Juan David Naranjo Navarro, head of community for Radio Ambulante, Zamora-Esquivel and six other participants spoke for more than an hour about everything from rising xenophobia to the economy and housing prices. The rise expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo. . While they have expressed dissatisfaction with both parties, they have shown a grudging acceptance of Democrats and anti-immigrant Republican candidates like former President Donald Trump, who has promised to launch a mass deportation campaign if elected. He claimed to be less belligerent.
They argued that another factor that helps improve the political standing of Latinos is their participation in local politics, from voting to elections, and generally staying informed.
The event was far less formal than Vice President Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall in Las Vegas two weeks ago, which drew more than 75 people. Organizers of Radio Ambulante, which has hosted similar events in other battleground states, said the smaller event creates a more comfortable and intimate environment for participants to share their thoughts on the contentious election. He said he was looking forward to it.
“(The listening club) is a safe space, a place to embrace differences and embrace diversity and other people’s life experiences,” Naranjo Navarro told the Nevada Independent.
reluctant to accept the Democratic Party
Kenya Morales, 37, identifies as an independent and has become a supporter of the Democratic Party despite her vocal distrust of the political establishment.
“At the end of the day, I believe that talking to Democratic leaders is more beneficial than talking to Republicans,” Morales told a listening group.
Like other Nevadans, the pandemic has hit Morales particularly hard financially. Her husband and brother lost their jobs. Meanwhile, his father’s photography business declined, his home was foreclosed, and Morales, a self-employed political strategist who had led national movements, became the family’s sole breadwinner.
“I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to pay all these bills?'” Morales said.
Despite his economic woes, Morales still believes Democrats are the best candidate in this election. Part of the reason is that Republicans espouse anti-immigrant beliefs and feel physically unsafe. But she cautioned others to stay politically active to ensure their elected officials are responsive to the needs of their communities.
Morales is not the only Latino in Nevada who is disappointed in the political system. The group is made up of about 20 percent of registered voters in Nevada, but nearly half identify as independent, according to an analysis by NALEO Education Fund, a Latino political group.
Harris currently holds a lead over Trump among Latinos, but recent polls show she will consolidate the same amount of support that President Joe Biden gained with the group in 2020. It is shown that he is struggling with this. Boosting her support from that group may be key to winning in Nevada.
We need more Latinos in politics.
Yajaira Remendez, a 34-year-old telephone banker, has grown angry with establishment political leaders who she says “do nothing to help Latinos.” After being diagnosed with cancer, Remendez briefly lost her job and became homeless, but says she was able to get back on her feet thanks to the support of community organizations like Make the Road.
“That’s why we as Latinos are suffering right now, because we don’t have representation to support us,” Remendez said.
For Rimendez, who is from Puerto Rico, the discrimination she experienced has a double meaning. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, no politicians stepped up to help, she said. And despite being from a U.S. territory, she reported that she was frequently told to “go back to your home country,” something that many others in her group also experienced.
Nevada’s Latino population is growing, despite positive signs such as the election in 2021 of the nation’s first Latino senator, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) , Indy’s analysis found that levels of representation in elected office are lagging behind. , new district boundaries divided Latinos into the state’s four districts, further weakening the voting bloc’s power.
But Leo Murietta, 38, director of Make the Road Nevada, argues that increasing political representation of Latinos is not enough. The group also needs representatives who advocate for the best interests of Latinos, regardless of race or ethnicity, noting that a growing number of Latino voters and politicians support tougher anti-immigrant policies. He said that.
“We need leadership, but we don’t necessarily need politicians. We need people. We need a table like this with ordinary people who care,” Murrieta said.
