America Ferrera Heads Campaign To Mobilize Latino Voters
By Griselda Nevárez, Voxxi
In 1994, America Ferrera was 9 years old living in Los Angeles when California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 187. The law, which was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing basic public benefits and social services.
That year, Ferrera’s mother took her aside before heading out to school one day and told her, “You are an American, and don’t let anyone scare you. You belong here.”
“This moment has never left me,” the 28-year-old actress said Thursday in Washington.
That moment is what motivated her to join the non-partisan organization Voto Latino in launching the America4America campaign, which aims to mobilize and encourage all Americans, especially young Latinos, to vote in November.
“Nearly 20 years later, in 2012, on the eve of this important election, we’re announcing this campaign because that moment of intimidation and fear that I experienced is still too real for so many Americans, and I can’t sit on the sidelines and watch it happen,” she told a room packed with elected officials, Latino leaders and activists.
Ferrera, who gained popularity playing the leading role in the series “Ugly Betty,” said the same intimidation and fear she felt in 1994 is now felt among immigrants living in states that are passing tough immigration laws and voter suppression laws.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said he has seen first-hand some of the nation’s toughest immigration laws pass. From laws that aim to give police the authority to question someone’s immigration status to laws that eliminate ethnic studies in public schools.
He said he hopes such laws will inspire more Latinos to head to the polls in November.
“We also have a wonderful opportunity in Arizona and across the country to change the tone,” he said. “Our community could … make substantial change in our political process.”
It is no secret that the Latino population has been rapidly increasing in the last decade and is expected to grow by 63 percent in the next 18 years.
Currently, there are 50.5 million Latinos in the United States. Census data indicates that 50,000 of them are turning 18 every month, which means more Latinos are becoming eligible to vote.
“People are overlooking some of these numbers,” said Rep. Charlie González (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Though Latinos are the nation’s fastest growing population, they are registered to vote at rates far lower than those of other ethnicities.
González noted that only 43 percent of Latinos are registered to vote, compared to 78 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 67 percent of African Americans and 53 percent of Asian Americans.
He said Latinos have potential to increase its political power, but “that will not happen if we don’t do more to mobilize, educate and engage voters.”
Maria Teresa Kumar, co-founder and president of Voto Latino, said America4America hopes to do just that. She said the campaign’s website, America4America.com, will engage in conversations with young voters on various issues and motivate them to vote through videos, social media sites and forums.
It also intends to unite various groups who are already working to increase voter turnout among Latinos. These groups include: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, a union representing 2 million Latino workers; the New Organizing Institute, which trains political organizers; and the League of Women Voters of the United States, a nonpartisan voter engagement organization.
Kumar said the campaign is a collaborative effort to “go back into our communities, knock on those doors, mobilize our individual friends, family and have those conversations that we need to not only get them excited to go to the polls but to remind politicians that they work for us.”
This article first apeared in Voxxi.
Griselda Nevárez is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington D.C.
