Joaquin Avila, lion of voting rights, speaks
*This is important. Joaquín Ávila is rightly called the “lion of voting rights” in this piece. The battles he fought and the roads he opened for Latinos are the some of the bedrock foundations on which we build our voting rights today. It’s rare to hear from him or about him on a national level these days. He talks about the label of the “sleeping giant,” he calls this the decade of Latino political empowerment, and he comments on the polarization of the Republican rhetoric. VL
By Roberto M. Robledo, The Californian
The name Joaquin Avila is almost synonymous with voting rights. The Harvard-educated attorney who made a career out of voting rights advocacy and led the crusade toward changing our local election system from at-large to district elections is in Salinas this week speaking and holding informal talks in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
[pullquote].. with Trump bashing the immigrant population. He said he’s just talking about illegal immigrants. But what that kind of rhetoric does is it sets up a climate of hostility … [/pullquote]Two of Avila’s landmark legal victories are grounded in Watsonville and Salinas, which were compelled to switch from at-large to district elections, empowering the Latino vote after decades of disenfranchisement.
Avila continues to work today in voting rights projects. He resides in Seattle, Washington, and arrived here by train Monday.
The Salinas Californian caught up with him Tuesday for a Q&A session:
Click HERE to read the full story.
[Photo courtesy of Seattle University School of Law]
