Bienvenidos otra vez a La Voz Newspaper. Primeramente, we would like to call to your attention a number of our stories in this issue.
First is the article on page 4 about what the University of California is doing to help farm workers. A lot of
people say that farm workers are essential workers, but that is all. Here is an example of an institution that is actually doing something to help during this time of COVID.
Our second story which we wish to call to your attention is the interview we did with the new Austin
Independent School District Trustee Ofelia Maldonado Zapata. When she announced her candidacy for school board, not many people thought she would have a chance.After all, she was legally blind and did not have a lot of financial resources behind her.
But what she did have was more than thirty (30) years of working as a community activist with a group called
Austin Interfaith. (Now known as Central Texas Interfaith) Ofelia and her small team of volunteers knocked on doors and worked at passing out leaflets everywhere they could. They also took advantage of the long lines
that had formed at numerous polling locations and talked to everyone they could from seven in the
morning until 7 in the evening during early voting. And it paid off! She took 60% of the vote on November 3rd, and then took congratulatory phones afterwards.
In a recent conversation she told of having called a number of the schools that are in District 2. At one
school where she stated on the phone that she was Ofelia Maldonado Zapata, the principal asked
who she was. She had to explain she was the new school board trustee for the area. (Pos excuse me!)
The other story we wish to call to your attention is on Page 6. It is about the passing of Juan Cornejo, the former Mayor of Crystal City, Texas. Juan was 90 years old and a member of a group known as Los Cinco. They were the ones who, in 1963, stood up and ran for public office during the time of the poll tax. Their collective victory is part of what inspired José AngeL Gutiérrez to conceive and organize seven years later what would become La Raza Unida Party. And it was La Raza Unida Party that shook the political establishment which feared what might happen if Mexican Americans were to in fact turn out to vote and create other Crystal Cities around the country.
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Copyright 2021 by Alfredo Santos. To read the entire February 2021 issue of La Voz magazine visit: http://www.lavoznewspapers.com