HOW MANY GENERATIONS UNTIL LATINOS BECOME “AMERICAN?”

I consider myself Latina, close even to my family’s Mexican culture, bilingual and happily comfortable in that identity. But, more often than not, it seems like everyone else is trying to corral me into some other identity, or telling me that mine is not sufficient.

The neighborhood where I live is the perfect example.

I live in a neighborhood that’s split in two: one part of it is gentrifying rapidly, and the other part is filled with Mexican and many immigrant families. I live in the part that’s more Mexican, which makes me in all my professional hipster-ness stand out sometimes, but people still speak to me in Spanish and oftentimes I just become part of the scenery. But then there are other times…

I was speaking to a gentleman in the local bright pink-colored laundromat recently when he started to tell me about “Ustedes,” “You people,” in reference to the rich hipsters who are populating the other side of the neighborhood. The fact that we were speaking in Spanish, that I told him my family was from Mexico, mattered little.

Those are the moments that I find myself wondering about that identity I felt so secure in just a few moments before. What it means to be Latina to me isn’t the same as being Latina to someone else, and as our country moves towards being ever more Latino, I wonder what exactly that’s going to mean to the next few generations. I might be ethnocentric to them, or perhaps I’ll just be whitewashed. There’s no way of knowing.

These moments — where I’m torn from the reality into the reality of someone else — seem very abrupt to me. Because of where I live, they happen every so often, and every time they do, they catch me by surprise. This is probably mostly due to the fact that, when I leave my neighborhood and go out into the greater Los Angeles area, the number of Latinos who speak Spanish, who have molcajetes and cazuelas in their house, who actually cook Mexican food for themselves every day, who went to college and don’t feel the need to mispronounce their names in English — is slim.

I think about this often. Is it because I’m light-skinned and green-eyed that I don’t feel any shame about being Latina? Is it because my father is an educator who taught me from a young age to be proud of who I am? Because of how I look, or because I went to college, or because I purposely cling to my culture, there are moments when I stick out like a sore thumb amongst people I feel a kinship with. But more often than not, they see me as an outsider.

So what are my alternatives?

I don’t want to become one of those “vendidas” who pretends like being Mexican never happened to her. I don’t want to spin some myth that I’ve managed to overcome huge obstacles because I grew up with college educated parents. I don’t want to pretend that, despite my features, I’m mostly “Spanish,” or that my family’s history means nothing to me.

So, what I do instead, is recognize that I live in a world that changes everyday. What it was to me growing up in LA in the 1990s in the era of Proposition 187, what it was to me in 2010 during the era of SB 1070, what it is to me now when Texas representatives target Latino studies courses in colleges for elimination, is complex and escapes definition. It changes, it evolves, devolves, and then we find ourselves asking the same questions we’ve asked before.

Thus, when I find myself being picked apart and divided and categorized according to someone else’s criteria, I think about it, and then I let it go. Because when everything is changing so quickly, there’s no real way to keep track of who’s opinion counts, as we move forward in time, there’s no way of telling who’s going to “count” as Latino.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella

WALKING IN SEARCH OF CÉSAR CHÁVEZ.

Jorge Chino has watched with both fear and pride over the years as Latinos in this country have risen and fallen with the tide of anti-immigrant sentiment. Recently the author and activist decided that, amidst this most recent round of Latinophobia, there was only one thing he could really do: take a walk. Chino has decided to walk from Delano to Sacramento, mirroring the walk that farmworkers, César Chávez and others, took in the spring of 1966. The 300-mile pilgrimage of 68 people in support of justice for farmworkers has since become the stuff of legend for Chicano artists and writers. For Chino, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the way times have changed: that there are now more people in prison than on farms.

He begins his journey this week and he hopes to be in Sacramento by Cinco de Mayo.

The journey is something he hopes will give him personal insight, but also an experience he hopes to use for his second novel, The Republic of Aztlán, which is about a family that participated in the original march.

“I will try to do this as close as I can to the original march, including sleeping out in a tent or being host by somebody like they did. If someone wants to feed me great, I will take what I can get,” he said. “I expect to return from this experience with a stronger will to dedicate ten years of my life to build a university and, of course, with the enough ideas to finish the novel The Republic of Aztlán.”

In some ways, Chino thinks Latinos are better off today than they were during the time of Chávez; but in others, he wonders, they may not be. On a recent trip to Delano, he wondered where the artists and activists had gone: “There were no plays, no poetry readings, no art gallery receptions. I hope to see what is there on the route to Sacramento. Did La Causa fail to invigorate the rural communities it came from?”

Chino’s experiences as an immigrant from Mexico, as someone who worked on a mushroom farm, a member of the UFW, who knew Chávez when he was organizing with the UFW, helped shape who he is today. He said that, at the time, it felt like everyone was part of the “Latino community struggle for a better society.”

The current immigration debate is a good example of how Latinos in this country have not achieved the great things he once hoped they would. After 9/11, he said, anti-immigrant hysteria brought down a “cold shower” to open our eyes to the true nature of Latinos’ place in this society. During the pro-immigration reform marches in 2006 he remembered seeing people looking down from skyscrapers on the Chicago marchers wide-eyed at the thought that there were so many immigrants. “They looked scared. I knew then a backlash was going to come and sue it did,” he said.

Nowadays, though, Chino is focused on Mexico, and the university he hopes to build there — and his second book, of course. The impetus for his walk in the first place. Reflecting on Chávez, Chino said that, although the iconic organizer was many things to many people, some good and some not so good, he sees the legacy much more simply.

“I see him like someone who saw the injustice it was being committed against the farmworkers and wanted to do something about it,” Chino said.

With any luck, Chino will be in Sacramento by May 5, with enough inspiration to finish a novel and start a university. Whether or not anyone else ever repeats this walk is up to them, but Chino does recommend that people get moving.

“Of course, I recommend people to walk,” he said. “Walking makes you think.”

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

———————–
Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella

THE IMMIGRATION BILL THAT COULDN’T.

The much-hyped immigration reform bill that millions of undocumented immigrants, as well as their families and allies, have been waiting for is expected to be introduced in the Senate this week. And, as disappointing as it will be given that the last time any sort of immigration legislation was in consideration was 2007, it looks like this legislation is not going to make a dent in this immigration conundrum we find ourselves in.

The gist of the bill is that only some of the 11 million people in the country without documentation will gain status, it will take at the very least 13 years to get to citizenship, border security and enforcement is tantamount to any of that happening, and there’s no permanent solution to deal with undocumented immigrants in the future.

As a matter of fact, anyone who came here without authorization after December 31, 2011 will be in danger of being deported.
So, you see, the immigration “reform” isn’t actually reforming much. It’s rather kind of like IRCA Part 2, you remember that bill from 1986 that President Ronald Reagan signed? It took 6 years, but the bill eventually got through, granted people status and beefed up border enforcement, but didn’t provide a permanent solution.

So is the “reform” part of this bill that, in another 27 years, Congress will have to pass another “comprehensive” immigration reform bill to deal with the fact that there hasn’t been a process put into place? And what about the billions of dollars that did, and will, go to defense contractors who work hand-in-hand with the border enforcement agencies?

It would seem that they are the real winners in this reform.

The rest of us, it would seem, will have to be content with watching Congress play chicken for the Latino vote. The Democrats are going to blame Republicans, especially in the House, for being unfriendly to Latinos and damming up the reform. Republicans are going to blame Democrats for being unreasonable and too touchy-feely, when the reality is both sides are having the same conversation: enforcement first, then we can talk about giving a few people status.

We’ll see how the bill plays out, whether it’s changed enough to make an impact for the better — or the worse — but either way it seems the spirit of reform has been lost in the shuffle. Lost somewhere between profits for defense contractors and the points that politicos use to keep score.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella

THE AP’S DITCHING OF “ILLEGAL” SIGNALS A LARGER CHANGE FOR LATINOS.

Last week the Associated Press finally decided to eliminate the word “illegal” from its style guide to describe immigrants (this is important because many major publications use AP style as a guide, thus, the AP’s decision has repercussions throughout U.S. publishing). This week, the long-awaited immigration reform bill is expected to drop in Congress. I’m hoping that both of these events signal good news for Latinos in the U.S., but then again if history is any indication, a healthy amount of skepticism is essential when fighting the good fight.

At the same time the U.S. media is moving away from characterizing immigrants as criminals, the most harsh parts of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 law remain in place, allowing law enforcement to racially profile Latinos and anyone else who looks “reasonably suspicious” in that state at their discretion. At the same time that Congress is, finally, moving to address a problem that has spiraled out of control due to politicos who don’t seem to be living in the same country with the same problems as the rest of us, politicians in Texas are moving to eliminate other points of view from the states’ higher education curriculums.

Can it be that there is more than one United States, and yet, we are living in both of them at the same time?

I’m happy that the AP, and then The New York Times, realized that their decision to use derogatory language when applied almost exclusively to one group in this country was wrong. Congratulations. Moving on from this victory, however, we have to stop and think about what comes next. What comes next for people in Arizona and Texas? What comes next for Latinos in other states where legislatures are filled with politicians who feel the need to create laws explicitly geared towards controlling them?

I always like to fall back on my personal experiences in California, and how they pertain to what’s going on today. I think about how, in the 1990s in California, both politicians and voters decided to go after Latinos in the state. It was Pete Wilson, Ron Unz, Prop 187, Prop 209, it was an anti-Latino fever that possessed the state for a few years after everyone realized Latinos were becoming a force to be reckoned with there. But it passed, and this year, Latinos will surpass whites in the state’s population and the assembly speaker is a Latino representative.

Things can change. But like most things in life, they change slowly and after a lot of hard work. Change at the cultural level requires that everyone does a little. Californians did their part. The AP did their part. People in Arizona are doing their part to change the inequalities they live with there. Texans are doing their part to preserve that state’s diversity in its educational curriculum.

What will you do?

–
Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella

LATINOS, IMMIGRANTS LEAN LEFT: THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR THE GOP?

A report from the Pew Research Center shows that, without a doubt, immigrants and their children (Latino immigrants in particular) are voting for Democrats. These groups also tend to hold values more in line with the Democratic platform, such as being pro choice and supporting big government.

Looking at the data, and thinking about the future of the Republican party, it seems only logical to think that the end is nigh for the GOP. According to the report:

“About six-in-ten (63%) first-generation Hispanics are Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democrats. Second-generation Hispanics even more strongly identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (71%) than the Republican Party (19%).”

Any way you slice it, Latinos are not for the GOP’s ideas and they are not going to vote for them. As the Republican base, white people, shrinks in relation to the growth of Latinos, it’s going to be difficult for the GOP to realistically think about winning any races. And perhaps the most definitive nail in the coffin is that the GOP party leadership is incapable of substantively changing any of its policies or ideologies to adjust to this new reality.

In other words, it appears that the GOP has become its own worst enemy.

While this may open the door for some Democrats to jump for joy, the reality is that the pressure is really on Democrats now to step up to the plate. If Democrats are not going to create policies that Latino voters can get behind, throw their support behind more diverse candidates, and then apply resources to turning out Latino voters, it won’t really make a difference if Latinos have Democratic tendencies because they won’t result in any Democratic votes.

So what we’re really getting from this report is that the U.S. is changing drastically in the next few decades — and both political parties will have to respond accordingly. Everyone is going to be affected by the new American political landscape, and while it seems that Republicans are further behind, if Democrats sit on their laurels for too long, they too may suffer the consequences.

What this report really pointed out is not that Latinos prefer one party over the other, but that the status quo in American politics is set for a transformation, one that is going to literally and figuratively change the face of our political system.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

Note: This blog was previously published on February 10, 2013.

LATINOS, IMMIGRANTS LEAN LEFT: THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR THE GOP?

A report from the Pew Research Center shows that, without a doubt, immigrants and their children (Latino immigrants in particular) are voting for Democrats. These groups also tend to hold values more in line with the Democratic platform, such as being pro choice and supporting big government.

Looking at the data, and thinking about the future of the Republican party, it seems only logical to think that the end is nigh for the GOP. According to the report:

“About six-in-ten (63%) first-generation Hispanics are Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democrats. Second-generation Hispanics even more strongly identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (71%) than the Republican Party (19%).”

Any way you slice it, Latinos are not for the GOP’s ideas and they are not going to vote for them. As the Republican base, white people, shrinks in relation to the growth of Latinos, it’s going to be difficult for the GOP to realistically think about winning any races. And perhaps the most definitive nail in the coffin is that the GOP party leadership is incapable of substantively changing any of its policies or ideologies to adjust to this new reality.

In other words, it appears that the GOP has become its own worst enemy.

While this may open the door for some Democrats to jump for joy, the reality is that the pressure is really on Democrats now to step up to the plate. If Democrats are not going to create policies that Latino voters can get behind, throw their support behind more diverse candidates, and then apply resources to turning out Latino voters, it won’t really make a difference if Latinos have Democratic tendencies because they won’t result in any Democratic votes.

So what we’re really getting from this report is that the U.S. is changing drastically in the next few decades — and both political parties will have to respond accordingly. Everyone is going to be affected by the new American political landscape, and while it seems that Republicans are further behind, if Democrats sit on their laurels for too long, they too may suffer the consequences.

What this report really pointed out is not that Latinos prefer one party over the other, but that the status quo in American politics is set for a transformation, one that is going to literally and figuratively change the face of our political system.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

Note: This blog was previously published on February 10, 2013.

CHICANOS? LA RAZA UNIDA? LATINOS IN TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA ARE FIGHTING THE SAME FIGHT.

Recently I found myself in a room with Chicanos from East LA, Tejanos from the South Texas border, and even a few Tejanos from South Texas who have spent time around Chicanos from East LA. I was in Austin for South by Southwest and attending one of the few Latino-centric events at the festival.

Music from the Chicanos from East LA was playing while Tejanos from South Texas were enjoying themselves with the novelty of it. “Somos Chicanos,” the song went, which kind of made me chuckle to myself. Having grown up in LA with family from South Texas, the jarring context of those words made me laugh for several reasons. One, most people I meet in Texas never use the word “Chicano,” two I don’t think the band members either knew this or would have understood it, and finally the curiosity with which the Tejanos perceived the East LA Chicanos stood out to me but I didn’t think was perceived by most.

All of the commotion made me realize that, oftentimes, the confusion between Texas and California Mexican Americans may be because of a simple error in translation. In several ways, I would say, the Chicano identity which falls flat in Texas is similar to the Raza Unida legacy (or its current iteration) in terms of politics, values and goals.

Essentially, Tejanos are still fighting the same fight that Chicanos in California were fighting years ago.

During the anti-immigrant legislative wave of the 1990s in California, lawmakers and conservative voters in the state targeted Latinos vis a vis immigrants with ditties like Proposition 187 and Proposition 209. I remember these because I was marching in protests in downtown LA against them, holding signs and taking pictures, the whole enchilada.

Later, when I worked as a journalist in Texas I found myself encountering similar sentiments from the powers that be with redistricting fights, voter ID laws and pointed squabbles over educational funding. This couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

To be clear. Today in LA, part of the Chicano identity (at least that I perceive) is pride over the victories in the past, the civil rights movement and educational victories of previous decades. This pride is reflected by a feeling of empowerment, one that comes with having a Latino mayor and a city where being Latino is no longer a liability granted that the extent of all of these things is debatable.

In Texas, I perceive a similar attitude. Activism is about the pursuit of politics and policies that will better serve Latinos in that state. It’s the politics of education, equity, access, class, and more often than not, race. The fights that light up Chicano movement legend(s) in California are still alive and active in Texas. While Chicanos may call themselves activists, most of the Tejanos I know say they are against a particular policy or law, but ultimately they’re having the same conversation.

In my experience, Tejanos and Californianos are wont to tease one another, or make jokes at each others’ expense. There sometimes seems to be a disconnect, perhaps one that is informed by a thousand of miles, but not one informed by drastically different experiences, hopes or dreams. As a Latina who has family in both of these great states, who’s lived and worked across them, and who hopes for great things for all Latinos, my recent visit to Austin seemed like a great gift. A room full of Tejanos jamming out to music from East LA and everyone seemingly forgetting about all of those miles between them seemed like the start of something good and it maybe not be so new!

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

la vida es dura, pero es bella

HI JUSTICE SCALIA. I’M A LATINA AND I LIKE BEING ABLE TO VOTE.

In the same week that I cast my ballot for Los Angeles mayor for the first time, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia sat on the highest court in the land and characterized the protections afforded to people like me so that I would be able to cast that ballot as “entitlements.” His comments came during a hearing about whether Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (which requires “preclearance” of changes to voting rules in states with a history of discrimination to clear the Justice Department first) will stand, or be struck down.

I’m certainly not of the mind that voting is an entitlement, I’m rather sure I remember that explicitly being a right — something guaranteed to citizens of the oft cited “free country” in which we live. And being a woman, being the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, I recognize the importance of being able to vote, for the fact that less than 100 years ago I wouldn’t legally be able to do it.

I’m not exactly sure why Justice Scalia is attempting to legislate from the bench on this particular issue, why he explained away the fact that the legislation was enthusiastically re-authorized in 2006 by Congress by saying that an overwhelmingly white male body was somehow intimidated by minorities into voting on its behalf for the legislation.

It seems that he is following the lead of 33 states that passed voter ID laws as of 2012, with sights set on the poor and minority voters (who often tend to vote Democrat). It seems that, unlike me, Justice Scalia has forgotten that there are people living in our country today who were never allowed to vote, that there were billboards and phone calls across the country attempting to thwart minority voters with disinformation, that the Voting Rights Act exists for a reason.

I wonder sometimes the kind of life that Justice Scalia has led that allows him to feel so strongly in the right. He seems to have the kind of attitude one develops from a position of power — from a place where no one ever tells you “no” — and if they do, you are in a position to override them. This might explain why it was the female justices — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — who bore down so hard on those trying to dismantle the VRA. Unless you are born in this country with white male privilege, you very clearly recognize the limits placed on your power.

The Voting Rights Act does not exist for someone like Justice Scalia, plainly, this is why he feels no remorse in working to destroy it.

The chatter about the Supreme Court’s decision in this case largely points to the inevitable loss of Section 5. The court will strike down Section 5 and the United States will hop scotch back 50 years in a matter of seconds. The 33 states that pushed voter ID laws through won’t have to try so hard anymore. The gerrymandering in Texas and other states won’t have to be so well hidden. Politicians vested in keeping Latinos and other minorities right where they are won’t have to do as many summersaults to avoid looking guilty.

And me? What about me? I’m a Latina who actually really likes to vote, one who also enjoys working to get other people to vote, who believes wholeheartedly in the necessity of the VRA not because I had a bad experience while trying to vote — but because I can vote in the first place. So where do I sit in all of this, powerless to stop the Supreme Court from overturning this law?

I’ve decided that there’s only one thing I can do: make like women suffragists and civil rights heroes and do whatever I can.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

WHITE PRIVILEGE IS REAL, AND POWERFUL, BUT NOT UNBREAKABLE.

To say we live in a white world is something of an understatement. What I mean specifically is that, no matter what you call your profession, it’s likely the people at the top are white — and even more likely that they are men. It doesn’t matter what profession you are in, where you live, or how hard you work, the truth is that in this country you will always be affected by the expectations and power of white men.

But recently I found myself face-to-face with a white man who taught me that white privilege is not as solid as I thought it was, that it can also be fragile; you just have to look at it from the right angle.

Clad in 14-ounce boxing gloves, going toe-to-toe with a 6-foot-plus white dude who has a few muay thai fights under his belt I began to see his white privilege waiver. I am a martial arts enthusiast, and have been practicing since 2005. What I didn’t expect on this occasion was that this particular round of sparring would help me to sort out what it is, exactly, about white privilege thrusts white men towards keeping as much for themselves as possible.

In the first round I was feeling him out, trying to see what he would bring. Men usually feel uncomfortable about sparring with women — they can’t get over the idea that women are inherently weaker than they, and so purposely “hold back” in order to not hurt you. Granted, men are usually physically stronger than me — but that doesn’t mean they are more talented or better fighters. Plus, coaches in any good gym are not setting their students up for a beating, sparring is pointless unless those doing the work are more or less evenly matched.

As our sparring progressed, however, not only did I repeatedly beat the crap out of this young man, but he was sweaty and winded as I was jumping in place between rounds so I didn’t get too cold. Additionally, the more rounds we sparred, the more he began explaining away his inability to beat me to his fellow male fighters in the gym.

“Wow, she’s pretty good.”

“I didn’t expect her to put up such a good fight.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

Pant, pant, pant, “Man, I’m tired, I haven’t been in the gym in a while…”

By the fourth round, it became apparent to me that not only was this man physically exhausted, but he was emotionally and mentally exhausted by what he perceived to be his utter emasculation in front of all his “bros” at the gym by a woman in a sport in which he perceived himself to be a bad ass. When I looked into his eyes as we readied for the next round, I took pity on him, and told him that we could stop there, but that I would be around all week if he wanted to spar again. He was all too happy to “take a break.”

Since, I’ve learned a few interesting things.

One, the same man who was always trying to make flirtatious passes at me before we sparred, now did not so much as look in my general direction the next time I saw him. Secondly, when I looked in his eyes after that last round, I found the answer to why white men fight so hard to keep hold of all of that privilege, no matter the detriment to their long-term happiness, success or comfort: he was scared of me.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think he was scared of me because I hurt him — on the contrary, I wasn’t hitting him very hard. But, during those 20 precious minutes that we were sparring, I took something from him that no one had ever taken before: his power. In front of all the men he came to associate with power, all of whom are shorter than him and not white, I showed myself to be more powerful he. I do not think he knew how to deal with that feeling of powerlessness.

Although there’s a part of me that feels sorry for white men in our society — they have higher rates of heart disease, suicide, hypertension and all kinds of other ills for the amount of pressure and stress it takes to stay on top — there are many other parts of me that do not. When you make the choice to keep everything to yourself so that other people cannot, and will not, have it, you pay the price. When I looked into the eyes of this young man, he had gotten one of the first tastes of what it feels like to be beaten by someone else and he didn’t like it. I don’t think he was looking forward to repeating the experience.

The rest of us, however, know this feeling all too well. We know what it’s like to be tossed aside for no reason, to be dismissed, mistreated, looked down upon, looked over, and downtrodden, oftentimes for no other reason than our name, our face, our story, our gender. It was, I will admit, a bit empowering to see how truly fragile this erstwhile powerful white man could be.

The only consolation I took away from my encounter with the broken face of white privilege was a very important boxing lesson one of my coaches taught me once. “Don’t look at the guy’s eyes,” he told me, very seriously, as though he were passing on a family secret. “You need to look below his eyes, keep your eyes on his shoulders, because then you will be able to predict his every move.”

Not only because I love martial arts, but because after over a decade working in media for white male-dominated institutions, I get that trying to go head-to-head with people is a losing battle and I see the value in this knowledge. You have to be smarter about it, otherwise you will lose before you begin, discounted as being extreme or crazy or racist or undeserving or ignorant before you even get to showcase your talents.

Just like I saw with this young man, white privilege is not impervious, it’s not forever, and it’s beginning to crack — you only have to think about how every politico is jumping on the good ship immigration reform to see that! But while it lasts, I feel strong in the knowledge that it’s not an impossible foe, and that by keeping my eyes just below my target, I have an advantage when it’s time to get in the ring.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

WOULD ONLINE VOTER REGISTRATION INCREASE THE LATINO VOTE?

A question that burns on every politico’s mind these days is how to engage more Latinos in the electoral process. Although we are 17% of the population, we were just 10% of the vote in the last election. What’s more, although 24 million Latinos are eligible to vote, only about half do so. Upping the ante even more is the fact that 50,000 Latinos turn 18 every month.

While there may not be a silver bullet solution, at least one tactic has shown some promise with young (read: Latino) potential voters: online voter registration.

In this last cycle, there were 13 states with online voter registration systems, according to a report, including: Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington. Several of these states saw historic increases in voter registration as a result.

●  Colorado saw a historic increase in voter turnout and 400,000 new registered Colorado voters (of course a marijuana initiative was also on the ballot and the state had invested in voter education).

● In Nevada online registrations peaked at 4,800 a day.

● More than 1 million people used California’s online voter registration system to sign up for the election last year.

● 17,000 new registrants used South Carolina’s registration system within five days.

● Maryland’s system saw 8,000 new registrants in just over two months.

● New York’s system saw 9,500 new registrants in a few months, with 14,000 who updated their information.

Latinos are younger than whites generally: the median age of whites is 41, compared to 27 for Latinos. In California, the state with the largest Latino population, younger people are the ones who tend to take advantage of online voter registration. And, given the fact that in California Latinos are set to outnumber whites this summer, if young voters continue to take advantage of online registration it could result in an increase in Latino registered voters.

Add to this the fact that Latinos overindex on most social media sites and have a higher smartphone adoption rate than whites, and it would seem that online voter registration is as close to a silver bullet to Latino voter registration as we can get.

If states like Texas and Florida were to follow in California’s footsteps, both states where Latinos are a big portion of the younger population, the resulting online voter registrants could be significant. If politicians, governments and other organizations got behind online voter systems, the resulting registrations could be significant for both Republicans and Democrats. If Latinos not only registered to vote online, but then actually went out and voted, their vote could be at least twice as potent.

There are many “ifs” involved. Yet, given the data, it would be an exciting possibility to explore the expansion of online voter registration programs, not only in the Southwest where Latinos are concentrated and have taken advantage of the system, but in the rest of the country as well.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

3 THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT OBAMA & THE SENATE’S PROPOSED IMMIGRATION REFORM. 

President Barack Obama made a big show of outlining the principles of immigration reform Tuesday (you can read them here), just a day after eight of his Senate colleagues did the exact same thing (read those here). Both were essentially press conferences where politicians got to make speeches, seemingly their favorite activity, about the “foundation” of what immigration reform should look like.

Of course there is yet no bill, and based on these “principles,” the bill is going to be very similar to what we’ve seen before: enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, with some backdoor ways for some immigrants to gain legal status.

The unfortunate truth, though, is that the meat of these principles is pretty slim and the bulk of this show seems to be more about “ratings” than actual legislation. However, because it’s such a big topic, I wanted to boil it down to three things we should think about.

1.) It’s not really immigration “reform.”

No one has said anything about fundamentally changing the way our immigration system works. These are all small fixes that attend to one immediate]need or another, but do not address long term issues of immigration in the next 20 or 30 years. We’re not really taking a broad look at how the whole system operates.

2.) Where’s the money to process all these changes?

We know that any immigration process requires paperwork. But have you seen where the president or his Senate colleagues propose more funding so that the processing of this paperwork is attended to bureaucratically?

Me neither.

I see lots of attention giving to enforcement-type issues, making immigrants pay taxes (who’s going to monitor that?), making immigrants learn English (who’s going to run those tests?), doing biometric data and background checks (who’s going to process that?). But have you seen more funding for more government personnel to process all of those things?

It can take up to 115 years to migrate “legally” in this country, so when we send all those people to the “back of the line,” who’s going to be pushing paper so they can become “legal” with this new system? Or, how’s bureaucracy going to work without bureaucrats?

3.) What, exactly, is a “secure border”?

Enforcement, secure borders, safe communities, drug war, what does all of this mean? Let’s get specific: when, exactly, will the border be “secure?” Immigration has already hit net zero and the border is more secure than it’s been in a while. Is a “secure” border one when there are zero drugs being used in this country? Or when zero guns are crossing into Mexico to kill Mexican citizens? Or how about when the companies benefiting from the border industrial complex (um, like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon — need I go on?) have their fill of those sweet, sweet government contracts?

Not likely, at this rate those defense contractors are more likely to say they are rich enough by the time Jan Brewer and her fellow Southwestern governors coalition are ready to indulge in immigration reform (per the Senate’s plan).

I’m not trying to be a downer, but, part of partaking of this democracy is critiquing it, and I for one am not really impressed with our leaders right now.

And that critique leaves a lot of questions unanswered: Did the president or the Senators talk to immigrants and immigrants’ rights’ groups before unveiling these plans? Is there going to be a moratorium on deportations until they figure this out? Will they ever define “secure” or “enforcement”? How long will the president wait for Congress to introduce legislation before bringing forward his own bill?

But, most importantly of all, when will all of these political players stop using immigration as a political device? When will they finally realize that it’s a real issue that affects every one of us, and that for everyone else, this is not a game?

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

DEMOCRATS, OBAMA ARE LYING ABOUT IMMIGRATION REFORM

Immigration reform is not going to happen in 2013, and if it does happen in 2014 before mid-term elections where the issue is being used as a political football and wedge issue by Republicans, it will be quite remarkable. This, according to immigration experts I’ve been talking to lately for my reporting work, is the best that we can expect from our representatives.

The Democrats are going to propose immigration legislation to fulfill campaign promises, some of which President Barack Obama made as far back as 2007 or 2008, and it will probably pass the Senate. But the legislation is unlikely to get thru the House still high on Tea Party fumes. So the whole exercise ends up being a dog and pony show, albeit one meant to show how Democrats are powerless against the meanie and hateful GOP.

I’d like to take a step back, though, and remember the last time we were in this position.

It was 2010 and I was in my pajamas, watching C-Span on my computer, as the Senate was voting to vote on the DREAM Act — but they came up short. Five votes short, to be precise, just the number of Democratic Senators who voted against bringing up the DREAM Act for a vote.

A total of 55 Senators voted “yes” that December day: three of them were Republicans and two of them were independents. Of course the overwhelming majority of the “no” votes were Republicans and 50 of the “yes” votes were Democrats. So it’s not totally fair to say that the five Democratic senators who voted “no” cost the DREAM Act that day — is it?

Democrats were still able to make bad guys out of Republicans, while the GOP has been able to bring up their “alternative” DREAM Act plans and play into the political theater. The whole vote, the massive push of phone calls that lead up to that vote, and all of the president’s promises at the time, the DREAMers who were being arrested for sitting in politicos’ offices — all of that lead up to a moment when the votes of five Democratic senators could have made a difference. The sad thing is, people who knew how to look behind the curtain of the political theater knew that the Senate wasn’t going to be able to vote on the DREAM Act. It was all a public ruse.

So I can’t help but feel that we’ve been here before. President Obama and the Democrats shaking their fingers at the contrarian Republicans, GOP Senators promising to bring something bigger and better along, the 2014 mid-terms looming, with both parties anxious to scoop up each others’ seats.

Are we going to get immigration reform in 2013? When it comes to taking a politician’s word for it, or believing what the third-party expert has to say about it, I’m going to have to go with the expert. I don’t think we’ll see immigration reform until after the 2014 midterms, but I certainly hope we see something happen before President Obama leaves office.

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

WHERE ARE THE LATINO BLOGGERS?

I live on the Internet, so, sometimes my perspective on things can be a bit warped. How some people have managed to avoid Facebook and Twitter escapes me, for example, but then again not everyone works in the media industry. But, being that I do occupy the digital space so often, there’s a very stark and obvious problem that I frequently encounter: just like real life, Latinos are not as populous online.

Let me define what I mean a bit more. Latinos tend to overindex on social media sites, which is to say, the ratio of Latino users is higher on social networks (oftentimes) than it is in the U.S. But when it comes to producing content for the Internet, such as blogs or YouTube channels or popular Twitter feeds, Latinos are just as sparse online as they are in real life.

So where are all the Latino bloggers and vloggers?

I suppose the answer has a lot to do with the reason there are smaller numbers of Latinos in higher education and professional jobs. If you want to push content, you need to have good and relevant content, and that requires — to a certain degree — education. At the same time, though, one of the cool things about the Internet is that anyone can use the tools available there to create knowledge and content for free.

So why aren’t Latinos doing so?

I wish I had the answer. As someone who has started, run, marketed, shared, written, vlogged and generally grown up online, I don’t understand why I don’t see more folks of my own persuasion on Twitter and running blogs.

There does seem to be a boom of blogs around family-type blogs, mommy and daddy blogs, but for a twentysomething who enjoys fashion, art, news and politics, I find myself searching for art, fashion, news and political blogs that offer a wide array of content and often finding just the handful I already knew about.

Which is to say, if you’re interested in starting a blog, please let me know — I’d love to help out! Find me on Twitter: @SaraChicaD

Copyright 2013 by Sara Inés Calderón.

5 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR LATINO VOTERS.

Congratulations Latino voters, in 2012 you comprised 10% of the electorate and got the attention of everyone. Some say the biggest indicator of your power was the fact that, just before the election, President Barack Obama created a pathway to status for the hardworking DREAMers and immigration activists who has been working for years to a similar end.

That’s great work — but what do you do now?

You know that living in a Democracy means your work is never done, and besides, you only have a year off before Congress is up for re-election. So here are a few things that you might resolve to do this year to ensure that the Democracy you so powerfully came out for in 2012 is even better in four years.

5.) LEARN ABOUT ONE ISSUE.

You know that whole “immigration reform,” “fiscal cliff,” “Social Security,” “entitlement programs,” all that stuff, it’s a bunch of jargon that, ultimately, affects you and your family. Google it, that’s the big secret.

4.) JOIN AN ORGANIZATION.

Maybe it’s the PTA or the local LULAC chapter, or a union or a political party, but get involved. Once you do, you’ll realize that things are only slightly more complicated than they seem from afar.

3.) GO TO A MEETING.

School board, city council, county commission, water district, all of the things that happen in these meetings impact your life more than who’s president. Did the school board give administrators a raise while cutting student programs? Did the city council fire the police chief? These types of things happen right under your nose, and yes the meetings are boring, but there’s always your cell phone to keep occupied between action items.

2.) REGISTER PEOPLE TO VOTE.

There are few things more admirable and easy than looking for people who have never exercised their voting power and helping them to do so.

1.) TALK ABOUT VOTING.

Tell youngsters set to turn 18, tell older people who may have transportation issues, tell twentysomethings who are busy falling in love, tell parents busy carting their kids around. Tell them about how voting is important, not just for president, but for the people who will be running their school and water district, town, county, state. Tell them how they can affect the quality of their local schools or state tax rate by getting out and voting.

What else can Latino voters do? What did I miss?

Copyright 2012 Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

CREATING THE FUTURE – A TO-DO LIST FOR LATINOS.

Okay, big deal, Latino voters were super important in this year’s election — now what? The important thing to think about when we talk about “Latino voters” is not what they have done, but what they will do; in other words, when I vote I’m thinking about what the world will be like for my children, and their children, and so should you.

Turns out, coming out once every four years isn’t the pinnacle of power in this country. What Latino voters in this country need to do in the next four years is get involved. How do you get “involved”? That’s a good question, luckily, there are many answers. The saying that “all politics is local” turns out to be a truism when we take a closer look at how “the Latino vote” played out in this election. It wasn’t that Latino voters put President Barack Obama over the top in the general election, but rather, that in individual states Latino voters gave the president just enough of an edge to beat Mitt Romney.

Think about that.

It means that Latino voters, even at 10% of the electorate, have enough power to deliver Florida to Obama in the 2012 election. So if Latino voters are that powerful on a national level, how powerful do you think they could be at the local level? Elections are great, an exciting incarnation of the society in which we live, but there’s so much more to being “involved” than voting.

Have you been to your child’s school, or talked to their teacher, or been to a city council or school board meeting? What about the local non-profit you keep hearing about? You could even just learn about how you can register people to vote in your area! There’s a million things you can do in your own neighborhood to make an impact on your community, and as we saw in this election, all of them will count in some way or another.

Think of it this way: this election will affect your younger siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews more than it will you. You are choosing the type of world they will come into by casting your vote for president, so if you are willing to look that far into the future, why not be concerned about next week or next year by becoming involved at a more local level?

If you still can’t figure out a way to get involved, send me a tweet, I’d be more than happy to help you figure it out.

Copyright 21021 by Sara Inés Calderón.

Sara Inés Calderón
sarainescalderon.com
@SaraChicaD
Skype: SaraChicaD

The Latino Vote: Did the Sleeping Dragon awake?

Everywhere you turn these days people are hyperventilating to “the Latino vote” and how pivotal it was during this election. Latino voters accounted for 10% of the electorate during this election, which is no small number, but one of the downsides is the fetishizing of Latinos as a consequences — both in politics and especially in the media.

The truth is, Latino voters as a bloc helped President Barack Obama win Florida, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Virginia and several other states, according to political science professors who study Latino voters. And Latinos voted for President Barack Obama in margins upwards of 70%. So, the facts are that Latinos not only voted for the president, but they voted for Democrats and their agenda, which is to say that both the Democrats and Republicans understand now more than ever the importance of pandering to this group.

What does that mean for us, Latinos who voted and will continue to vote and advocate for our community to vote in greater numbers?

First for me, it means that the media needs to get serious about including Latino professionals and sources in substantive ways. I’ll never forget how, on election night, white men who never touch on Latinos or Latino issues suddenly became experts on how they were voting, why they were voting, and what they were thinking. What’s more, demographers and political wonks who are quoted or appear on these media are also suddenly experts in Latinos.

That needs to change.

Secondly, it means Latinos need to recognize this power and work to develop it within our own communities. Look at what happened with the DREAMers — after years of organizing, President Obama created a policy to make a place for them. What we do, when we do it together, can matter.  If we stop acting like we are powerless or don’t matter, and begin to get involved and ask for things, we can make a difference.

Finally, I think the most important indication from this election is that it’s a sign of the future to come — where Latinos will be 30% of the population by 2050. That’s less than 40 years away, I will still be alive at that time, and so will many Latino voters and so when we cast our vote for the future of this country, we are casting a vote for ourselves and our children. If that doesn’t give you a reason to vote, I don’t know what will.

Copyright 2012 by Sara Inés Calderón.

WHY I VOTE.

As the 2012 election approaches, all this buzz about “the Latino vote” is starting to amp up. I remember a similar buzz about this voting bloc in 2010. In that election the narrative was that Latino voters in Nevada helped keep Harry Reid in his seat, giving Dems an advantage in the Senate, thus we can say definitively that getting Latinos to the polls matters.

So, I wanted to share my personal reasons for voting.

I voted for president the first time that I could in 2004. I remember being sad that I missed the 2000 election and felt proud to be able to contribute to my country with such an important act. Which is why I do not understand why so many people voluntarily give it up.

5.) It’s exciting. While some people get pumped up about sports, I get pumped up about elections. In a way, elections are like a miniature parade of our society, allowing us to see ourselves reflected in our own conceits, what we say we want versus what we actually want. Basketball or football games happen often, but elections don’t, so why not pay attention?

4.) It’s a group activity. I went with a group of friends the first time I went to vote and in the 2008 election I went with a friend to the polls, too. It’s something you can plan together, share, and ultimately remember fondly.

3.) It’s my job. Not to get all jingoistic or anything, but after all of the horrible history in this country, all of the deaths that occurred so that women and non-whites could vote, it’s the least I can do. Part of living in a democratic society means participating, and by making sure I get out to vote every election, it means I’m doing my part.

2.) It’s fun. Again, not to get all dorky, but I think it’s fun to go vote. You get to see everyone else readying to vote, you can go into a little space and make your selections in privacy and when you come out no one knows what happened! Plus you get a sticker!

1.) It makes me feel American. When I vote, I feel like I have a say in what happens in this country — for better or worse — I can take pride in the good things we do (however slowly) and decide to work harder when things go wrong. It makes me feel like I not only belong here, but that I deserve to be here.

In short, voting is awesome — go do it!

Copyright 2012  Sara Inés Calderon. This blog first appeared on Latinopia on July 29, 2012.

Why Speaking Spanglish Is Important To Me.

I find it very difficult in my personal life to complete a conversation without wanting to switch to Spanish, or to English, depending on which language I happen to be speaking at the time. I have run into people either from Latin America or the U.S., who have very strong beliefs that only one language or another should be spoken at any given time to preserve some sort of dignity or formality of the languages themselves. The problem I have with that thought is that it doesn’t really mirror the way that language functions in our daily life.
I feel that the way I use language reflects the way I live my life: in a constant state of transition between worlds. For me, speaking just one language at a time limits how I can express my human experience, censors the manner in which I can share with others the feeling of never fully having footing in either world.
The truth is, although I do speak Spanish with some fluency, I am English dominant. What ends up happening, though, is that when speaking in English I come up against the barriers this language has in for describing culturally relevant emotions and occurrences that I experience— despite my language preference.
So what do you get when you throw a Mexican American woman into an English dominant world that often flusters her cultural expectations for life? An avid Spanglish speaker.
As far as I’m concerned, Spanglish is an art form. You simply do not mix words together willy nilly and then call yourself a Spanglish aficionado. No. It is much more complex than that. There’s always a rhyme or a reason, whether it’s for logical purposes — like the word “chiflado” not existing in English, emotional ones — “mamita” is so much more tender than “babe,” or practical ones — there’s no word for “tamales” in English. Which is to say, if you live a bicultural life, it make sense this would be reflected by the way you use words, or language.
So, despite confusion or the admonishment of language purists, I’m proud to be a Spanglish speaker. I hope that, as time goes on, I continue to explore the worlds of Spanglish and the emotional and experiential journeys it takes me on. But, I would never hope to be fluent in Spanglish — since that would defeat the point.

Copyright 2012 by Sara Inés Calderón. This blog weas previously published on May 25, 2012.

WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY, LATINOS ARE GOING NOWHERE.

I am definitely not the smartest person I know, nor am I the most technologically savvy. And yet, oftentimes it strikes me that in the world of media and technology that is increasingly ruling our lives, Latinos are left on the sidelines. Increasingly technology is going to be a necessity, not simply a chosen field or profession.

For several decades, there have been initiatives and a general movement to help Latinos finish high school, enter undergraduate study, and graduate with bachelor’s degrees. Consequently, thousands and thousands of Latinos now have degrees and have permeated into the professional world. But as we all move forward into the future that will most certainly be ever dependent on technology, if Latinos do not keep up, we will have to see an entirely new movement to push them into technology.

And technology could encompass many different things. Everything from understanding programming languages to taking a chance in a startup to understanding how to leverage social networks to promote your business can count as “technology.” I feel very fortunate to have stumbled across a large network of Latinos active in any and all of these activities online, but they are certainly still in the minority.

It’s a testament to the fact that we need to work towards improving our numbers in technology that Latinos simultaneously over-index on social networks, yet are not readily visible when it comes to creating those types of technologies. What’s more, Latinos have a higher rate of adopting smart phones, tablets, and all types of technologies, but how many Latinos are producing this type of technology?

I rediscover this every time I find myself without Internet connection, we are increasingly useless when we are unplugged. But such is our world. And if Latinos want to create a viable place in this world, they need to engage the technology beyond the role of consumers, and become the creators and the wielders of technology.

But how to begin?

There is certainly more than one way to engage the technology. For some the computer science class in high school or college might be an entry point, for others (like myself) necessity might dictate an understanding of best practices for social media, and then there are those who are creative and might want to apply this creativity in a new and innovative way.

The point is that everyone can have an entrée into technology, we just have to think of it that way. We have to stop thinking about success has been defined by becoming doctors or lawyers, and think about ourselves as entrepreneurs or inventors. You can learn how to write code for free with online classes. You can create a campaign to fund your startup online. You can reach out and find like-minded people to help you work on a project.

There is more than one way, what I’m hoping we can all figure out is to find the will.

This blog was previously published on August 6, 2012.