Hispanic Empowerment is Subject of Arlington Forum

By Omar Tanamly

Empowering Hispanic voters to impact politics at the local, regional and national level was the topic of a special Latino Roundtable organized by Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada at the Arlington Career Center last week. Most of the discourse was in Spanish, with a translator and headphones for those wanting to hear what went on in English.

Tejada, who moderated the meeting, began with a regional update on Arlington’s issues and initiatives, including the Day Laborer Initiative of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG). Then José Páiz, a Community and Housing officer of the Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA), spoke about the importance of Hispanic outreach to supplement the economic aid and basic resources of marginalized citizens. VHDA is a state organization founded in 1972 that has, since its inception, bought, financed, and renovated approximately 140,000 residences for local residents.

Richard Undeland of Voters in Participation, a non-partisan organization that encourages voter registration as a means of direct representation, spoke next. Undeland lamented the low representation of the Hispanic population in the voting process. He urged voter registration in addition to the recent immigration demonstrations. Undeland drew a rousing round of applause when he stressed the immediate necessity of Hispanic representation through the election of politicians like Tejada, who play a pivotal role in civic engagement at a local, state, and national level.

The core event of the assembly, which followed, was a 70 minute immigration discussion featuring guest panelists José Pertierra, an immigration lawyer, and Saul Solórzano, the Executive Director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN).

The panel emphasized the need for a reasonable and inclusive means of dialogue locally, as well as an obligation to find solutions to the problems that plague the wider Hispanic community. Solórzano stressed the vitality of a united effort of all Latinos to be a part of the broader metropolitan community. He noted that of 13,687 Latinos in D.C. of voting age, only 58% are registered, leaving some 5,749 muted Latino voices in the nation’s capital.

With the cooperation of radio, television and periodicals, the empowerment and increased communication and legitimization of Hispanic issues and concerns could be tackled and advanced in an all-encompassing, progressive fashion, he said.

Pertierra spoke of Latinos as a vibrant political force and stressed the importance of direct political action to understand and practice new mechanisms of change and how the solutions can be found. It is only the beginning of the battle, said Pertierra, and there are many avenues for Hispanic residents to exercise their influence.

Addressing the topic of xenophobic and exclusive immigration policies, Pertierra urged the members of the audience to do whatever they could, “…take up the streets, pick up the telephone…” even boycott products of certain companies that unabashedly support harsher immigration policies.

The subsequent question and answer included a report from the Buckingam Youth Brigade. This panel of youths delivered statistics regarding the truths and untruths about immigration rates, undocumented immigrants and even their children, stating for example, that the vast majority of children of Hispanic immigrants develop and maintain an excellent mastery of the English language, dispelling the myth of the adamantly monolingual “alien” that haunts the immigration gambit.

Tejada spoke about select local budget highlights, including Arlington’s recent six cent real estate tax reduction and public safety pay increases, abd the reinforcement of a continual effort to provide affordable housing. Serena Ingre-Martinex spoke briefly about the launching of Cuentos y Más, a radio special Radio Latina (950 AM) consisting of children’s stories from Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, intended for children age four to early adolescents. Patrick Smaldore, a representative of the Arlington Civic Federation, spoke about the ability of empowered citizens to improve their communities by mobilizing and coordinating the resources of government, business, non-profits, faith-based organizations, neighborhood leaders, and the citizens themselves.