Transcript 0:00 Hey, it's Julio Ricardo Varela of the Latino Newsletter Podcast. We got a little bit more bonus audio for you. 0:06 So the Latino Newsletter is producing the Latino Election Project series with New England Public Media out of Western Massachusetts. 0:13 And what you're about to hear is story three in the series, which focuses on young, newly registered Latino voters. And we asked them, "Are you voting or not in this election?" 0:25 So here is the broadcast story that the Latino Newsletter produced with one of the high school student journalists. Enjoy. So here I am in the NEPM studio with Latino Election Project student producer, Ian Berger. 0:38 Hey, Julio. Today, we're looking at how issues of representation and low turnout have impacted political representation, but the picture can't be all bleak. 0:49 I say the last decade, the possibilities, 'cause I have to use the word possibilities instead of saying people probably tried in the past, was very difficult to be, probably be, um, voted in. It could be more of a... 1:03 people being educated about the reason why you should vote for someone, and Latinos are getting into political positions more than ever. 1:12 That's Gladys Lebrón Martínez, a political veteran and community leader who is a Holyoke School Committee member and former city councilor. So there are possibilities. 1:23 Latinos in Hampden County account for 27% of the entire population, and that's a 25% increase from 2010 to 2020, according to Pew Research. 1:36 Latinos are the second-largest group behind those who identify as white non-Latino in the county. 1:42 And in cities like Holyoke, Springfield, and Chicopee, which have significant Latino populations, those cities have some of the lowest voter turnout rates in Massachusetts. 1:53 Ian, you found that even with these growing demographics, there are still obstacles for Latinos voting in Western Massachusetts. 2:00 First, you have to understand the problem, which is what Holyoke Mayor Joshua García told me when I asked him about these challenges. It's difficult. 2:08 It's an uphill battle, but when Latinos, in particular, get into positions of power and people get elected who they trust, that's when you're gonna start seeing little by little more turnout. 2:19 Ian, what's one thing that might be seen as a problem or an obstacle? We spoke with Chloe Soto, a top aide to the mayor of Chicopee. 2:27 She says that part of the issue is educational inequality, because so much local school funding comes from property taxes. 2:34 We see that usually urban schools, Black and brown schools, get less funding, get less programming, right? While private schools and schools that are usually in suburban areas get a better standard of learning. 2:46 We have lower income class people who don't think that their vote is important because they don't know enough of how important it actually is. 2:54 So I, I think on the local level, we continue to fail when it comes to impoverished areas, poor areas. How do we inspire these kids to want to get into government? There's also the issue of language and culture. 3:08 Here's Mayor García again. If you don't speak the language, they don't get it. 3:12 If a voter is much older, doesn't speak any English whatsoever, fresh here from the island of Puerto Rico or from whatever country, really, everything we do is in both English and Spanish. 3:25 And there is an effort, and it's closing the gap. The gap exists in other ways, too, like transportation. 3:30 It can be that people are dealing with certain disparities in their household where they don't even care or have time to wanna vote, right? It's like they're not thinking about that. They don't care about it. 3:40 They just... Like, my father doesn't care about... He's never voted in his life, and he just says, "I don't plan to. Nobody there represents me." That's just how he feels, right? No matter how much I tell him. 3:50 And I'm hopeful that one day he'll come around. But, like, that's just... We're-- We can be stubborn sometimes on, on that fact. But Ian, like you said before, the picture can't be that bleak, right? No, Julio. 4:04 Sometimes the best way is to just make the effort to vote, which is what Agma Maria Sweeney, president of the Westfield Puerto Rican Association, WEPRA, told me. Sweeney is also a former Westfield city councilor. 4:17 Around 10% of Westfield's population identifies as Latino. I think that the idea that someone else is holding someone else captive in terms of their ability to vote is, is not true. 4:30 I think that voting is at the same time complicated as it is easy, 'cause literally you go to where you live. There's websites, there's the city hall, there's the clerk's office. You register to vote, and then you vote. 4:45 So I don't, I don't know what the challenges are. Sometimes we don't see ourselves represented in the issues, and that's a turnoff, but it's, it's not, like, a roadblock or a locked door. 4:57 It kind of goes back to what Gladys Lebrón Martínez said about the possibilities for more Latino political representation in Western Massachusetts. Sweeney says those possibilities all start with your vote. 5:10 Vote for the candidate that best represents you, your family, and your community. There's truths and there's lies in political propagandas and campaigns. 5:19 Vote, because this is one of the most important elections of the United States. Sweeney says it's important for everyone to go out and vote and be counted. 5:30 For NEPM News and the Latino Newsletter, I'm Julio Ricardo Varela. And I'm Ian Berger.
