By Christopher Young, Contributing Writer, Sometimes in life we are confronted with interesting questions. Many times, these questions become opportunities for growth and ultimately, for change. Why does it seem that whatever growth is made […]
HUNTINGTON PARK, California. – Jonathan Flores pasó un sábado soleado de fines de octubre tocando a las puertas de los votantes registrados en esta ciudad de clase trabajadora, predominantemente latina, en el sureste del condado de Los Ángeles.
La mayoría de las personas no estaban en casa o no abrían la puerta. Algunos de los que sí atendieron expresaron fuertes opiniones sobre Joe Biden y Donald Trump, y se interesaron por las iniciativas a favor del aborto y del aire limpio que estarán en la boleta electoral de California el 8 de noviembre.
Un joven rechazó a Flores y dijo que dudaba de que su voto fuera contado.
Al igual que los otros voluntarios enviados ese día por AltaMed, una gran cadena de clínicas comunitarias, Flores tenía puesta una gorra de béisbol negra y una camiseta con las leyendas: “My vote. Mi health”; y, abajo, en español, “Mi voto. Mi salud”.
Su misión era instar a los residentes a votar, incluso si nunca lo habían hecho, para que pudieran estar representados de manera justa en el ayuntamiento, en Sacramento y más allá.
“Siento que he visto comunidades –personas que se parecen a mí, a mis padres–, que luchan mucho”, dijo Flores, de 31 años, cuya madre y padre nacieron en México y ahora viven en el Valle Central. “Entonces, llegar a ellos, al centro de esos problemas, es básicamente lo que me llevó a hacer esto”.
En los últimos años, las instituciones de atención de salud a lo largo de todo Estados Unidos han realizado esfuerzos para promover el voto, inspiradas por la creciente creencia de que votar mejora la salud de las personas y las comunidades.
La American Medical Association respalda esta idea. En esta elección, AltaMed, con un departamento de compromiso cívico activo, se ha enfocado en más de un cuarto de millón de votantes registrados en los condados de Los Ángeles y Orange, la mayoría de ellos en comunidades latinas. Ha ofrecido espacios para votar por adelantado en una docena de clínicas, y planea movilizar voluntarios hasta el día de las elecciones.
“Nuestros problemas a menudo se desencadenan, o se exacerban, por factores de nuestra vida diaria, el aire que respiramos, el lugar donde vivimos, los alimentos que comemos”, dijo Aliya Bhatia, directora ejecutiva de Vot-ER, una organización sin fines de lucro que trabaja con 700 hospitales y clínicas en todo el país, incluido AltaMed, para alentar a los pacientes y al personal a votar. “El trabajo de Vot-ER ayuda a los pacientes a ser parte de un proceso, de avanzar, para dar forma a esas políticas que afectan nuestra salud”.
Votar puede ser un desafío en las comunidades latinas a pesar de su potencial como fuerza electoral. La población latina se ha cuadruplicado en las últimas cuatro décadas y ahora comprende el 19% de la población de los Estados Unidos. En California, los latinos representan más del 39% de la población, superando a los blancos no hispanos, y convirtiéndolos en el grupo étnico o racial más grande del estado.
Sin embargo, la participación electoral entre los latinos continúa a la zaga de otros grupos. Su participación en las elecciones de 2020 estuvo más de 14 puntos porcentuales por debajo de la población total en edad de votar del estado, según datos del Center for Inclusive Democracy de la Escuela de Políticas Públicas Sol Price de la Universidad del Sur de California. […]
HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. — Jonathan Flores spent a sunny Saturday in late October knocking on the doors of registered voters in this predominantly Latino working-class town in southeastern Los Angeles County. Most people weren’t home or didn’t come to the door. Some of those who did expressed strong opinions about Joe Biden and Donald Trump and took an interest in abortion rights and clean-air initiatives on the California ballot for the Nov. 8 election. One young man gave Flores the brush-off, saying he doubted his vote would be counted.
Like the other canvassers sent out that day by AltaMed Health Services Corp., a large chain of community clinics, Flores sported a black baseball cap and a T-shirt emblazoned with “My Vote. My Health.” Underneath, it read the same in Spanish, “Mi Voto. Mi Salud.” His mission was to urge residents to cast their ballots, even if they had never voted, so they could be fairly represented in city hall, Sacramento, and beyond.
“I feel like I’ve seen communities — people who look like me, like my parents — struggle through so much,” said Flores, 31, whose mother and father were born in Mexico and now live in the Central Valley. “So reaching out to them at the core of those issues is basically what got me doing this.”
Health care institutions across the United States have mounted get-out-the-vote efforts in recent years, inspired by a growing belief that voting improves the health of individuals and communities. The American Medical Association has endorsed that idea. AltaMed, with an active civic engagement department, has targeted more than a quarter-million registered voters in Los Angeles and Orange counties this election, most of them in Latino communities. It has offered early voting at a dozen clinics and plans to send canvassers out right up until Election Day.
“Our problems are often triggered — or exacerbated — by factors in our daily lives, whether it’s the air we breathe, where we live, the food we eat,” said Aliya Bhatia, executive director of Vot-ER, a nonprofit organization that works with 700 hospitals and clinics around the U.S., including AltaMed, to encourage patients and staff members to vote. “Vot-ER’s work helps patients be part of a process of going upstream to shape those policies that impact our health.”
Getting out the vote can be challenging in Latino communities despite their potential as an electoral force. The Latino population has quadrupled in the last four decades and now constitutes 19% of the U.S. population. In California, Latinos account for over 39% of the population, exceeding the share of non-Hispanic whites and making them the state’s largest ethnic or racial group.
However, voter participation among Latinos continues to trail other groups. Their turnout in the 2020 election was more than 14 percentage points below that of the state’s eligible voter population, according to data from the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.
Researchers and Latino advocacy groups cite various factors that inhibit Latino voting, including feelings of cultural and linguistic marginalization, a mistrust of government, a disproportionately high poverty rate, and a younger-than-average population. Another key factor, they said, is a lack of outreach by political campaigns and other election organizations.
In a recent poll by the Latino Community Foundation, 71% of California Latino residents said they had not been contacted by a political party, campaign, or other organization this year.
“It makes a difference in whether they are actually going to turn out to vote,” said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy.
In neighboring Los Angeles, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer, has made a strong effort to court Latinos, which could play a decisive role in his race to lead a city where they account for nearly half the population. After trailing by a double-digit margin early on, Caruso has pulled even with his opponent, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, according to a recent poll published by the Southern California News Group.
Notably, 43.7% of Latino voters said they would back Caruso, compared with 29.4% for Bass.
“He is meeting us where we are, at our businesses, where we shop, where we eat. He is telling us he sees us and he hears us,” said Nilza Serrano, president of the Avance Democratic Club, a Latino organization in L.A. County that has drawn scrutiny over its endorsement of Caruso. “I think our community is fed up and a little exhausted from not being heard.” […]
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