Redistricting, Latinos To Forever Change California

Redistricting is a super important issue that’s going to largely determine the future of our country in the next decade and beyond. We wrote earlier this week about how Latino voting power in Nebraska was being diminished, and last week we took a look at redistricting as it will affect the rest of the country. California, being the most populous state and among the states with the highest number of Latinos, is no exception.

Latinos and advocacy groups in that state are doing their part to ensure that Latinos — now 37.6% of the population in that state, a 28% change since 2000 — are fairly represented in the redistricting process. Bakersfield.com reports:

Hispanics and Latinos brought the extra political muscle to the Central Valley, their community leaders argue, and so deserve a better chance to elect representatives who understand and support issues important to them.

Lori de Leon of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and Huerta’s daughter, is working with the Greenlining Institute — a national advocacy and leadership group that supports minorities and disadvantaged groups — to ensure Latino voices are heard by the commission next week.

The group has scheduled a workshop for community members Wednesday where they will draw maps and talk about how to protect unique communities from being split by boundary lines or swallowed up in districts with very different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

And to further underscore the importance of this point, we can look at how the Jewish community is trying to build ties with Latinos. Political and other interested parties would do well to begin building bridges with the Latino community, be it through business or politics or education, because ultimately and as we’ve said many times here at News Taco, what happens in the future of the U.S. will largely be determined by what happens with Latinos here. The Jewish Journal reports:

“There are 25 Latino members of U.S. House of Representatives,” AIPAC Press Secretary Jennifer Cannata said, “and if you look ahead five, 10, 20 years into the future, you can expect that those numbers are going to expand.”

“For the Jews, it’s very clear,” Dina Siegel Vann, director of AJC’s Latino and Latin America Institute, said. “We’ve always known that we’re not about numbers. We’ve always been about relationships and coalition-building to advance our agenda.”

California’s redistricting is determined by a non-partisan commission of 14 people, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, that is currently holding hearings across the state to gather information to use to put together the redistricting maps.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo Courtesy U.S. Census Bureau]

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