[su_box title=”Mi Gente Vota”][su_audio url=”https://eltecolote.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tecolote-Draft-2.mp3″]With the general election coming up, a campaign called Mi Gente Vota has given out over 1300 free posters on voter engagement over the Bay Area. The program, by Galería de La Raza, focuses on using community art programs to engage Latino voters in the election — while also registering eligible voters in person. David Rodriguez documented the program in a radio documentary piece, and clarified a more important aspect in Latino engagement. Listen to the piece on our website.[/su_box]
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Squeegees squeaked as they flooded the photo-emulsion screen with ink. Metal knobs clacked as screens lifted with new images on the paper. A racket full of freshly inked Stonehenge paper sat in the corner of Studio 24. Car engines rumbled at the red light of 24th and Bryant. Echoes of voices filled two 24th street corners, “Have you registered to vote? Have you registered to vote?”
The Galería de La Raza began a new project earlier this month titled Mi Gente Vota, a campaign focused on using community art programs to engage Latino voters in civic engagement — while also registering eligible voters in person.
Since 1970, the Galería has been a space that fosters public awareness and appreciation of Latino art, and it is a space where artists can explore contemporary issues through art. The latest exhibitions have been Reckoning with Hxstory, For The People, and Womxn Are Perfect.
Participants for Mi Gente Vota at Oakland’s First Friday October 7th event successfully gave over 1300 free digital and screen printed posters on voter engagement.
“I’m really proud. I think it’s really amazing for us to step outside of the corner of 24th and Bryant” said Ani Rivera, the Director of the Galería de La Raza, in the middle of Telegraph street. “To be in a community that is so embracing and to be able to bring the art to the people. I think that’s what this campaign is about.”
According to an analysis of Census data by the William C. Velasquez Institute, about 56% of eligible Latino voters in California registered for the last presidential election and 85% of those registered actually voted. But that means 2,800,000 other eligible Latino voters didn’t even register.
“Mi Gente Vota is very captivating and it’s kind of more attractive to people that speak Spanish, you know, and I feel like it kind of gives that familiarity,” said Tony Morales, an intern at E-Base and a student at UC Berkeley, at the Fruitvale Bart demonstration of Mi Gente Vota. He spoke of the importance to relate to a community by using Spanish to attract Latinos at these events. He said, “Having that Hashtag, that phrase, really helps to connect to the community.”
Mi Gente Vota was made to get Latinos involved in political discussions – whether or not they are eligible to vote. So the question is: If Latinos make up 14.99 million of California’s population, why isn’t there as much effort to register eligible Latino voters?
Paula Valle, the national director of communications for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (NALEO), explained how Latinos in states like California, Texas, and New York who have a huge Latino Population, are ignored even with potential Latino political power. The organization facilitates full Latino participation in the American political process, from citizenship to public service.
“So these particular states have a quite large Latino population or a quite large Latino electorate, but there is no investment in those states,” she says, “There is no investment from candidates, no investments from funders to the organizations that would like to do outreach in those states – the reason is that these are not swing states.”
So what does that mean for eligible Latino voters?
“You’re not allowing them” she says, “giving them the education, the information, in order to engage them as voters. You see what we see with voter apathy like: Why does my vote even matter?”
This is something that I’ve heard a couple of times from Latinos during the interventions of Mi Gente Vota. So I contacted other organizations in the Bay Area on their approaches in Latino civic engagement.
Davin Cardenas, the community organizer for the North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP), said that the organization has been focusing on high renter and low voter turn-out areas in Santa Rosa county. The organization focuses on bringing together and informing various unions and groups in Santa Rosa county.
He says that if the organization can build long term relationships with Latinos in these areas, and get them involved and motivated to vote, they can “can actually shift the power dynamic in the city of Santa Rosa.” The NBOP has been sending people in teams to these neighborhoods a few times a week for the past three months to keep in constant contact and listen to the important issues to these community members.
Another group in San Jose works with Latino immigrants throughout the year on organizing. Jeremy Barousse, the Community Organizer from Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN), says that the undocumented immigrants that work with the organization have been “making phone calls and knocking on doors asking people to vote” since they cannot vote themselves.
SIREN provides services on immigration and legal services programs, policy advocacy programs, and community organizing.
These are only a couple of examples of organizations that have been mobile on generating a more involved Latino vote in the Bay Area. Both projects worked in collaboration with the Latino Community Foundation on a get-out-the-vote campaign.
Paula stressed the importance not only in the presidential nomination, but also in local elections because those elected officials directly affect your community.
She says, “While the presidential nomination is important and usually brings out a higher turn out – it is actually the local levels and state representatives that matter more.”
And Ani Rivera of the Galería hopes that the project can continue to remind Latinos of civil engagement through the free art.
Mi Gente Vota’s final demonstration will be on November 5, 2016 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Koret Visitor Education Center at SFMOMA – more information on the project is on galeriadelaraza.org. The general election will be on Nov. 8th, 2016.