Latina Women Expand Political Involvement

In an article entitled "Latina Women Expand Political Involvement in the United States" from the U.S Department of State website the author explores the routes that are being taken to encourage latina's to participate in the political process and run for office. It talks about a group called Eleccion Latina that has held many conferences on the topic and helps to encourage women to be an active part of the political process from all angles. One women talks about how she would not want to run for political office but she enjoys the conferences because it helps her gain knowledge to encourage other women she knows to run for office. With her increasing knowledge she is also able to inform many of the people around her including her family and friends. I think that these types of organizations are very valuable because they provide opportunities that might otherwise not be there. They also encourage women to be involved on every level which is also very important. 

Latinos Seek Citizenship in Time for Voting

Latino's in New York City have flied suite against the government because of a mass delay in the processing of their citizenship papers. They are trying to make sure that they will be able to vote in this years election. These immigrants are all legal and have taken the legal steps to get their citizenship. Millions of papers are back logged which will result in millions who may want to vote in this pivotal election. These citizenship papers have been been flied within the last two years and officials are projecting that it will take up to 16 to 18 months for them to process all everyones paperwork. This is blocking a potentially large latino immigrant vote. With latinos becoming a very large group within America, their voting numbers could become very high and more influential then they are now with this continuation of more and more people getting citizenship. I think this is very influential and if the suite goes through can hopefully give them democratic candidate a stronger backing. I'm not sure if this will go through considering that these are bureaucracies they are dealing with and even a simple trip to the post office lasts a lifetime. If these agencies are already so backed up and so I am not sure that they will be able to process all of these peoples papers. Hopefully with some pushing from the government and from interest groups they can make this go through and allow many people who want to participate in politics vote. 

Puerto Rican Governors Woes

On Thursday the Puerto Rican governor was indicted by the U.S for campaign violations. This come at a time of great political interest to Puerto Rico. Not only do they have an election coming up but they also get to vote in the U.S primary in June. With the governor, Anibal Vila supporting commonwealth and Obama. With this corruption being unveiled many people are questioning their government. Hillary Clinton has mentioned statehood so will this scandal cause people to look elsewhere for guidance in their government or will this blow over like it often times does in the U.S? Time will tell along with many other factors in the U.S and Puerto Rico. 

In the NY Times article U.S Issues Indictment of Governor of Puerto Rico we see two sides of the story. There are those in the U.S who have pinpointed his actions while he believes he is innocent and will continue to rule the country without fail. Opposition groups claim this to be an embarrassment for their entire country, which could turn this into some sort of change for the Puerto Rican government and country. 

Puerto Rico and Obama

Recently Puerto Rico's governor Acevedo has publicly come out in support of Barack Obama.  This can have an affect on both mens political careers. Acevedo is highly controversial in Puerto Rico because of a number of scandals and is facing major criticism. His support for Obama could hurt his campaign because of the baggage that Acevedo carries within Puerto Rico. However if Obama is elected Acevedo can look to him for help if he does get into trouble. Puerto Rico does not vote in the general election but they do in the primary. And with this primary being as close as it is, every delegate those running can get matters, and with 63 delegates in Puerto Rico both candidates are going to try harder this campaigning season more then others. This is an unusual year for Puerto Rico but an exciting one. 

Mothers of East L.A and the Importance of Grassroots Organizations

The Mothers of East L.A are a perfect example of how successful organizations can be on a grassroots level. This organization zeroed in on an important issue (the building of a prison) and brought together women who usually were not involved in the political process to fight injustices within their community. In Fluid Borders the author refers to their success in not only fighting one injustice but many, she discusses how their approach to working with the community creates their continued success. The author refers to how Saul Alinksy's model of organizing is how Mothers of East L.A became so effective in their community, this tactic of taking what was most important to the community was what made the grassroots way an important one for East L.A. In Mary Prado's Mexican American Women Activists she talks about how women's groups are great at social activism on this level because of their familiarity of with the personal and daily lives of those they are working for. She also goes on to talk about how this allows the women to become more involved in electoral politics. As the author of Fluid Borders points out, it is very important for women and others in communities such as East L.A to get involved in these such politics and grassroots organizations such as the Mothers of East L.A are a perfect example of how this can happen and work. 

East L.A and Immigration

In discussing our present book Fluid Borders I thought the notion of East L.A as an Immigrant starting off point was interesting. I grew up in Santa Ana, CA about 35 minutes away from there. Although it was not East L.A it had a very large Latino and Immigrant population so I was not aware of the importance and successes of East L.A as a resource to Immigrants coming to America. It is impressive that it is the second largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico City and even more impressive are the programs it offers to its community members. It is also a place where many important things in the Chicano Movement happen such as the student walkouts in the late 1960's. Other strong leaders were born out of East L.A and it has provided the Latino community with many of its strong leaders and causes. But the demographics of East L.A are changing. For so long it has been a starting ground for many illegal immigrants but that is not the case so much any more. In an article from The Economist called Escape from L.A the author talks about the migration of illegal immigrants out of East L.A and to many other places throughout California and the United States. With this spread of immigration throughout the United States it become increasingly important for Latino groups to have programs such as the ones set up within East L.A because their migration is likely to be greeted with some opposition. It is important for their rights to be protected and for programs to be set up to help them. 

Works Cited

Immigrants in Politics

Although our text (Fluid Borders) talks about how money and education are key to participation in politics, this is not always the case. A lot of times this is how things work out because if someone is having to work a great deal they are not going to have the time to educate themselves about political issues going on. Although when political issues begin to affect this population they are forced into addressing it. In the case of migrant workers their organization into a political fraction to fight off problems has become very important. They a got a once forgotten group to become recognized and begin to get rights and ultimately begin to bridge the gap between being immigrants and being active americans. In the article Mexican Migrant Civil and Political Participation in the U.S: The Case of Hometown Associations in Los Angeles and Chicago they talk about how grassroots organizations like migrant workers unions and associations have helped strengthen immigrant communities to give them a sense of their own power and to help unite people who are not usually recognized. Although immigrants in politics are not always prevalent, smaller local institutions are and they are getting stronger.