It is the beginning of a historic political effort at the state and national level to mobilize the Latino vote, activists say.
On the eve of the California primary elections on March 3, in the so-called Super Tuesday, more than 200 Latino leaders gathered in Riverside to announce their support for the presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders and establish actions that lead to his triumph.
“One of the main agreements was to hold a mass rally on March 1, in the morning, before Super Tuesday, at the Olvera Square to show support for Bernie,” says Juan José Gutiérrez, director of the Rights Coalition Plenary for Immigrants.
“We also committed to activate contacts, social networks and local committees to mobilize the vote through volunteers,” he explains.
In addition, they will connect with Latino organizations, unions, churches, media and other groups to support them to move forward with the candidacy of the Democrat.
“We are going to make a Latin national convention to establish an agenda with the issues we want it to attend when it comes to power,” he says.
“What we want with all this is to wake up, energize and politicize the sleeping brown giant that Latinos are to vote for Bernie; and let's get Trump out, since he is the most dangerous president this country has had for generations, ”says Gutierrez.
For the first time in the country's history, Latinos, totaling 60 million, will constitute the largest racial and ethnic minority in the 2020 presidential elections.
According to the PEW Research Center, Latinos make up 13.3% of the country's eligible voters with 32 million voters compared to 30 million African-American (12.5%) and eligible voters of Asian origin (4.7%). In California, there are 7.9 million eligible Latino voters, which represents 30% of all Latino voters in the US.
Maywood's former mayor, Felipe Aguirre, who participated in the pro-Bernie summit in Riverside, says the senator is the only alternative to a reactionary president.
“Bloomberg wants to buy the presidency, and he would continue with Trump's same trajectory. While Sanders has a clear vision of where we are going, it supports immigrants and refugees, and legalization. He is a mature man, who wants to straighten the ship, make a change and is not sold”, He says.
Armando Navarro, a retired teacher at the University of California at Riverside believes that this pro-Bernie Latino mobilization is the beginning of a historic political effort at the state and national level, with the aim of mobilizing the Latino vote that is fundamental.
“First for Bernie Sanders to win the California primary; second, to ensure the Democratic presidential nomination in July; and third, to defeat Donald Trump in November, a "dictator's apprentice" and an increasingly fascist president who has repeatedly pointed out Mexicans and immigrants, as criminals, rapists and undesirable, "says the professor.
A national Univision survey showed that one in three Latino Democrats registered to vote in the Nevada elections, or 33%, are willing to vote for Bernie Sanders. According to the poll, the Vermont senator has 11 points on former vice president Joe Biden, who appeared in second place in Nevada voter preferences with 22%; Tom Steyer placed third with 12% support.
The professor and historian of Pomona College, Miguel Tinker Salas says that Bernie leads among Latinos because he has solutions for the most important problems they suffer such as immigration, employment, health and education.
"He is a person whose entire life has been dealing with issues that affect the Latino community, and that has inspired Latinos in the quest to create electoral change," he says.
Also see as "phenomenal" that your campaign depends on small donations from the community.
While on the other hand, he says, that among the Democrats there are two millionaire candidates who want to buy the elections, and others that depend on large wealthy groups.
Tinker Salas is sure that between the primary elections of this month and those of March, he or the Democratic candidates will be defined.
“There is a possibility that Bernie is not the candidate because there is a sector that does everything possible so that it does not arrive. In the last election, the Democratic party used a trap to prevent its candidacy. This time in the states where Trump beat Clinton, Bernie can beat Trump. ”
He adds that we are facing an election that is not traditional.
“With all the discussion about global warming. If we do not act, we will be condemned as civilization, ”he observes.
