Why Latinas should vote

A message from LatinaVoz founder, Lorraine Quintanar
October 6, 2006

When no one heard your silence in 2000 and 2004,
TheLatinaVoz.com did.

The inspiration for our online magazine began in the
summer of 2004, when an article appeared in a woman’s
magazine reporting 22 million American women had not
voted in the 2000 presidential election.

Shortly after the WOW factor wore off, we wondered how
many of the women who did not vote were Latinas. After
many weeks of searching the Internet, researching
articles and reviewing studies on civic participation,
we were no closer to an answer. However, what we did
discover disturbed us deeply. Latina news coverage was
scarce, trivial and it seemed mainstream media had
decided immigration was our only issue.

As women, we know our issues are far-reaching, and as
Latinas we know our issues go beyond immigration. Over
the past year, TheLatinaVoz.com has written about and
uncovered many of the issues and challenges facing our
families and communities today.

We’ve learned the struggle many Latinas face in
finding affordable health insurance. We’ve learned
that more than one-third of Latinas (37%) are
uninsured. We learned there is a growing health
epidemic among Latino youths--Latino children are now
disproportionately obese when compared to non- Latino
youths.

We learned that, some 30 years after the feminist
revolution calling for the end of gender
discrimination, women are still paid considerably less
then men. And we learned Latinas fare much worse,
earning only 55 cents to a man's dollar.

Access to quality education is more elusive: Latino
high school dropout rates remain high, and our college
participation low.

Our constitutional right to our reproductive rights
continues to be challenged, and the lack of access to
safe birth-control options is placing many young
women--especially Latinas--at risk.

Sadly, we’ve also learned when it comes to going to
the polls, Latinos are among the most apathetic voters
in the U.S., voting at significantly lower levels than
their white and black counterparts.

Was 2000 a mirror for 2004? Unfortunately, yes. Civic
participation among women in the 2004 presidential
election wasn’t much better than in the 2000
presidential election. Although, like the 22 million
in 2000, the number remains unconfirmed, it is
believed that some 20 million American women again
elected not to vote two years ago.

Minimal time to research issues and candidates is the
number one reason women say they don’t vote, according
to a national survey conducted by Greenberg,
Quinlan, Rosner (GQR) Research. Most women we know are
multi-taskers; they operate their daily lives in warp
speed constantly responding to work and life
pressures. As women, we get it when we hear our
sisters our moms and our friends say, “I’m tired.”

Being a woman in America is not easy, and while our
own personal struggles and pressures are real, they
are not unique to the female experience. We know our
own grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters and
aunts faced the same family and work challenges, and
still they’d say hay que luchar for a better life for
ourselves and our children.

We know throughout American history, women fought and
struggled to ensure that future generations of
American women are recognized and treated as equal
citizens afforded with the same opportunities to
pursue liberty, justice and happiness.

Being a woman in America is as much about
responsibility as it is about the pursuit of equality.
We have a responsibility to seek and to promote
practical economic policy for all our citizens. We
have a responsibility to seek and promote better
access to health care and education. We have a
responsibility to seek and promote safe schools and
child-care facilities. We have a responsibility to
seek and promote tighter laws that protect women and
children against violence. We have a responsibility to
seek and promote laws that put an end to gender and
workplace discrimination. We have a responsibility to
elect leaders who will seek and promote tolerance and
equal opportunity to all citizens. We have a
responsibility to the women who came before us--the
women who fought for not only our right to vote, but
our right to be recognized as full citizens under the
law.

As Latinas, we have a responsibility to ourselves and
to our families to VOTE. Our political participation
can make a difference today. Make your VOZ heard:
VOTE. Hay que luchar for a better life for us and our
children.

See you at the polls!