El futuro está en tus manos

vota el 6 de noviembre

Dear LULAC Familia and Voters of America,

As I look across our nation, it is clear our moment is here and history is calling us.

• In Dodge City, Kansas, a town infamous from the Wild West for its gunslingers and shootouts, there is lawlessness again. Dodge City is now 60% Latino residents so election officials moved the one and only polling place out of town and are literally telling Hispanics to get out of Dodge to vote.
• In Texas all-time records are being set by early voters turning out in some areas 2-1 Latino Democrats but they are forced to wait in long lines under a hot sun because only a few polling sites are open while others are being closed early before Hispanic workers can leave their jobs.
• And in Georgia, new Latino and African American voters have registered in unprecedented numbers only to see their names ripped illegally from the roles under the pretext they don’t have sufficient identification and election officers are hoping to run out the voting clock.

My friends, none of this new. These are the same dirty tactics and practices of the past again raising their ugly head to scare Latinos and tell us our vote doesn’t matter. Mentira! Never has each and every vote counted more than now. Tu cuentas, yo cuento, todos contamos!

Our fathers, brothers, sons and daughters have served, sacrificed and died in this country’s armed forces so that we can vote. Our leaders have marched, protested, sued and gone to jail for the right to vote. We are ready to stand and fight for the right to vote! It is our nation too and we will not let anyone deny us our voice at the polls. Basta!

When a nation hears code terms about Latino immigrants called rapists, criminals, drug-dealers and gang-members, all our community suffers. When Latino refugee families desperate to flee hunger, violence and certain death are torn apart and turned away at our border, it is you and me people point a finger at and call us invaders, diseased and animals.

Right-wing supremacist politicians and their followers count on fear and anger to stir up their hatred but our answer is peaceful and much more powerful. It is nuestro poder increíble, our incredible power to vote as American citizens in 2018. With resolute hearts and trust in justice for all human beings, we can and must reclaim America.

Recuerda, our beautiful Raza has overcome despite primaries with all-white males, days of poll taxes required to vote and gerrymandering of districts to dilute Latino voting power. We will fight fiercely the illegal new voter ID laws, wrongful purging of voter registration rolls and the unfounded filing of criminal charges against Latino seniors voting by mail, etc.

Let us stand up now against injustice as our grandparents and parents did. They taught us through their example con ganas fuerte de justicia para todos! We must fight back with el golpazo de votos so that all of America hears our gritos por justicia. We will never bow our heads, be neutral in the face of wrong nor keep silent in the presence of discrimination.

I urge you to make sure that every LULAC member takes 10 people to vote, and texts 10 more to go vote porque nuestra Raza nunca se raja! El respeto se gana, respect is earned. Let the crooked politicians know that no matter how much they try to cheat and rig elections, we will not be discouraged, deterred, nor turned away.

History will one day judge each of us in this time in which we are living. What do we do in the face of injustice? Did we meet the challenge or did we cower from it and denied doing anything about what we witnessed? Was our voice raised, our vote cast or did we go silent and become indifferent?

Never forget los valientes, those who fought the police brutality inflicted by the Texas Rangers, those who marched with Cesar Chavez when they knew hired goons with nightsticks were waiting, and those who were called spics, greasers, wetbacks, or told to go back to Puerto Rico or Mexico. They did not back down. Nor must we.

I urgently call upon all of today’s LULAC familia and all our Raza voters to organize and mobilize our gente to vote! The road to the State House, Congress, and the White House goes through our barrios, colonias, y nuestras casas. Nadie llega sin nuestro voto!The hands that pick our food, build our cities, clean our homes, run our trucking systems, unload the ships at our harbors and care for our children — these same hands now hold the power in them through the vote to change America for the next generation. I pray we will do so y que Dios nos ayude y bendiga.

Hasta La Victoria!

Domingo Garcia
LULAC National President

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The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1,000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org.