Pilar Marrero, a columnist at La Opinion, had an opportunity to speak with the GOP nominee for governor in California, Meg Whitman about her Latino outreach efforts. Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video, but you can view it here.
Right off the bat, Marrero asks Whitman about the boogeyman himself, Pete Wilson, who is the chairman of her campaign and sort of dodges the negative connotation that so many in the Latino community have towards Mr. Wilson and then talks about her Latino coalition that she has had in her campaign.
Whitman also talks about her plan to address illegal immigration, which is pretty much enforcement heavy, and she has rather consistently played the part of being “tough on immigration.” However, when the discussion turns to educating undocumented youth at the post secondary level, Whitman says its probably not ok to have them attending California public universities. Let’s make it clear that California’s AB 540 does not give undocumented students state or federal aid, but what it does do is give these motivated young people an exemption from having to pay nonresident tuition if they have attended high school in the state for three or more years. By the time many of these young adults reach college, the state has already invested in them at the K-12 level. Does it make sense to deny them the opportunity to educate themselves especially when President Obama has signaled that he doesn’t favor mass deportations?
I was able to speak with Lizbeth Mateo, one of the undocumented young adults who graduated from California State University, Northridge, and who is involved in the DREAM Act movement for her reaction to Whitman’s efforts in reaching out to the Latino community, especially in light of her new commercials featuring Latino school children. And Mateo offered this:
“In California, we have AB 540, which has been great for giving college opportunities for undocumented youth. With that policy, if you can afford it, go for it. Meg Whitman is playing politics and trying to get the Latino vote and don’t know how she intends for Latino kids to go become doctors and professionals. Approximately 40% of undocumented youth are from CA and a big majority of those are Latinos. Whitman is trying to get our votes and the sympathy of our community, but it isn’t going to work. We learned a lesson that we cannot trust the words of the politicians. She really hasn’t done anything for the Latino community, and she hasn’t even made the argument that she really cares.”
I sense that Whitman is going to have a hard time reaching the Latino community despite the fancy ads because of the feelings similar to those expressed by Lizbeth Mateo. At a time when Latino school children (both documented and undocumented) are struggling to even get into college, does sending a message that some are unwelcome in the state’s higher education institutions encourage those striving for a better future in the K-12 system in California? Children don’t readily distinguish between those who are documented and those who aren’t, but they are motivated by their peers and those who chose to study and learn as much as they are impacted by negative influences.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Chicano future tense // Jul 4, 2010 at 9:53 am
We could write volumes describing and cataloging the terrible problems we Chicanos face in California.Thank God for the internet,especially the blogosphere,for bringing these truths to light so that we may better analyze,discuss and most importantly propose solutions to very bad problems.
The existing American white power structure- political,economic and social ,although declining and deteriorating,still has incredible power,control and domination over Latino lives.Their vast and almost complete domination of the US economic system,their wealth,power,position and privilege in American society is truly awesome in scope.Point in example-98% of Fortune 1000 corporations are run by white CEO’s.
California is fast becoming a garrison state,fortress like,it is taking on more the appearance of a medieval feudal state,where whites are the overlords and a small percentage of subservient minorities are allowed some relative prosperity by serving the white power structure-carrying out and enforcing their rules and policies upon the vast masses of poor Chicanos,undocumented Mexicanos,black,asian and white people who live on the fringe of survival barely existing and surviving on a day-to-day basis.Chicano servants and petty reformers will be charged with the responsibility of punishing,controlling and opposing Chicano rebels who go dare to organize and unify others into moving against the system.
We are entering a period of permanent economic decline and depression.There will be no recovery or going back to the past as many controllers would like us to believe.There is simply not enough jobs and opportunities to raise the boats.Californians are in fact slowly sinking to the bottom torpedoed by corporate globalism,corrupt and voracious corporate theft and government complicity on a scale never before seen in history.
What Chicanos face is more crime,more suffering,more poverty,more prisons,more illnesses…inversely less jobs,less social programs,less education,less health care,less security.
Many of those less impacted and touched by such misery,will just string along Chicanos for generations with tepid,weak harmless reforms.They not being a significant threat to exisiting power relations will be allowed to serve as escape valves and pressure relief mechanisms to channel and diffuse Chicano rage.In this capacity they serve the system.
Those who dare to challenge the system,who suggest turning away from the traditional political paradyne, advocating Chicano self-determination,self,reliance,self-governance and autonomy from the white power structure will be deemed a threat and thereby targeted for cooptation or destruction.That’s the way the real world operates.
Until Chicanos begin looking towards themselves for greater self-determination and control over their own communities and rule they will live in a new American dark ages for generations to come,an underclass comprising vast numbers of hopeless wretched human beings crushed by poverty in a iron clad caste system.
Freedom never comes cheap..on the contrary Freedom demands great sacrifice and pain for those who dare
challenge the system status quo.That’s the way it always has been,is and will be in the future.
2 Anna // Jul 4, 2010 at 11:00 am
I hope Latinos are not stupid enough to vote for this woman. Unfortunately she has millions of dollars to spread her propaganda. People need to volunteer for Jerry Brown to help him get out the vote, especially among Latinos.
Arnold has run this state into the ground and Whitman, who shares Arnold’s views, will continue the destruction. Immigration isn’t the only issue here. It’s education, water, taxes, jobs, etc.
3 kyledeb // Jul 5, 2010 at 7:49 am
Great reporting on Meg Whitman, Adriana, and way to call on Lizbeth Mateo as a source! Love it!
I hope the Latino media is as diligent as you in calling her out!
4 El Cholo // Jul 5, 2010 at 7:04 pm
If you think Arnold is an inept governor, Meg Whitman will make him look like a politicial genius.
5 Leesee // Jul 7, 2010 at 7:13 am
Gave you a shout out yesterday. Will come by more often, it’s a crazy season at work right now.
Keep up the exceptional reporting.
6 Anna // Jul 7, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I agree with this assessment from Calitics:
http://www.calitics.com/diary/12085/jerry-brown-has-some-work-to-do
“With Latino voters, Brown should be doing better than an 11 point lead. Whitman got caught up in an ugly Republican primary that featured a lot of Latino bashing…
Brown needs to ramp up his outreach to Latino voters, whose interests he has championed for over 40 years, and he needs to get working on articulating a clear vision of California’s future that can inspire the younger voters who turned up to elect Obama in 2008 to show up and elect Brown in 2010.”
7 Portal Educativo // Jan 31, 2011 at 8:02 am
Some people do not want to see how important we are and how much we can shape the future of our nation. We are here to stay and to be great, we did not come here to so hard labor jobs, although we are so resilient we can still do them better than anybody else and still go to school and become the new leaders of this country.
What we need is to help each other and fight bad with good.
A group of Hispanics professionals and I created portaleducativo.us a web community where we present all the information on admissions requirements, financial aid, careers, successful Hispanics..etc in an easy to read, ad-free fashion…and best of all in Spanish! so parents and children can sit down together and browse thru the page and make better decisions about their future.
We are inviting professionals, professors, and higher ed staff to join us so we can have discussion forums and e-seminars in important topics.
The main objective is to present the information and provide the support network to prospective Hispanic students and help the enroll and graduate from college.
It is time we all take action and help each other. Let’s show the world what we can do!
Maybe we can even invite Mrs. Whitman herself and she can explain us more about her policies and we can also explain her what she should do instead.
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