https://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/labor-veteran-dolores-huerta-on-whats-at-stake-in-the-2016-elections/
Ally Boguhn, Rewire
Since the founding along with Cesar Chaves and others of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, through her current work in supporting union democracy, civic engagement and empowerment of women and youth in disadvantaged communities, Huerta's influence has been profound. The creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing in the Southwest and contributed significantly to the growth of Latino politics in the U.S. .
Republican nominee Donald Trump launched his campaign for president in June 2015 with a speech notoriously claiming [1] Mexican immigrants to the United States "are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists."
Since then, both Trump's campaign [2] and the Republican Party at large have continued to rely upon anti-immigrant [3] and anti-Latino rhetoric to drum up support. Take for example, this year's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio—whose department came under fire [4] earlier this year for racially profiling Latinos—was invited to take the stage to push [5] Trump's proposed 2,000-mile border wall. Arpaio told the Arizona Republic that Trump's campaign had worked with the sheriff to finalize his speech.
This June, just a day shy of the anniversary of Trump's entrance into the presidential race, People for the American Way and CASA in Action hosted an event highlighting what they deemed to be the presumptive Republican nominee's "Year of Hate."
Among the advocates speaking at the event was legendary civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who worked alongside [6] César Chávez in the farm workers' movement. Speaking by phone the next day with Rewire, Huerta—who has endorsed [7] Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton—detailed the importance of Latinos getting involved in the 2016 election, and what she sees as being at stake for the community.
The Trump campaign is "promoting a culture of violence," Huerta told Rewire, adding that it "is not just limited to the rallies," which have sometimes ended in violent incidents [8], "but when he is attacking Mexicans, and gays, and women, and making fun of disabled people."
Huerta didn't just see this kind of rhetoric as harmful to Latinos. When asked about its effect on the country at large, she suggested it affected not only those who already held racist beliefs, but also people living in the communities of color those people may then target. "For those people who are already racist, it sort of reinforces their racism," she said. "I think people have their own frustrations in their lives and they take it out on immigrants, they take it out on women. And I think that it really endangers so many people of color."
The inflammatory rhetoric toward people of color by presidential candidates has led [9] to "an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom," according to an April report [10] by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The organization's analysis of the impact of the 2016 presidential election on classrooms across the country found "an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail." Though the SPLC did not name Trump in its questions, its survey of about 2,000 K-12 educators elicited up more than 1,000 comments about the Republican nominee, compared to less than 200 comments mentioning other presidential candidates still in the race at that time.
But the 2016 election presents an opportunity for those affected by that violent rhetoric to make their voices heard, said Huerta. "The Latino vote is going to be the decisive vote in terms of who is going to be elected the president of the United States," she continued, later noting that "we've actually seen a resurgence right now of Latinos registering to vote and Latinos becoming citizens."
Read the entire piece on ReWire. https://rewire.news/article/2016/08/16/latino-votes-suppress-dolores-huerta/
See Huerta's Speech to the Democratic National Committee.
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