Latino Empowerment in the State Capitol

This contribution is written by Diana Lopez, who is a senior at the University of Washington, double-majoring in Law, Society, and Justice plus Spanish.

For five consecutive years, Latinos from all over Washington have come to the state capitol to empower themselves by meeting with lawmakers and other policital leaders, including the governor. In fact, the 5th Annual Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day is taking place in Olympia today!

The annual event is held in order to promote Latino participation in civics and provide info sessions on health, housing, education, farm worker rights and economic development. This year's keynote speaker is Gov. Chris Gregoire and free interpreting is provided during education presentations and legislature visits.

Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day is very important to the community because it reaches out to Latinos and provides them with information that may benefit their daily lives; it is also a way for them to have their voices heard. Community leaders and advocates from all over the state of Washington will be giving presentations on education issues and challanges facing the Washington Latino community. The purpose of this event is to unite the Latino voice in support of issues that affect the Latino community and learn about the legislative process.

The Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization understands the importance of Latinos to attend from all over the state of Washington, therefore, have sponsored two chartered busses to provide transportation, one leaving from Pasco and the other from Wenatchee.

"Washington Finally Gets Diverse" in WSU Magazine

In the current online magazine from Washington State University (my alma mater!), Professor Annabel Kirschner from the school's Department of Community and Rural Sociology, shares the latest diversity numbers for Washington State.

As we've always heard, the state's counties really differ, one from another. And King County is the one that skews the rest of the state's figures. And we also learn that the state's increasing diversity overall is illustrated as the white, non-Hispanic population has dropped below 80% for the first time since the mid-19th century.

An excerpt from the site:

In 1980, whites represented 90.2 percent of Washington’s population. By 2008, that percentage had dropped to 76.2. Actual white population over that period actually increased by better than 25 percent. However, over that same period, Washington’s Hispanic population grew by nearly 200 percent.

200 PERCENT GROWTH! Take a read! The complete draft report is also available there for download as a PDF.

Sí, Latinos are spending $$

We've been looking into the effects of the current economic downturn on Latinos statewide and Gigi came across this current Yakima Herald article. I like the title (and significance) of it: There's No Stopping the Shopping for Valley Latinos.

Take a read!