By james art A handful of people squeezed into the Las Vegas offices of the Latino advocacy group Make the Road Nevada on Tuesday night to listen to a session on the 2024 election moderated by Radio Ambulante, NPR’s only Spanish-language podcast.
Colored pencils and papers were scattered around the tables to draw on as participants listened to one of the latest episodes of the series on the Latino vote and discussed how these issues relate to their own lives.
“Latinos should vote and decide how we want to be represented,” Etelvina Zamora-Esquivel, a 60-year-old phone banker for the progressive group, said in response to the episode.
For more than an hour, Zamora-Esquivel and the six other participants in the event, moderated by Radio Ambulante head of communities Juan David Naranjo Navarro, expressed wide-ranging complaints about the current state of affairs, from growing xenophobia to the economy and rising housing costs. Although they have expressed displeasure with both parties, they have shown a grudging acceptance of Democrats, saying they are less militant than anti-immigrant GOP candidates like former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to launch a mass deportation campaign if elected.
Another factor that could help better position Latinos politically, they say: getting involved in local politics, from voting to being elected and just generally being informed.
The event was much less formal than Vice President Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall in Las Vegas two weeks ago, which had more than 75 attendees. Organizers for Radio Ambulante — who have hosted similar events in other swing states — said they hoped the smaller event would create a more comfortable and intimate setting for participants to share their thoughts on the contentious election.
“[The listening clubs] are safe spaces, places where we accept differences, accept the diversity and life experiences of others,” Naranjo Navarro told Nevada Independent.
Reluctant acceptance of Democrats
Kenya Morales, 37, has come to favor Democrats, even though she identifies as nonpartisan and has a vocal distrust of the political establishment.
“At the end of the day, I believe that if I have to talk to a Democratic leader, it will help me more than a Republican,” Morales said during the listening panel.
Like other Nevadans, the pandemic has taken an especially heavy economic toll on Morales. Her husband and brother lost their jobs. Meanwhile, her father’s photography business collapses, leading to foreclosure on his house, leaving Morales—a self-employed political strategist who runs national campaigns—as the family’s sole breadwinner.
“I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to pay all these bills?'” Morales said.
Despite Morales’ economic struggles, she still believes Democrats are the best choice in this election, in part because she believes the Republican Party has espoused anti-immigrant beliefs — to the point where she feels physically unsafe. However, she cautioned others to remain politically active to ensure that elected representatives remain attuned to the needs of the community.
Morales is not the only Latino from Nevada who is disheartened by the political establishment. Although the group includes about 20 percent of registered voters in Nevada, nearly half identify as nonpartisan, according to an analysis by the NALEO Education Fund, a Latino political group.
Although Harris currently outperforms Trump among Latinos, recent polls show she struggles to consolidate the same amount of support that President Joe Biden did with the group in 2020. To win Nevada, increasing her support from the group could be key.
More Latinos are needed in politics
Yajaira Rimendez, a 34-year-old telephone banker, began to resent nature’s political leaders, who she said “do nothing to help Latinos.” After being diagnosed with cancer, Rimendez was briefly out of work and even homeless, and says she was only able to get back on her feet with the help of community organizations like Make the Road.
“That’s why we Latinos are suffering now — because there are no representatives to support us,” Rimendez said.
For Rimendez, who is originally from Puerto Rico, some of the discrimination she experienced felt somewhat twofold. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, she says not a single politician stepped in to help. And despite being from the US territory, she was often told to “go back to her country” – something many others in the listening group reported experiencing.
Although Nevada’s Hispanic population has grown, its level of representation in elected office has lagged. Indy analysis found, despite bright spots like the election of the nation’s first Latino senator, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV.) in 2021, new redistricting boundaries split the Latino population across the state’s four districts, diluting the bloc’s power even more.
But Leo Murrieta, the 38-year-old director of Make the Road Nevada, argues that increasing Latino political representation is not enough. Pointing to the growing number of Latino voters and politicians who support tougher immigration measures, he said the group also needs representatives — regardless of race or ethnicity — who protect the best interests of Latinos.
“We need leadership, but we don’t necessarily need politicians. We need people. We need tables like this with regular people who care about things,” Murrieta said.