Massachusetts Hispanic Voter Registration and Education Coalition
6 Pleasant Street, Suite 513
Malden, MA 02148
Lead Organizer: Carmen Paniagua, Esq.
Toll free: 888-478-8680
617-321-8300 (413 area code)
Latino Voter Registration Campaign Launched
The Massachusetts Hispanic Voter Registration and Education Coalition
(MHVREC) is proud to announce the start of an historic endeavor to
register at least 10,000 new Latino voters in time for the November 1996
general elections. Our Coalition's effort is a response to the continued
political invisibility of the Latino community in Massachusetts. We are
convinced that our community is eager for change and that with some
concerted effort, Latinos will begin to alter their political destiny this
year.
Our Coalition is comprised of community agencies, Latino community
leaders, professional associations, government officials, and a
continually expanding network of volunteers. We are supported in our
effort by the Hispanic Education and Legal Fund, a New York City
non-profit organization which is assisting voter registration campaigns
throughout the Northeast region. In addition, we are coordinating our
administrative activities through the North Shore Community Action Program
in Peabody, Massachusetts, a non-profit organization which works with the
Latino community in the areas of Salem, Lynn and Peabody on citizenship
training.
Our plan for this campaign is straightforward - we are identifying and
motivating key Latino organizations and individual leaders across the
Commonwealth and gathering information from them about the dates of
community events of significance to the Latino community. Through these
leaders and the network of volunteers we are developing, we will ensure
that people are available to register members of our community throughout
Massachusetts up until the October 16 cut off for the November elections.
Our effort is incorporating not only the support of citizens, but numerous
non-citizen volunteers as well. We are proud about this involvement
because we believe that this commitment will encourage others who do not
have citizenship status to work towards that goal. The infrastructure for
this project will involve our state coordinator Carmen Paniagua, who will
help coordinate numerous efforts to give our campaign visibility, train
volunteers, record our successes and provide community members with
information on how and where they can become registered for the vote. In
addition, our Coalition will draw upon the insight and abilities of the
League of Women Voters and other established non-profit and activist
organizations that can share expertise on voter registration campaigns.
Our most crucial work will hinge on getting the message across to our
community that it is not enough to register for the vote - we must also
take the critical next step as well - showing up at the polling places and
casting our votes. For that purpose, and among other efforts, through our
contact with the Hispanic Education and Legal Fund we will benefit from
their work with the Univision Television network, which is committed to
broadcast recurring public service announcements on the need to get out to
vote. We expect to accomplish the same result with local cable television
stations and with Hispanic press and radio outlets. We believe that the
message of the potential for Latino political power above partisan
politics is crucial to our effort, and that this is the message our
community is waiting to hear.
The posters and images we have to offer Latino communities across the
Commonwealth speak the truth about the discrimination, grief and
abandonment the Latino community has experienced, and juxtaposes against
the backdrop of despair, the slogan "Ya esta bueno, mijo!", which roughly
translated means, "That's enough fooling around." The Latino vote in
Massachusetts will be a factor in the elections to come, our community
will rise to its rightful place of leadership in this Commonwealth, and we
will strive to convince our community of this reality through this
campaign.
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John Lozada jlozada@boricuanet.org
Mass. NCPRR
P.O. Box 3272
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130