BY BYRHONDA LYONS CalMatters Outside the Colusa County Courthouse Annex, 21-year-old Lorenzo Acosta takes a few puffs from his vape cartridge to calm himself before walking into court to support a friend. Acosta acknowledges he’s been “in the system,” so he knows how it all works here. He knows the...
Opinion: Prop. 21 Will Make Valley’s Housing Crisis Even Worse for Latinos — And the Rest of Us
As our region continues to reel from an economic crisis sparked by the COVID-19 outbreak, many people throughout the Central Valley continue to struggle to make ends meet. Now, more than ever, the lack of available affordable housing is a pressing issue for Valley residents. A measure on the November...
Biden Courts Latino Voters in 1st Trip To Florida as Nominee
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Joe Biden made his first trip to Florida as the Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday with an urgent mission to boost support among Latinos who could decide the election in one of the nation's fiercest battleground states. “More than any other time, the Hispanic community, Latino community...
Biden Faces Worries That Latino Support Slipping in Florida
MIAMI — Sen. Kamala Harris' motorcade raced past Colombian neighborhoods and made a quick stop for takeout in Doral — or “Doral-zuela” as it's known locally because of its large Venezuelan population — before speeding through the Cuban stronghold of Hialeah. But during her first trip to Florida as Joe...
Newsom Pressured for Hispanic Senate Replacement if Harris Becomes VP
LOS ANGELES — A Latino group openly pressured Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday to select a Hispanic replacement if U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris' seat becomes vacant, saying it was time for a historic pick that would reflect the growing influence of Latinos in the nation's most populous state. The letter to...
Job Losses, Fear of Virus Complicate Latino Voter Hopes
PHOENIX — Every day, 29-year-old Maico Olivares tries to call about 25 people, mostly within the Latino community, to persuade them to register to vote. Some calls go well, but increasingly, they have become frustrating: Many of the people Olivares reaches are out of work or have lost wages because...
Latino Group Launches $10M Campaign to Boost Voter Turnout
PHOENIX — A national organization is announcing a $10 million campaign to turn out Hispanic voters in several of this year's battleground states. Mi Familia Vota, based in Phoenix, said it will spend $7 million on get-out-the-vote measures and an additional $3 million on digital and television ads, starting in...
1 Ad, 3 Accents: How Democrats Aim to Win Latino Votes
WASHINGTON — The Spanish-language ads for Joe Biden used the same slogan to contrast him with President Donald Trump — “los cuentos no pagan las cuentas,” a play on words that roughly means “telling stories won't pay the bills.” But the narrator for the version that aired in Miami had...
Joe Biden Gets Backing of Key Latina Activist Dolores Huerta
WASHINGTON — Labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta on Friday endorsed Joe Biden for president, giving him the backing of one of the nation’s most prominent Latino leaders. The endorsement comes as the campaign says it’s ramping up Latino outreach, expanding some of the efforts it launched in key states...
Your Next Boss Could Be an Undocumented Immigrant; Growing Number of Business Founders Lack Legal Status
At Immigrants Rising, the Bay-Area nonprofit where I’m director of Research and Entrepreneurship, the early-stage entrepreneurs we support resemble a lot of other ambitious, millennial CEOs. One of our Mexican founders built a digital platform teaching teenagers virtual reality. A Colombian founder is building an app for hiring coders. And...