For Some Latino Voters, No Vote Taken for Granted

For Some Latino Voters, No Vote Taken for Granted

LOS ANGELES—

After 25 years of marriage and five children, Maria Elena and Rene Burgos of Los Angeles have become a unified¹ force on many things, including decisions on Election Day.

“Mostly we discuss and we agree and then we usually mark our ballots² together, and we start marking together, and we decide together. We try to support each other,” said Maria Elena Burgos.

“We discuss it with the family, too, now that we have the grownup kids,” Rene Burgos said.

All born in the United States, four of the Burgoses' children are old enough to vote in the 2016 presidential election. It will be 18-year-old Monica Burgos’ first presidential election. She said it’s the issues, including immigration, that will help her pick the best candidate.

“Immigration is serious because people are always crossing the border. They’re always trying to come to America for a better life, and that’s what my parents did,” she said.

Maria Elena Burgos’ mother was American, which allowed her to get U.S. citizenship³. Rene Burgos escaped the civil war in El Salvador and arrived in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Under the Regan administration, he received amnesty and ultimately citizenship.

“So after I became a citizen and I was able to exercise [my right to vote], I said I have the duty to do it and I was really happy to be able to participate," he said. "I think coming from another country to the United States and seeing that you can participate, it is a great opportunity.”

“When you come from a country where sometimes you do not have the rights or the voice, having that opportunity here makes a difference,” said Maria Elena Burgos.

That commitment was passed down to their children, including Stephen, 22.

“Our parents always encourage us to vote, to be able to be the voice for change,” he said.

Latino vote

The belief that a vote still matters is what motivates many naturalized immigrants and their children to try and be the most engaged Latinos in American politics. They don’t take the vote for granted, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' Educational Fund.

“The immigrant voter, the naturalized citizen and his or her children, the children of immigrants are the most engaged in American politics," Vargas said. "They are following politics very, very closely. Those that we need to bring into the process are those that have been here for four, five, six generations: Mexican-Americans that speak English only because that’s the only language they know. [It’s] the same thing with Puerto Ricans and Latinos of other national origin groups who, unfortunately, many of them have lost faith in the American political system.”

For many Latinos, the issue of immigration has become a litmus test for a candidate.

“How a candidate talks about immigrants is symbolic⁴ of how that candidate then appears towards Latinos," Vargas said. "So if a candidate is bashing immigrants, Latinos hear that as bashing Latinos. So how a candidate talks about immigration is even more important than what the candidate has to say about immigration policy.”

While a large number of Latinos identify themselves as Democrats⁵, Vargas said the fastest-growing party affiliation⁶ of Latinos is either “declined to state” or “independent.”

Choosing a candidate

Members of the Burgos family have not decided⁷ which presidential candidate they will vote for, but that person needs to share their values, said Martin Burgos, 20.

“Since we’re practicing Roman Catholics, we’ll talk about abortion⁸ especially. That’s one of the major topics,” he said.

Maria Elena Burgos said she knows there is no perfect candidate.

“We have to just balance and see which one is the least evil and which is the one that we would be more happy with, even though it’s not perfect. No person, no party, no decision will be 100 percent perfect,” she said.

While they’ll take a close look at the two Latino candidates, sharing the same ethnicity is not enough, said Rene Burgos.

“It would be nice to have a Latino president, but we mostly like to see the values,” he said.

Rene and Maria Elena Burgos say they’ll look at the entire package in a candidate before making a final decision.

1 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

2 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

4 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。