Sunday, Oct. 3, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.
The Las Vegas Valley's Hispanic community is more economically and socially powerful than it has ever been.
But too many of its young people are still dropping out of school, becoming pregnant, getting in trouble with the law and using drugs, leaders say. Too many Hispanic residents of all ages still are victims of crime and discrimination on the job.
And the road to solving the social ills is largely a political one, Hispanic leaders say.
Except for a few notable exceptions, Nevada Hispanics lack substantial political representation in the valley or the state. And the top ranks of municipal and county administrators also lack significant Hispanic representation, community leaders say.
With that in mind, Las Vegas Hispanics will be closely watching the political maneuvering in the next few weeks as city officials fill two new ward slots on the City Council. Hispanic candidates and political activists have been actively campaigning for one of their own to finally take a seat on the council. Even if it's an appointed rather than elected seat, they see it as a critical step in eventually winning a proportionate share of political power.
The issues affecting Hispanics are serious. The dropout rate for Hispanics in Clark County was over 17 percent in 1997. Nationally, more than 30 percent of Hispanics live in poverty -- the highest rate for any ethnic group. And Hispanic teens also had the highest rate of births -- almost 100 per 1,000 live births, almost double the teen-age pregnancy rates for non-Hispanic whites.
The accelerating growth of the local Hispanic population makes these issues particularly critical in Southern Nevada.
In September the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the county had nearly 200,000 Hispanic residents at the end of 1998, up 139 percent from the 1990 census. That gives the region the fastest-growing Hispanic population of any major metropolitan area of the country over the last eight years. Hispanics now make up more than 14 percent of the regional population, and that percentage is expected to keep growing. The problem of representation was discussed at the recent Hispanic Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., coordinated by Sen. Harry Reid's office.
That summit has a local counterpart, which will meet for the third year later this month. Subjects for the Hispanic summit include forums on business and education, examination of the problem of high drop-out rates, a discussion of crime and domestic violence issues and a look at employment rights.
Among statewide municipal officials, a 1996 study by the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce found that fewer than 2 percent were Hispanic. The chamber found that statewide, fewer than 3 percent of county officials were Hispanic. And of 22 county and city managers throughout the state, none were Hispanic.
Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera is arguably the only high-profile local elected official with a Hispanic heritage. The Las Vegas City Council has no Hispanics, although community leaders hope that the two-seat expansion of the five-member council will make room for a Hispanic.
Fernando Romero, current president of Hispanics in Politics, believes that his community is largely excluded from the policy-making process.
"The political agenda does not include the Hispanics," he says. Romero has said he would like one of the two new seats on the City Council after the council votes, as expected, to create the seats on Wednesday. He faces a potential challenger from the Hispanic community, Orlando Sanchez, the city's building services manager, who is backed by Councilman Mike McDonald.
Other possible Hispanic candidates discussed for either Ward 5 or 6 include Hispanic activist Al Gallego and Public Utilities Commission outreach officer David Chairez.
Getting appointed is one thing. Getting elected is another.
Hispanic leaders say there are several reasons why a Hispanic city councilmen -- or any successful local politicians -- need to have a constituency that extends beyond the Hispanic community. Central to all of them is that a Hispanic bloc vote alone cannot ensure re-election for candidates.
Herrera, a former state assemblyman, is an example of a candidate that has appeal outside his ethnic community, Hispanic leaders say.
"If you look at Dario, he was first elected to the Legislature out of the Green Valley area," says Valorie Vega, a District Court judge and former Municipal Court judge, one of a handful of Hispanic judges statewide. "He has broad-based appeal and support."
Leadership of the city's and county's departments also has few Hispanics. Of 11 city departments, there is only one Hispanic director -- Mario Trevino, the city's fire chief, according to Rick Anderson, city human resources director.
In the county, Rosalina Rios, director of information technology, is the only Hispanic of about 35 department heads, according to personnel director George Cotton.
Romero points to a handful of reasons why Hispanics haven't generated the political clout to accompany the community's growing population and economic importance.
One reason is that many Hispanics, he says, are less likely to register and to vote. Many first-generation immigrants have come from countries such as Mexico and Central American countries with traditions of "caudismo" -- political systems dominated by bosses who essentially tell people how to vote, he says.
That experience can discourage people from participating in the electoral process in the United States, Romero believes.
Another factor in the lack of Hispanic electoral power is the integrated nature of the Hispanic community in the valley. Hispanic communities in Los Angeles and other Western cities are concentrated in a few areas, and are able to elect a slate of representatives from their communities.
In the Las Vegas Valley, Hispanics are more-or-less evenly distributed throughout the region. Their numbers are potent, but their punch is diluted.
"Hispanics have not congregated in one enclosed region of the valley," Vega says. "Usually, when you talk about politics, power derives from having a voting bloc."
Another limiting factor for Hispanic political power is the nature of the community itself. Hispanics are often thought of as a generic population of Mexican-Americans. But that is far from the truth. Hispanics can claim a heritage from Mexico, Central America, the diverse nations of South America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain or even land that is now the United States before this country occupied it.
A multitude of national origins, combined with the political diversity in their countries of origin, means that Hispanics can have sharp differences in their political viewpoints. People of Cuban heritage, for example, are likely to be very conservative in their politics. Those from the nearby island of Puerto Rico, however, are likely to be left-of-center.
Many in the Hispanic community are frustrated that this diversity is not well understood by the dominant, Anglo culture.
"We are viewed as a Mexican culture," Romero says. "That in itself is condescending ... The Anglo-Saxon culture does not want to know us."
One thing that is changing is the demographic profile of the people in the Hispanic community. Although still younger, less well-educated and less affluent than the profile of the average Anglo, Hispanics are gaining on all fronts.
"You see more and more people are educated with bachelor's degrees," said Otto Merida, executive director of the Latin Chamber of Commerce. "They have more experience, more education and more to offer the community in terms of their expertise and professionalism."
The rising tide of Hispanics in professional and managerial jobs means that their economic power is growing even faster than the community's population.
Thomas Rodriguez, executive director of the Clark County School District's diversity and affirmative action programs, is critical of Hispanic organizations, including the Latin Chamber of Commerce and Hispanics in Politics, that he says are too conservative in addressing the issues affecting the community.
The same issues that galvanized a generation of young Hispanics in the 1960s are still problems, he says, but the organizations no longer challenge the establishment to change the status quo.
Rodriguez has written five books on Hispanics, focusing on the experience in Nevada. He says his next book will be "Raising Hell and Making a Difference: The Brief Golden Era of Hispanic Activism."
He credits the chamber for providing young people with scholarships, but he says more needs to be done. Rodriguez says work by Hispanics in Politics to get out the vote, endorse candidates and provide election forums is good, but isn't enough.
"They don't fight for our people," he says.
Helena Garcia, an activist and community leader, agrees.
"Our so-called Hispanic leaders in town speak just with the other leaders in town, and not with the people," says Garcia, who heads a bilingual life-skills training program called Camino Al Futuro for families on welfare.
But she is working to turn that around, individually and throughout the community. Garcia is working to provide Hispanics with a greater voice in local policy making.
Last week Garcia went door-to-door in the Bonanza Road area seeking community feedback on a proposal to allow more professional and commercial development to the east of downtown, an area with a relatively high number of Hispanics.
Garcia also is working to create La Voz Informativa, a list of businesses and professionals who have given good service to Hispanics. She believes that Hispanic organizations are often geared towards social events, and that Hispanics need groups who will go to bat for them in employment and business.
Hispanics, especially those with limited English-language skills, often have been swindled or charged exorbitant prices for goods and services, she said.
But many of those taking advantage of Hispanics are themselves members of the community, she says.
"That's what gets me -- especially when a Latino is taking advantage of other Latinos," Garcia says.
Another problem is that some of the most successful of the valley's Hispanic young people aren't giving back to their community, Hispanic leaders worry.
Rodriguez is concerned that a "brain drain" of young professionals is affecting the Hispanic community -- they are leaving, and not looking back. He argues that more successful young Hispanics need to get involved.
"If that population doesn't give back, doesn't develop a sense of community, then unfortunately we won't see a lot of progress" on social and political issues, he says.
Hispanic leaders spar among themselves, but on one key political issue they all agree. "English-only" efforts to bar the use of Spanish in government, schools or the community fail to calculate the importance of bi-lingualism in an increasingly competitive global economy, they believe.
But things are changing.
"I think the sheer numbers will, at some point, impact the problems," Rodriguez says.
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