Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris celebrate victory by driving down Las Vegas Blvd. Saturday Nov. 7, 2020.
Published Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020 | 7:04 p.m.
Updated Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020 | 9:24 p.m.
Maria Nieto Orta woke up Saturday confident that Democrat Joe Biden would become the nation’s next president.
But the Las Vegas resident was still nervous. She anxiously logged online at 5 a.m. to check the election results.
“I was just refreshing and refreshing and refreshing,” she said.
Finally, a little after 8 a.m., came the news that she had been awaiting four long years: Biden was called the winner in the swing state of Pennsylvania to secure enough electoral votes to defeat President Donald Trump. An hour later, Biden was also declared the winner in Nevada.
“I get to breathe a little better today,” Nieto Orta said. “I get to sleep a little better today.”
The 21-year-old Nieto Orta is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, having been brought to Las Vegas from Mexico when she was a year old. Although she can’t vote, she’s politically active as the Nevada director of Mi Familia Vota, a grassroots organization that educates, registers and “empowers” Latinos to vote.
Members of the Latino community joined together Saturday afternoon at a parking lot near Maryland Parkway and Sahara Avenue to rejoice in the win.
The scene quickly turned into a dance party, where attendees shimmied to cumbias, reggaeton and Selena music. They later joined in a car parade down the Strip.
Needless to say, it was a feeling of sheer joy — and relief.
“It’s important to keep electing people who represent not just one community, but the community in general,” Nieto Orta said.
Biden’s election gives hope to the Las Vegas Latino population, many of whom have feared deportation under the Trump the administration, which aimed to curtail immigration.
DACA recipients such as Nieto Orta won’t have the pressure that the program will end, and immigrants here on the expiring Temporary Protective Status won’t worry about being forced to return to a country that faces poor conditions. TPS, a humanitarian program, allows immigrants whose country is decimated by natural disaster or war to legally reside in the United States.
Nieto Ortasaid her work will not stop after the election, noting that Biden has made “a lot of promises, big promises” that she will help ensure he keeps.
“We finally feel like we have a voice,” Hernan Hernandez-Vela said enthusiastically as he waved a Biden flag. “We came out, we spoke for our people, our people came out and we voted.”
One of Democrats’ biggest on-the-ground-advantages is the heavily Latino casino workers’ Culinary Union. It had more than 400 members working to get out the vote in Las Vegas and Reno.
“We are taking back our country and are proud to have delivered Nevada for political candidates who will represent working families and fight for our issues,“ said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, in a statement.
Biden made one trip to Nevada since the Democratic presidential caucuses earlier this year, stopping in Las Vegas in early October for an event with Latinos and a drive-in rally.
“It’s amazing that this happened,” an emotional Hernandez-Vela said about Biden’s win, “that we no longer have to feel that we’re going to be judged by our color of our skin by being Latino.”
He said Latinos are strong people who usually don’t speak out when they’re wronged, but the Trump administration was damaging their psyche, noting that he’s already heard from friends who describe “feeling human again.”
“We are finally heard,” he said, “We came out, we voted and Biden won!”
Eddie Ramos, a 55-year-old casino worker, spoke about a long four-day wait to find out the election’s results. He said he was tired of the “hurt” brought on by the Trump administration and its immigration policies, which he said terrified the Latino community.
He hopes Biden keeps his campaign promise of immigration reform so “we can all have the opportunity to live the American dream without being humiliated or mistreated.”
