Why Should Latina/os Vote?
Pablo Mitchell
Department of History

Few among us, it seems to me, could not if sufficiently motivated summon forth at least one or two convincing reasons for Americans, including Latinas and Latinos of all political inclinations, to vote. For Latina/os in particular, voting in elections, whether they be for U.S. president, for neighborhood block leader, or to ratify a union contract, both honors the struggles and sacrifices of generations of political activists and signals a commitment of time and energy to improving the world around us.

Moreover, to vote is claim (or pro-claim), in no uncertain terms, membership in the American body politic. Voting, remember, for all its celebration of the democratic individual (as examples, think of the search for YOUR name among the list of registered voters that occurs in some voting precincts, or recall that YOU and only YOU enter the voting booth), for all this emphasis on YOU as a discrete electing body, voting is also an act of affiliation and belonging. For Latina/os in this particular election, the opportunity to stroll into a room of strangers, many of them likely white, middle class, and comfortable, including official representatives of the state like voting monitors and election workers, and claim kinship as voting Americans is not I suggest to be taken, or dismissed, lightly.

There are, as I've said, many other reasons for Latinas and Latinos across this country to vote, and you, kind reader, have probably heard just about every one of them. But, if none of those reasons prove especially compelling, especially invigorating, especially urgent, consider that in the early 21st century United States, and I might add in the long history of this country, there are and were precious few spaces available for people of color to claim, even if only for a moment, unqualified, unsullied American-ness. Maybe I'm investing too much meaning in these school cafeterias and auditoriums and firehouses, but I take great inspiration from the thought of millions of Latina/os trudging through rain and snow and bright sun in order to reach their precincts, stand in line, pull back the curtain separating the voting booth from their fellow citizens, and announce to all present, if only in the quiet hum of another vote tabulated, that they too are Americans.