On the campus of Southwestern College in Chula Vista, community members gathered to encourage people to register and vote. As many students will be first time voters.
Among the crowd is Ahitza Gomez who is studying nursing at Southwestern College.
As soon as she turned 18, she registered to vote, and now she’s looking forward to casting her ballot for the first time.
Gomez says, “Coming from TJ having been raised by immigrant parents I feel like my opinos matters a lot in our society.”
And as a Latina Gomez says she wants to make sure issues important to her community gets attention.
Gomez adds, “Being part of the Latina community it’s just me being seen as an equal like I said being part of a community and seeing as a whole empowering others to see as I do to make a change.”
And Latinos have a large presence in San Diego County.
The latest numbers show Latinos make up 34% of the county’s population.
According to Political Data Inc., right now there are more than 479,000 eligible Latino voters including more than 150,000 between the ages of 18 to 24.
Inez PerezChica is the Executive Director of Mana, an organization that focuses on empowering Latinas, she says this election will be key in dealing with issues that impact all communities.
She adds, “affordability, housing, living wages, education access to educaition childcare for the women who have to take care of their children and elderly parents, they are the same isues everyone has an of course immigration.”
Gomez says she hopes the younger generation will continue to step up to make sure their voices are heard.
She adds, “because ultimately my vote affects my future my family and our society as a whole.”
