Taken from the executive summary of the 2005 report. Click here to read the 2005 report. Click here to see the 2006 report.

A Community Partnership Between

The Walla Walla Latino American Forum

And Whitman College, Politics 402

November 30, 2005

Overview

 Paul Apostolidis, Associate Professor and Paul Garrett Fellow

Department of Politics, Whitman College

(509) 522-4426, apostopc@whitman.edu

Latinos make up a rapidly growing portion of the population in Washington State, and the state is quickly becoming one of the main areas of geographical concentration for Latinos nationwide. Yet in contrast to Latinos in other states with longer and better-established Latino populations such as California and Texas, Washington Latinos sorely lack effective political representation. Very few Latinos occupy or run for public office in this state, even in locations where Latinos comprise the majority of the local population. Meanwhile, and in a related way, Latino voter registration and turnout are quite low. Arguably, there is a great but as yet unrealized potential for public policy to respond to the profound disparities between the social wellbeing of Latino Washingtonians and that of their non-Latino neighbors.

This report vividly demonstrates that the challenges and inequalities facing Washington Latinos today are multiple, interlaced, and deeply entrenched. As of now, no correspondingly comprehensive political agenda or movement exists that would address these problems in a systematic, broad-based, democratic manner. The State of the State is intended as a key step toward mobilizing such a political endeavor by providing an account of social conditions for Washington Latinos that is wide-ranging, though not all-encompassing, in its scope. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a report has been attempted in this state.

In the Fall Semester of 2005, a class of twelve advanced and highly motivated undergraduates at Whitman College, located in Walla Walla, conducted research aimed at the following goals:

• Retrieving and synthesizing existing data on an extensive gamut of social issues affecting Washington Latino communities and all the state’s residents;

• Performing personal interviews with ordinary people from among Washington’s Latino communities, to reveal the “human face” of statistics and institutions;

• Complementing a data-based picture of statewide conditions and the national context with local case studies, for the most part in Walla Walla;

• In the case of Latino voting, beginning the larger task of producing new data to inform a serious evaluation of whether Latinos’ political rights are being adequately respected in this state, or whether significant political reform to expand and enforce voting rights is needed.

Throughout the semester, these students received guidance from a public-spirited group of community professionals located mainly in Walla Walla, most of whom are associated with the Walla Walla Latino-American Forum. This report thus represents the fruit not only of student research but also of community-based learning: a partnership by students and community members to do the “public work” crucial to meaningful and potent democratic citizenship.

Among the highlights of this report are these findings and recommendations:

• K-12 Education: Less than half of Latino students in Washington (47%) graduate from high school. Public schools need to expand dramatically their abilities to offer the forms of instruction that best enable students with limited English proficiency to succeed academically and on the WASL, especially given that passing this test will soon be required for a high school diploma.

• Juvenile Justice: Poverty and the dynamics of family life lead too many Latino youth to meet their needs for “social capital” through involvement in gangs. Public schools should take major steps toward fostering the social ties between generations that compose “social capital.”

• Early Childhood Education: Low levels of parental education and high poverty rates generate low preschool enrollment for Latino children. Head Start can positively impact the education of children in both the short and long term, especially when it engages parents.

• Farm Labor: Poverty wages, severely inadequate housing, a gap in labor rights, and the lack of legal residency combine to place great stress on farm workers’ families. Despite these hardships, women farm workers take profound pride in their work and in their dedication to their families.

• Service Workers: Latinos are concentrated in the lower paying and more dangerous jobs in hospitals. A creative solution to the nursing shortage in Washington should involve making nursing education more accessible to Latinos already working in the health industry.

• Adult Education: Latinos lack the support necessary for access to community colleges and success in adult education programs. Government should provide greater financial assistance and address the marginalization of Latino culture within community colleges.

• Health Insurance: Limited job prospects, poverty, and often the lack of legal residency all help explain the low rates of health insurance coverage by Washington Latinos. Lacking health insurance, along with language and cultural barriers, severely restricts health care access.

• Health Services: While Latinos have relatively favorable birth outcomes, they receive disproportionately lower levels of medical care. More research is needed into the specific health needs of Washington Latinos, and more funding and support are needed for community-based clinics serving the Latino population.

• Housing: Latinos are disproportionately represented in the lower income brackets, have a worse chance of obtaining home loans, and are at a higher risk for substandard lending. Realtors and public agencies should expand education in Spanish for homebuyers, and government should ensure better enforcement of mobile home park tenants’ rights.

• Domestic Violence: Latina immigrants face barriers that prevent them from seeking community services for domestic violence survivors, including language barriers, lack of education and job training, and legal status. Better domestic violence training for law enforcement and judges, and more funding of DV outreach services to immigrants, are needed.

• Political Participation: In 2004, Walla Walla County Latinos made up 12% of the total voting age population but only 4% of the population that voted; in Yakima County, the figures were 29% and 11%, respectively. Yet Latinos are highly receptive to voter mobilization efforts when they are specifically targeted

• Voting Rights: The U.S. Department of Justice recently mandated that Yakima County comply with federal voting rights provisions to ensure the full participation in elections of Spanish speakers. While registration has increased in the wake of the consent decree, Yakima City still rarely has Latino candidates for City Council elections – in a city that is one-third Latino.

Together, these findings form a picture of pervasive social and economic inequality for many Latinos in Washington, generated by the interplay of low educational achievement, labor market segregation in low-wage jobs, inadequate opportunities to improve English abilities, insufficient health insurance coverage and health services, residential marginalization, and political exclusion. The political empowerment of Washington Latinos would be a major step toward finding real solutions to these problems.

These individuals have graciously contributed their time and expertise, serving as crucial resources for the students and motivating the students to produce work of high quality, and we are extremely grateful to all of them and their organizations:

• Vance Norsworthy, Walla Walla Juvenile Detention Center
• Elisa Pogue, Blue Ridge Elementary Head Start
• Cynthia Selde, Washington State University representative
• Victor Chacón, director of Multicultural Services, Walla Walla Community College
• Margaret Caicedo, Walla Walla General Hospital
• Soren Rottman Directing Attorney at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
• Shamaine Daniels, Volunteer Attorney for NWIRP
• Joaquin Avila, Seattle Univ. School of Law
• Andrea Valencia, Bilingual Teacher, Green Park Elementary School
• Jan Foster of Walla Walla Community College
• Ben Hooper of Columbia Legal Services in Kennewick
• Andrea Gass of St. Mary Medical Center, Walla Walla
• Jenny Reed-Heaton of Service Employees International Union
• Dr. Christopher Hall and Benita Aguilar from the Walla Walla Clinic
• Ruben Garcia, a real estate agent in Walla Walla
• Ben Hooper of Columbia Legal Services