This election season, we invited East Bay Latino and Mayan immigrants to weigh in on the top issues they face in their daily lives.
We conducted a text message survey and created an El Tímpano ballot box, titled “Voz del Pueblo,” or “Voice of the People,” which we brought to community events across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. We asked participants to identify their top three concerns between the cost of living, health, housing, work, education, public safety or a write-in option titled “other.”
We spoke with people across a range of ages and life experiences at locations spanning the San Pablo public library and a Richmond candidate town hall to community resource fairs in Oakland, Castro Valley and Pittsburg. Our reporters also interviewed participants to better understand why they chose their top issues. In the end, more than 280 participants identified their top concern as the cost of living, followed by health, housing and jobs.
Because many members of the Latino and Mayan immigrant community can’t vote in this election, we shared their top issues with candidates running in their districts and asked how they would address the concerns raised.
Several participants, including 60-year-old Francisca Cortez, commented that they hoped voting in our ballot box could help others to keep in mind the issues that immigrants face.
“Although my voice does not count, I would like many of the voices [who can] to focus on the needs of the community,” she said.
Here’s what some of our other community members shared. Responses have been edited for clarity.
Maria Gomez Velasquez, 67, Hayward
Top issue: Cost of living
“We are a large family, I have a child with a disability and the cost is too high and housing is very expensive. My husband and I are already old, so we are worried about the future.
I say this because I am a grandmother and my children are still of working age and they cannot pay someone to take care of their children. I have to help them, because if one does not help them as a grandparent they cannot get ahead because everything is very expensive. Even if they both work it is very difficult to get ahead.”
María Arias, 50, Oakland
Top issue: Housing
“We are four, me and my daughters. [We live in a house] with three bedrooms and we rent a room. Imagine living with people you don’t know and then no longer having your own space. Imagine the frustration of arriving not at your own home, but something shared. It’s not the same as being in your own apartment.”
Teresa Gutiérrez, 31, Pittsburg
Top issue: Education
“I have four children, and sometimes when I talk with the teachers, they tell me there aren’t enough teachers, that the funding given to schools is being reduced, that the district is no longer giving them money to be able to help the children. Every year it feels like they’re cutting, cutting, cutting.”
Sylvia Lopez, 59, Oakland
Top issue: Health
“I think that many people during the pandemic preferred to be at home and cure themselves with whatever, because otherwise they would end up with high healthcare costs. It’s the same now, not just during the pandemic. When they have some pain, they prefer not to visit a clinic because the costs are very high, there is no medical insurance that covers us, there is no accessibility to health.”
Luisa Areas, 31, Hayward
Top issue: Jobs
“My husband and I have been looking for work and there really is no guidance on where we can find it or how to do it. There are many companies that post on very well-known pages like Indeed, but at the end of the day we don’t receive any feedback. We don’t receive any answers.”
Alejandro Gutierrez, 33, San Pablo
Top issue: Housing
“We tried to apply to buy a home, but it was difficult. My wife has a good social security number, but I don’t. So, the bank would give us a loan, but the interest rate was very high. You can imagine – the expensive houses and the high interest is a lot and one cannot buy a house. We want to buy, but it is difficult for us.”
Francisca Cortez, 60, Hayward
Top issue: Jobs
“I am working taking care of children, because right now jobs are very difficult to find because of one’s age and because they ask for a lot of experience. I know that the English that I have is basic and, above all, I’m no longer of an age to be looking for heavy jobs.
I worked in hotels, I worked dry cleaning and all that, but now I’m doing much better working with children.”
Maria Hernández, 44, San Pablo
Top issue: Education
“I’m an adult now, and I have always been interested in adult classes [to get certified in elder caregiving], but I haven’t found one. And I think that people like me would also like to study.”
William Alvarado, 24, Hayward
Top issue: Public safety
“I think that as young people we feel very unsafe in the streets. We are afraid to go out because it is a very foreign country for us.”
Lupe Zamudio, 57, Oakland
Top issue: Jobs
“My son has been without work – it’s been more than half a year. So he has been searching. He is a DACA recipient and his renewal got held up a little bit because he did it on paper, not online, so it delayed him like three months.
So he was worried, like ‘What am I going to do?’ I think he got a little anxious and I told him ‘No, don’t worry, everything is going to be fine.’ He now has his permit, it arrived, thank God. But he still can’t find a job. The news says that there is a lot of work, but the companies don’t give them work, they don’t call them. That’s what we see.”
Emily Molina, 26, Pittsburg
Top issue: Health
“There’s a lot of pretty well-known issues out here in Contra Costa regarding air pollution as well as the toxicity of the different refineries like Chevron. And I feel like it has to be talked about more.”
María Duque, 54, Pittsburg
Top issue: Housing
“There are a lot of people out on the streets and we want there to be more programs for low-income people in the community here where we live. Why? Because they suffer and it also affects us emotionally.”
