Three weeks ago Thursday Governor Pat McCrory made a controversial decision to close the Office of Latino/Hispanic Affairs, distancing himself further from the Latino community.
If you’re like many in our area, odds are that you have not heard about the Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs, much less know anything about it. Governor Jim Hunt created the office along with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Latino/Hispanic Affairs in 1998 to serve as liaisons to address the needs of the growing Hispanic population and the office of the governor. The Governor’s Advisory Council was originally made of 25 members, 10 of which operated ex-officio and 15 of which operated as voting members.
The Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs originally employed two staff members, but in recent years has only employed a director and a volunteer. During Governor Jim Hunt’s term, the office received funds to travel across North Carolina and do outreach with Hispanics around the state. However, in recent years, the office has hardly received enough funds to cover travel expenses to pay for the mileage, much less to do outreach of any kind.
Irene Godinez, a former assistant for the office who served during Governor Mike Easley’s term informed us that while they used to give greetings on behalf of the governor at public events, such as at the annual La Fiesta del Pueblo organized by El Pueblo, Inc., their budget never afforded them the opportunity to purchase a booth or really tell people about the programs they had for Latinos. The original intent of the office was to provide services such as “Migrant Health Programs, interpreter training, cultural diversity training, bilingual materials, Project Esperanza (which work[ed] with battered Latina women), Immigrants Legal Assistance Project , and Legal Services of North Carolina,” to the Latino community, according to the article Latinos by Alan K. Lamm,.
While Godinez was there she compiled a comprehensive list of all the Hispanic organizations in every county across the state. During natural disasters, the office also established a phone hotline and services to Spanish-speaking families who had been affected. Some people may feel that if they have never heard of the office then its closing will not particularly affect them.
The message that this closing sends to the Hispanic community, however, is that he does not see the value of investing in this demographic. Given the lack of funding that the office had received in the terms following Governor Hunt’s, they have only been able to reach a minority of the fastest growing minority in North Carolina. One volunteer and one paid director don’t seem like too big of a burden for a tight budget. Despite the closing of the office, a spokesperson from the office of the governor has said that he will support the hiring of more bilingual staff in the office of community and constituent affairs. However, if vowing to add more bilingual staff to this said office, why not transfer the former director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs to this community and constituent affairs office? Why not advertise for bilingual positions in this office and the Department of Health and Human Services through Spanish media?
Further actions have also supported the implied neglect towards not only the Hispanic population, but other ethnically diverse populations as well, as second language learners were removed from meeting the eligibility requirements for North Carolina pre-schools.
As of 2010, North Carolina was the 6th-fastest growing Latino state in the nation, and 11th in total Latinos, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. In a time where 52% of the Latinos in the United States are now second-generation, and 37% are third-generation or beyond, Latinos are a population that is becoming more a part of the American mosaic (according to the Pew Hispanic Center). Given that nearly two-thirds of the Hispanic population in this country was either born in a Spanish-speaking country or has parents that were born in a Spanish-speaking country, we are faced with an interesting demographic where many Latino families live in mixed immigrant families.
While Latinos are graduating from high school at a rate multiple percentage points higher than in years past, they still rank third among ethnically demographic groups in high school dropout rates, and still lag behind their Asian and Caucasian non-Hispanic counterparts in enrolling in college, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
This statistic especially carries weight when one considers that the Wake County Public School System ranks 16th in the nation in enrollment according to the 2012 AS&U 100 and Hispanics make up at least 9% in many of the public high schools in Wake County, and upwards of 14-15% at high schools such as Fuquay-Varina, Wakefield and Millbrook (National Center for Education Statistics). Statewide Hispanics represent 8.4% of the population, compared with 1.6% Asian/Pacific Islanders (U.S. Census 2010).
Local non-profit organizations such as El Pueblo, Inc. and El Centro Hispano have done a great job for years in reaching out to help the Spanish-speaking community in the Triangle area and across the state. Most recently the City of Raleigh has been increasing the amount of programs catering to Hispanics, including opening a community center offering bilingual programs such as Computer Programming in Spanish and several ESL programs. Latinos represent an important demographic in the state that the government should consider. Although the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs may be of great help to the governor, closing the Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs without offering any concrete concessions to the Latino community is a misguided mistake.
We at Bienvenidos believe that a public forum or press conference should have been held after the closing to address how to continue to cater to the Hispanic and other minority communities. As is often said, silence is our permission; we will not be silent. While immigration is a pressing issue, it is not the only issue relevant to Latinos. We are not saying that the closing of the Hispanic/Latino Affairs office is necessarily a bad thing, considering that cuts must be made for the budget. The lack of further actions—or in some cases, preliminary actions (think “pink licenses”)—is what concerns our community.
Opportunities are available for students and anyone living in North Carolina to voice their opinions concerning various actions of the governor. The General Assembly is open Mondays-Thursdays for people to come in and meet with their senators and representatives. Letters and messages can also be sent directly to the office of the governor via his website.
