Youth Opinion : Children of Immigrants: ‘My Parents Wish They Could Vote’

Californians who register by Oct. 11 will be able to vote in the Nov. 8 general election. We asked young immigrants and children of immigrants if they’ve registered, and if they plan to vote.

ASMAT BININASHVILI

18, freshman, Santa Monica City College, emigrated from the former Soviet Union, became a citizen in 1989

I haven’t had time to register. Maybe I’ll do it in a week or two. But I really don’t care about the gubernatorial election. Maybe for the presidential election I’ll register. I became a citizen more as an economic decision than to vote.

CARLEN LE

17, El Rancho High School, Pico Rivera, parents from Vietnam

I think it’s important to register. I want to make a difference. If you complain that the government isn’t doing anything and you didn’t vote, you shouldn’t complain. My parents are from Vietnam but now they are citizens. They say we are the future. I think it’s important to be aware now and later on make a difference in other people’s lives.

NATALIE RODRIGUEZ

17, senior, San Pedro High School, parents from Argentina

I want to register, mainly out of curiosity. It’s important to vote because if you don’t, the older people will choose for us. I only know one other person that probably voted before. Some people think nobody running is good enough. My mother is a citizen. She understands and speaks English, but she doesn’t know what is going on with the elections. I am the only one in my family that wants to. I want to motivate other students to vote because society puts so much emphasis on this.

ELIZABETH GONZALEZ

16, senior, El Rancho High, parents from Mexico

Once I register, I’ll be able to say I helped get things passed.

Education is really the most important thing for me. I want to see the money go to where it was promised to go, (to classrooms), and not see it go to (administrative) salaries.

With immigration, this country has already said “Give me your hungry, your poor” and we made a mistake in saying that. We should have made it clear on what we meant a long time ago.

Crime is important to me because I’ve seen good people that I’ve known since my kindergarten years turn bad and join tagging groups and gangs and totally lose touch with people that are important to them just because they’ve found this new “family.” It’s sad. My parents came here from Mexico legally. But they are not citizens yet. They wish they could vote.

RICARDO TORRES

19, Los Angeles, parents from Mexico

I haven’t had a chance to register. I am not really interested and I haven’t really thought about voting.

JUAN FAVIER

17, senior, El Rancho High, parents from Cuba

I get excited about politics. I’d like to be a senator someday. A few of my friends feel the same. The rest don’t really care.

So far Pete Wilson and Kathleen Brown are acting the same. But it’s true that California needs a change. The press has not covered the election well. They need to talk about it more, have more programs on it. A lot of people don’t even know who is running for governor.

My mom talks about becoming a citizen but hasn’t. Personal rights are important to me, but so is immigration. At first I thought Mexicans shouldn’t be allowed to come here, that they should close the borders. But my views are changing because some of my family from Cuba wants to come and they can’t.

JUSTINE UNG

18, senior, Alhambra High School, emigrated from Vietnam in 1988, to be sworn in as a citizen in November

I plan on registering to vote so I can support a person who I think would do a good job in government. Immigration is important to me because I am an immigrant. I want immigrants to have rights in society because they are always made scapegoats. Whatever the problem is, people tend to blame on immigrants and they can’t do anything about it because they can’t vote. Most of them are not citizens.

My parents are going to become citizens as well but I don’t think my parents see voting as important as I do. They don’t know a lot of English and they don’t watch TV a lot. They don’t go to school like I do and listen to the teachers talk about voting.