Voices

“I think now that [one-third] of the population in the county is Latino something has got to change.”

--Latino activist Ramon Rodriguez, who heads a Fillmore-based civil rights group that advocates expanding the Board of Supervisors to increase Latino representation

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“There is no question that progress has been made in many areas, but no one should misinterpret that to believe that somehow the urgency has passed.”

--Cal Lutheran professor

Jamshid Damooei

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“I think there was enough public policy that came down that prompted Latinos to look at naturalization as a way of becoming politically active. The next step for those folks is to get them to participate in the civic process so they can make their voices heard.”

--Francisco Dominguez, executive director of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, an Oxnard-based advocacy group

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“No one is really talking about even a definition of what the problems are, much less a strategy for dealing with them.”

--Santos Gomez, a poverty law attorney with the Oxnard office of California Rural Legal Assistance

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“I don’t see the white flight in Ventura County like there has been in the San Fernando Valley. It seems to me that the Latino culture is part of the roots of Ventura County.”

--County Supt. of Schools

Chuck Weis

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“People need to understand that a Latino agenda is an American agenda.”

--Maria Echaveste, a onetime Oxnard farm worker who now serves as a White House deputy chief of staff

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“The population is multiplying and we’re not preparing these kids or giving them the appropriate skills they need.”

--Ventura school board trustee Cliff Rodrigues, director of bilingual education for the county schools system

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“I don’t look at myself as non-Latino. I look at myself as wanting to be part of the very change we’re talking about.”

--Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn

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“What I see for the Latino community is somewhat a mirror image of myself. They will be ingrained in every aspect of American life, from the schoolteacher to the CEO. They will have a great deal to contribute, as has every minority group that has immigrated to this country.”

--Simi Valley City Councilman Glen Becerra

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“Aspiration and hope have so much to do with future success and Latinos have never been more hopeful.”

--Pepperdine University researcher Gregory Rodriguez