A Latino Perspective

Today was a pretty big day for me and a lot of Latinos in the greater Austin area. The Austin City Council approved a Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative and we've been making a lot of progress on our Hispanic Community Engagement efforts. I also had lunch with Rod; we discussed the opportunities these initatives are going to bring to our communities. As a Latino, I feel very good about the progress we made today and still think we have a long way to go. We as Latinos have to, no, we must step up and make our voices heard. Rod mentioned in our conversation that too many times, Latinos, among other ethnic groups are left out of the discussion when dealing with race - it's always a black and white thing. So we as Latinos must find ways to bring our voices to the table and do it in a way that brings people together and moves us forward. And as we move forward, we need to bring our people with us by creating more leadership opportunities and opening doors for them. When we do this, not only will the Latino community prosper but the community as a whole.

Enough of my ramblings...now I'm going to put Rod on the spot. I'm still waiting for him to give us a write-up. Mibbe this will give him some good old fashioned Latino guilt. Si Se Puede Rod!

Mando