This morning, the Mayor provided the welcoming comments to the first annual meeting of the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus at the John Martinez School in New Haven. There were many notable Hispanic political leaders there including Mayor Eddie Perez of Hartford, Yolanda Castillo and America Santiago, who were elected chair and vice chair of the caucus as well as numerous State Reps, Alderman, and the Bridgeport Registrar of Voters.

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Mayor Perez spoke about the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus being a chapter of the national Hispanic Democratic Caucus and efforts to build a strong regional caucus in the northeast. He described an academy that the caucus has formed to help people run for office, to build a stronger network as well as to train people how to run effective campaigns. The goal is to hold classes three times a year, with each class having twenty to twenty-five students. It is hoped that at least half of the students will become elected officials within three years.

There was a common theme of focusing on housing, education, employment and justice. There was talk about how the attendees need to stand up and be positive role models and it was noted that churches were well represented at the caucus. Churches, like politicians also can provide strong role models of people seeking better housing, education and employment opportunities for those they serve.

Ms. Castillo spoke about the need to not only register voters, but to get them to the polls. She spoke about the importance of empowering Latinos. “If we don’t give ourselves respect, no one will do that for us.”

All of this fits well with Mayor DeStefano’s campaign and his welcoming comments. The Mayor spoke about how politics is necessary for strong democracies, about how through dialog, we can build common interests and work for change.

My biggest regret is that I am not bilingual, and there were comments in Spanish that I didn’t understand. The Spanish version of the campaign website is supposed to be coming up soon, and I’m disappointed it isn’t ready yet. I hope that a volunteer will step forward to translate blog entries into Spanish and to write some blog entries in Spanish. We do need to build a dialog that embraces everyone, even those of us who are limited to speaking only one language.