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As Women’s History Month draws to a close, two new data briefs from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) spotlight the resilience of self-employed women entrepreneurs in California.

News Articles & Media Coverage → Civil Rights

Laura E. Gómez in Colorado Boulevard: “When South Pasadena Was a Sundown Town”

Laura E. Gómez, director of UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies recognized that official proclamations condemning our own past were “definitely part of this larger trend…the desire in this present moment of national reckoning with our past racism…”

Michael A. Rodríguez in Los Angeles Times: “¿Los Angeles es testigo del fin de la ‘paradoja latina’?” (Spanish)

A los estudiosos les ha intrigado durante décadas la “paradoja latina”: el hecho de que, a pesar de los altos índices de pobreza y de no estar asegurados, “los latinos tienen una esperanza de vida mucho más alta de lo que cabría esperar”, dijo el Dr. Michael A. Rodríguez, profesor de ciencias de la salud comunitaria y de medicina familiar en la UCLA.

UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) in The Hill: “Polls spell trouble for Biden with Hispanic voters”

A UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative study on Latino turnout in the 2020 election found that while a majority of Latino voters in Miami-Dade County in Florida backed former President Trump, Biden decisively won the Latino vote in other key areas, including in Arizona and Georgia, where those margins likely helped tip the states in his favor en route to narrow victories.

UCLA Voting Rights Project in Crosscut.: “What the fight for a Latino voting district means for Central WA politics”

He argued that the UCLA Voting Rights Project report presented during the redistricting process wasn’t sufficient. The organization had voiced concern that none of the maps commissioners initially proposed created a Latino majority district that would satisfy federal voting rights laws. The organization now co-represents plaintiffs in the Palmer v. Hobbs case.

UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) in The Enterprise: “As higher-ed enrollment drops, experts weigh options”

A new report by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative found that before vaccines became widely available, roughly 11% of Latino students planned to cancel their college plans for fall 2021, nearly double the national average. While enrollment among all student racial demographics has declined sharply since 2019, Shapiro noted that students of color were disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Sonja Diaz in Los Angeles Times: “Karen Bass and Rick Caruso in dead heat, L.A. mayoral poll finds”

The poll found 57% of Latino likely voters saying they didn’t know Bass well enough to have an opinion of her; 53% didn’t know Caruso well enough.

Matt Barreto in Politico: “Democrats turn to their Gen Z whisperer as youth support wobbles”

Della Volpe also regularly runs focus groups, which makes him “extremely effective at going beyond percentages and crosstabs — a much more nuanced way of getting to the true viewpoint,” noted Matt Barreto, a Democratic pollster who worked with Della Volpe on the Biden campaign.

Silvia R. González in The Fresno Bee: “California’s economic relief must focus on Latino communities as the most impacted”

When we look at the economic impact of COVID-19, our research at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (UCLA LPPI) shows that the unemployment rate for undocumented workers in the U.S. reached 29% and undocumented workers lost almost 25% of their income at the height of the pandemic.

Patricia Gándara in CNN Politics: “Here’s the real tragedy in college admissions”

This addendum by Patricia Gándara at UCLA, one of the authors of the faculty senate report, who felt that the report’s conclusions were being misportrayed and misinterpreted. She wrote, “The consideration of test scores has a disproportionate effect on applicants to UC who are members of groups that have been in the past and are today victims of discrimination.”

NEW RESEARCH DEMONSTRATES ADVERSE IMPACT ON LATINOS DUE TO ELIMINATING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT’S INDIVIDUAL MANDATE PROVISION

The UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute’s Director of Faculty Research Arturo Vargas Bustamante, who is also a professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, recently published a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The research letter showed higher probabilities of Latinos being uninsured, having to seek out emergency care or delaying care due to increased costs after eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate.

Arturo Vargas Bustamante in Cal Matters: “As California expands Medi-Cal, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will still be left behind”

“This is a great achievement and it is absolutely amazing, but there will still be some who will remain uninsured,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, health policy professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “It’s not universal health care, but the situation for many immigrants in California will be much better.”

Sonja Diaz in Napa Valley Register: “Commentary: Can California Latinos save Democrats in the midterm elections? A new congressional map offers hope”

“Latinos are at the periphery of California politics even though they’re central to the economy and to its future,” Sonja Diaz, founder of UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute, told me. She said Democrats should seek Latino candidates who can speak to the concerns of Latino communities.

UCLA LATINO POLICY AND POLITICS INSTITUTE ISSUES STATEMENT ON NEW SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

In response to the Biden Administration’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute Founding Director Sonja Diaz issued the following statement:

Sonja Diaz in ABC 7 News: “California’s voters still do not reflect the diversity of its people, report says”

“When we look at the avalanche of restrictive voting bills that are being introduced in states across the country, California stands alone,” said UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Initiative founding director, Sonja Diaz. “I say that because state lawmakers have focused on expanding access to the franchise, and the ballot box.”

Sonja Diaz in Los Angeles Times: “Column: Can California Latinos save Democrats in the midterm elections? A new congressional map offers hope”

Sonja Diaz in SF Gate: “Judge is first Latina nominated to California’s high court”

Despite the growing influence of Latinos, who make up the largest racial or ethnic group of California’s nearly 40 million residents, no Latina has served in a statewide constitutional office or as U.S. senator, said Sonja Diaz, founding director of UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

THE FIRST LATINA TO THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT

Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced the appointment of Judge Patricia Guerrero to the California Supreme Court, making it the first time that a Latina has sat on the state bench. UCLA LPPI joined a group of Latino advocates and legal experts to urge Gov. Newsom to appoint a Latina to the vacancy in a Sept. 24, 2021 letter. UCLA LPPI founding director Sonja Diaz issued the following statement in response to the appointment.

Sonja Diaz in Los Angeles Times: “Rick Caruso has entered the mayor’s race. Will L.A. elect a billionaire?”

Still, Sonja Diaz, director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, cautioned that the Los Angeles of today is starkly different from the city that elected Riordan.

San Juan County, New Mexico Board of Commissioners Redistricting Plan Violates the Voting Rights of Navajo Nation Citizens

The Board of Commissioners of San Juan County, New Mexico adopted a redistricting plan that denies San Juan County’s Navajo Nation citizens and other Indigenous voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by civil rights advocates against the county.

Matt Barreto in NBC Right Now: “Redistricting lawsuit filed against three Washington leaders for lack of Voting Rights Act compliant district in Yakima Valley”

Furthermore, the compliant said district 15 has a concentration of white voters with a history of racially polarized voting. This was discovered through a study done on voting patterns in the valley by the Director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project Matt Barreto.

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