Sunday, September 18, 2022

A Few Thoughts on News from Last Week on Hispanics Being the largest demographic group in Texas: Census

Other news from last week that reminds me of former state demographer, Dr. Steve Murdock, and his many predictions more than 2 decades ago. Read, for example, this 2011 piece in the El Paso Times where he expresses the following:

"I used to say the Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow," he said. "I no longer have to say that because the U.S. is where we are in many, many ways in terms of its demographics."
In light of these shifts, we absolutely need leadership prepared to abide by democratic principles. These include shared decision-making across political majorities and minorities and who abide by the rule of law, while embarking on the progressive project of restraining the power hoarding of the political and economic elite, while eliminating poverty and in so doing, reducing society's gaping inequalities.


This is all within reach, but we must elect folks to office with an inclusive, racially just, progressive vision for our state and country. 


In the best of cases, this leadership is knowledgeable and considerate of the wide-ranging diversity within the Latino community itself. We're not all "Mexicans," itself a referent to the modern notion of nation states that comes into being with European expansionism together with the conquest and colonization of America's native peoples.


Accordingly, we're also Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, and Afro-Latina/o. We are queer, straight, transgendered, immigrant, Spanish-speaking or English monolingual, and economically diverse and stratified. Hence, for us to be in good hands, we need future leaders with a textured understanding for an increasingly diverse demographic that understands well and can speak constructively and positively to this diversity in terms of policy proposals and on-the-ground practices and priorities in such places as work, schools, and in our religious communities.


I get it that for white folks and others—including many Latinas/os themselves—they are feeling a tad de-centered and perhaps a bit poorly armed for this future. Here is where a good and virtuous education comes in, especially Ethnic and International Studies, as well as dual language and bilingual education. Policy studies, too.


These are the areas of study that are uniquely poised to equip us all intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually for what I truly hope will be a movement beyond a past and present that is racially and ethnically charged, to one that is not just tolerant, but epistemically curious and open to the many changes ahead that I sincerely think are mostly promising and hopeful.

Sí se Puede! Yes we can!

 -Angela Valenzuela


Hispanics are now largest demographic group in Texas: Census



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