LATINOS: PUBLIC, PRIVATE BOARD OF DIRERTORS, AND SOMOS EN BUFFALO

I was researching Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Bill and suddenly realized the number of non-profits involved would be getting a piece of the action to provide services to our local Latino community.

Question: How many of these Non-profits, and there are MANY, include Latino representation on their board of directors, as well as on their administrative staff?

I urge our Latino progressive groups, like Pushing Latinos Forward, the Buffalo Dominican Committee (BDC), and the Puerto Rican/Latino Committee (PRLC), to investigate this issue.

IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE HAVE LATINO BOARD REPRESENTATION; if not, our community will have little input, if any, on how the “infrastructure” money will travel throughout the city.

Now is the time to reach out to our elected officials to advocate on the community’s behalf.  We need to also reach out to our local unions; they are going to play a leading and major role with the Infrastructure Bill.

 SOMOS EN BUFFALO

 Our NYS Governor, Hon. Kathy Hochul gave out some goodies during the “Somos” conference in Puerto Rico this past week. A conference is an annual event where Latinos — “elected and community leaders” — take a vacation with your hard-earned taxes under the disguise of a “legislative, public policy business activity.

The Governor is going to need the downstate votes if she plans to be NYS governor. In that spirit, she wasted no time in trying to solidify the New York City vote by announcing the names of several Latinos to key appointments.

Since I live in Buffalo, NY, I would love to know what “goodies” she has under the Christmas tree for Latinos from “upstate” NY, as well as Syracuse, Rochester, and other upstate communities with a sizable Latino population. I strongly recommend that our progressive Latino groups take the lead in reaching out to the Governor to help her develop an upstate “Latino plan.”

I’m sure that some Buffalo Latinos are already working to attach themselves to her Christmas patronage tree; but to get the most mileage for our community, it’s vital to have the progressive and independent Latino voice at the table.

“Pushing Latinos Forward” (PLF), which represents several progressive Latino groups, must not take this too lightly, or else, the only thing our community will receive is “tokenism” handouts.

The Governor will be wise to listen to their voices.