Editorial:

Our son turns 21 this weekend. As parents, we are very proud of him. We are happy that he is a healthy, a good boy, and is attending San Diego State University majoring in Financial Management. He is getting good grades and he has good friends. The age of 21 for a young person is a big milestone. For us parents it is a time of excitement and apprehension.

Looking back over the past 21 years, and yes time does really fly by, we think of all the good times, the tough times, and the decisions made during his lifetime.

But this editorial is more than reveling in our son’s birthday. It is a look at the times and circumstances of his young life, and to his future, in relation to the upcoming Presidential election.

This editorial in part was sparked with Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who will be in Las Vegas in a couple to weeks to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). Her topic for the convention is a ‘path to citizenship.’ As we have often stated, immigration reform is an important issue for all the candidates, but it is not the only issue. Further, it is not the most important issue for the Hispanic voter.

For all of the candidates, when it comes to the Hispanic voter, other Hispanic concerns have been glossed over while the media focuses on immigration.

Looking back over our son’s 21 years we had many concerns and issues, but immigration was never one of them. Our first problem in our early married life was in buying a home. With the help of family we were able to overcome many of the obstacles. Without the family loan it would have never happened and we would have ended up paying a lot more in rent per month than our mortgage payment.

Our next big issue was health care, affordable health care. Next to our mortgage, our monthly health care bill was the biggest bill we faced each month. Thankfully we finally started receiving health care coverage from the wife’s employer. We were lucky. A lot of Hispanics are self-employed and health care is out of the question, or they are employed at places that don’t offer any coverage. Then there were dentist bills and eye care costs, some costs were covered but many were not, such as the cost of braces.

Then there was daycare. What we used to spend on personal health care we were then spending on daycare. We looked long and hard for a daycare center that emphasized early learning. We knew that come time for kindergarten he needed to be ready.
For the next twelve years our biggest concern was our son’s education. It was our top priority, and it wasn’t easy. We worked hard to see that our son got the best public education had to offer. We joined the PTA, served on School Site Council and attended every parent teacher conference. We often questioned why the school or district didn’t have the services or resources to help our son when he struggled in the classroom. We spent extra money for weekend tutoring. We helped with homework every night. Come high school it seemed as if everything came together for our son and he ended up doing well.

Then there was the expense of college. We couldn’t believe the cost of books at a junior college, on top of the per unit cost. Then came the cost of a university. We started a college savings fund when he was born but still that wasn’t enough. Our son applied for scholarships and so far we have managed. If he had gone to a school out of town, or one of the more costly schools… we don’t like to think about it! All we have to do is look to a friend’s son who is at USC and see the financial strain that family is in to see that their son gets the best education possible.

Our son plans on graduating next year and now we worry about the job market for him. It is tough out there!

As a family these are the issues we face every day, those along with the cost of gas, the rising cost of living, the weekly food bill, and our own future retirement. Still, as members of a community there are bigger questions and issues out there that impact us and with caring political leadership and empowerment we can better address these issues.

This brings us back to the Presidential race. Yes immigration is important, but it is not the only issue. I will sit up and listen when those candidates who embrace a humane immigration policy start to talk about those issues that we face every day here at home. The candidates that start to address these issues will be candidates that we will take a second look at. Immigration is the litmus test, but if that is all they talk about then they don’t really care about the Hispanic community, they will just be putting forth a façade to attract the Hispanic vote. The candidate who addresses the issues of Hispanics beyond immigration will be the one to support.