By Rossana Longo-Better
Milo Marquez wants to remind everyone who wants to comment on Latino political engagement: Latinos are not a monolith.
The director of the Latino Research and Policy Center at the University of Colorado-Denver emphasized the rich diversity within the Latino community as we walked to the Tivoli for one of the final screenings of “Undivide Us,” a film about reaching political common ground that’s part of the Ethnic Media Exchange and Rocky Mountain Public Media’s “Above the Noise” initiative.
Marquez noted that distinct political views and voting behaviors are shaped by varied backgrounds and experiences.
Reflecting on his own upbringing, Marquez mentioned that his mother was born in Cuba and many of his family members in Miami support conservative policies, — a stark contrast to Latino groups in Colorado, California, and other Western states.”
Marquez profoundly understands the dynamics of Latino political engagement. Recently, he organized forums to address Latino voters’ challenges, using data to shed light on a growing lack of engagement within the community around the political process.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
🎙️La Ciudad: You grew up in Globeville and Elyria-Swansea. Both communities have rich Latino histories, but they also face challenges. How did your upbringing in these neighborhoods shape your path to joining the Latino Research and Policy Center?
Milo Marquez: As you mentioned, I grew up in Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, in the shadows of I-70 and Suncor. So, growing up, we knew that we lived in a contaminated community. But it felt natural to us because we didn’t know anything different.
We lived in what you would call our little bubble in those neighborhoods. We saw the train derailments. We saw the explosions at Suncor, which knocked windows out of my grandmother’s house and (knocked) family members off of the sofas.
We grew up in that kind of environment that was a predominantly Latino community, 93 percent, during the times that I was growing up.
But I think what changed for me was the opportunity to explore all of the parts of Denver. And because I was a product of Denver Public Schools, mandatory busing was created to integrate schools after the Keys case in 1969. I was able to go to different schools outside my neighborhood. I think I went to five different schools during that period. So, I saw life outside my neighborhood and my bubble. I looked at those communities and said, wow, this is something that I can achieve if I work hard and go to college eventually. I can live in a community like this. It was not that I wanted to be an adult now, but it was something that I aspired to do.
After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver, I (had been) bused — 35 minutes on the bus every morning and then 35 minutes coming home.
I moved to California and lived in the Bay Area for about 15 years. I went to college and started my career very differently from the career that I have now, but I got that working for a big Fortune 500 company, I learned the processes and how to work with different people in those kinds of big organizations.
After about 15 years, I wanted to return to Denver, where my family and roots were. I’m the fifth generation in Denver on my father’s side, and my mother is an immigrant from Cuba. So, I returned to the community and saw it still struggling like it was when I left.
There was this perpetual cycle that they couldn’t get out of. I wanted to give back, so I left working for the big corporations and decided to work as a school teacher. I went back into the schools and started teaching compelling needs. These were all kids who were on the verge of incarceration.
I found a way to help them by teaching them civics, geography and history. While doing that, I was doing a lot of community service work, working in marginalized communities like Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, ensuring the folks who were displaced because of the new freeway and the construction of I-70. Many were being forced out of their homes, but I wanted to ensure they had a voice and opportunities to relocate into a neighborhood that they felt comfortable in.
After doing that for some years, I was elected chair of the Latino Education Coalition, which I still chair today. Then, I was recruited to lead the Latino Action Council, a coalition of about 150 Latino-led organizations across Colorado.
I brought them together to work on community engagement, critical educational outcomes for Latinos, and environmental justice issues. I was the chair and director of the Latino Action Council for a few years until the University of Colorado-Denver and the Latino Research and Policy Center recruited me. I came here and have been here for over a year now, doing the work.
🎙️La Ciudad: What’s the mission of the Latino Research and Policy Center here at the university?
Marquez: Our focus is on empowering and bettering the lives of Latinos in Colorado.
We have four or five main focuses, one of which is education. Of course, we are an educational institution, but we also focus on environmental justice and mental health, specifically on mental health disparities for Latinos. We focus on economic mobility, improving the lives of our Latinos and civic engagement.
As we approach an important election, which some people call the most critical election of our lifetime, the work we’re doing here at the Latino Research and Policy Center is that much more important.
🎙️La Ciudad: Lately, you have been organizing several forums discussing Latino voting trends. Let’s start with the big picture. What’s driving the need for these discussions? What key insights are you uncovering about Latino voters?
Marquez: So we’re learning a lot. We’ve had two community forums, one completely in Spanish, held directly in the community. We also had a great panel discussion focused on those critical issues: abortion, reproductive rights, economic mobility and education.
We also had another event in English. It was here at the university but geared toward Latinos, and we had Latinos from various political positions. We had a Republican Latino, we had a Progressive Latino, we had a Democratic Latino and we had a Nonpartisan Latino.
So we had all those folks sitting on a panel, discussing how important this election is to our community. We all felt that it was very productive, and we had meaningful dialogue that many people need to hear.
🎙️La Ciudad: Surveys are saying that people of color, specifically Latinos, are the ones who are going to decide who will be the next president of the United States. But despite being one of the fastest-growing voting blocs, Latino voter turnout still lags behind other groups. What’s behind this disconnect, and what role does disenfranchisement play in keeping Latinos away from the polls?
Marquez: Here in Colorado, Latinos make up 22 to 23 percent of the entire population, and we know that by 2050, we will be one-third of the population in the state. Nationally, Latinos make up about 19 percent of the population.
But when you ask, what is holding us back? I talk to Latinos every single day, all day. What I’m hearing is that they don’t feel that their vote really counts. They don’t feel that their voice is ever really heard and that no one, even the folks who are elected, are not listening to them.
They feel that they come in, and they pay attention to them right before an election, but once they’re elected, they disappear, and they’re never heard from again until the next cycle, until they’re running again. So, I think a lot of Latinos just feel that they’ve been left out of the process, and they don’t feel that their vote really is important enough to cast in this election cycle.
🎙️La Ciudad: You have gathered data that shows Latinos aren’t happy with the way their issues are being addressed. Can you tell us what specific issues are at the forefront of Latino voters’ concerns?
Marquez: This is based on the Latino policy agenda released last month by Voces Unidas de las Montañas, an important organization in our state.
During their research, they found that the economy was the number one issue of concern for Latinos across the state. When Latinos vote, they vote with their pocketbooks. They vote to make sure that they have enough money in their pockets to do the things that they have always done or are comfortable doing, such as paying for their bills or just living, putting the roof over their heads, or putting food on their tables.
So, the economy is the number-one issue. All of those other things that we hear in the media, such as immigration and reproductive rights, are important, but again, the economy is number one.
🎙️La Ciudad: You have discussed a growing frustration within the Latino community in those panel discussions. Can you please elaborate on what’s fueling that frustration? It is more about feeling politically invisible or the lack of meaningful change on the core issues? It seems to me that it also has to do with an idea of belonging. You are a fifth-generation Latino, which is different from the immigrants just entering the country.
Marquez: I think, and I say this often, but we have to know where we come from before we know where we’re going. Last year, we had a Latino summit, and I thought that by hosting this Latino summit, we would be able to handle and talk about a lot of those issues.
We held the summit in Pueblo, Colorado, down south. We spent one day talking about our history, our commonality, where we come from, our language, our food, our music — all of those commonalities. Some of them are different; we know that. Then we talked about where we need to go to move forward, but we have to understand our history.
And that really comes from our education system here in the state of Colorado. (It) needs to do a better job in educating our community on their history. So that way they understand that they have a place here in Colorado, that they may not have been born here, but this is their home now.
And by teaching that in the schools, by teaching them their own history, whether they’re from South America, Central America, anywhere, teaching that history is very important. Right now, there is a law in place under House Bill 19-1192, and it mandates that the history, culture and social contributions of Latinos are taught in our public schools.
Now, it’s just a matter of school districts across the state teaching that history to our students to empower them and make sure that they feel proud of who they are.
🎙️La Ciudad: That’s extremely important, especially right now, when politics and the agenda are also trying to get our votes and sympathize with us. A different identity is being placed in us because they want our vote. Can you elaborate on this?
Marquez: I will say that Latinos just feel taken advantage of. … They go into our communities, they research our communities, but they don’t really ask our communities: what is important to you? What do you want to be researched in your community? And that’s what the Latino Research and Policy Center is doing differently. We are doing community-based research. We are going into communities, sitting down and asking them: What do you want to research? What are the critical issues to you?
(We are) letting the community voice guide the research so that we can collect that research and then create policies that we can implement at the state or at the national level to better improve the lives of our Latinos.
🎙️La Ciudad: Considering the collective nature of Latino communities, where we often feel that if one person is struggling, we all are, how do you see this playing into the broader political landscape? While historically, Latino voters have leaned toward the Democratic Party, there’s a growing sense of disillusionment, particularly around unresolved immigration issues. Some now suggest a shift toward the Republican Party. What are your thoughts on this potential shift, and how do you think it reflects the priorities of our community?
Marquez: I think that Latinos, based on a study that came out of NALEO (the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials), Latinos are talking about switching parties. However, the NALEO study didn’t really tell us which parties they are switching to.
Are they becoming more independent? Are they becoming more Republican, or are they becoming more progressive? A lot of Latinos that I’m hearing from and that I speak to are not necessarily happy with the two-party system. They’re looking for a third party. Maybe that’s a little more progressive, or maybe it’s something a little more in the middle between the Democrats and the Republicans because the two-party system hasn’t really served them in the way that they want. I love that folks are actually just having that discussion …and telling folks what they really want, and making sure that we’re holding the parties that are out there right now accountable to listen to us, and to make sure that they are making changes that will help our lives as Latinos.
🎙️La Ciudad: Since you are emphasizing the importance of grassroots efforts to re-engage Latino voters, what do those efforts look like for you and what more needs to be done to ensure that Latinos aren’t only showing up at the polls or being counted when elections come, but also feeling counted and empowered?
Marquez: I think it is so important right now that Latinos have that voice. They have that drive to get out there, but that means that our elected officials need to make sure that they’re serving our Latinos, making sure that the issues that they’re driving are going to impact in a positive way our Latinos across the state. It doesn’t always happen.
I don’t think the messaging gets out in the right way. There are a lot of things that are happening at the state level and at the national level that are really positive for Latinos, but I don’t think our Latinos are really paying attention to that the way that we all should.
I think that social media and all of these different deterrents are impacting how we look at things, and disinformation and misinformation is really impacting our decisions. There are some partners that we work with very closely who are specifically focused on monitoring that. I can tell you that every day, we receive information that is not accurate and misleading, and it is impacting how our Latinos look at the political system and, of course, how they go out to the ballots and vote.
🎙️La Ciudad: It’s clear there’s a lot at stake and we appreciate the work you’re doing to highlight the importance of Latino political engagement and activism, especially because we are a working force here in Colorado, isn’t it?
Marquez: And we are in the most important election of our lifetime. We need Latinos to understand the impacts this election will have and by choosing one presidential candidate over another could have generation-long impacts that will hurt our community.
We need to go out there. We need to understand the important issues and we need to listen to the candidates, look at the records and look at their past to make sure that they are the right candidate to lead our country into the future and help our Latinos across Colorado and the United States. It will impact the entire world.
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