Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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Moments before Bill and Hillary Clinton took the stage in Sioux City for Labor Day stump speeches my friend and sometimes Spanish-language interpreter Roxana Boteo, a Guatemalan with U.S. residency, swept her eyes across the Riverside Park crowd looking for other Hispanics in this Latino-rich area of Iowa.
“Am I the only one here, Douglas?” she asked me.
Out of a Bill and Hillary crowd The Sioux City Journal estimated at “several thousand” and Iowa Independent and labor leaders figured at 3,800 (and The Des Moines Register somehow called at more than 500), only a handful of Hispanics attended the Clinton portion of the event – which was sponsored in large part by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the body representing much of the packing industry so associated with Mexican and Central American immigrants here.
In Woodbury County, using 2005 and 2006 Census figures, the total Latino population is estimated at 11 percent, or 11,533 of the 102,972 people living in that northwest Iowa county. 2000 Census figures show that 11 percent (9,350) of Sioux City’s population (85,013) is Hispanic – and that community represents a much larger of the labor force being courted by the Clintons Monday.
So, as Roxana observed, why aren’t there more Latin people here?
Marvin Harrington, president of the UFCW 222, told Iowa Independent that there’s a reason for the absence of Hispanics at the Labor Day picnic-political rally.
“They don’t like big crowds,” Harrington said.
To which my friend Roxana said, “That’s not true.”
And I thought: Hispanics don’t seem to have a problem filling soccer stadiums with, well, crowds.
Francisco Tostada of South Sioux City, a union representative with UFCW and a long-time Tyson Foods employee, said at about noon that many Hispanics would show up for the afternoon events.
Roxana and other Hispanics said members of the Latin community watch Univision and not the local TV stations that were promoting the open Clinton event which had a large draw outside the organized labor community.
“I guess they really didn’t hear about it,” said Arturo Franco Jr., 16, of Sioux City.
Arturo and his family showed up with signs to support Hillary Clinton said they were drawn to her health-care plan.
As Roxana and I left the park grounds there were some more Hispanics beginning to arrive.
For her part, Roxana, 32, an interpreter with the Sioux City Community School District, says she would be more inclined to support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama if she could vote (she’s working on obtaining her citizenship after being in the United States for more than half of her life, working many jobs, including at a blood bank and McDonalds, and picking up community college credits when time allows.)
She thinks Hillary’s people owed it to the local Latin community to reach out and make certain they had a representation at the labor event fitting for its contribution to the area economy.
As for the Clintons returning to the White House
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