Your Vote, Your Voice!

As I cast my ballot early today in the voting booth, I decided to stop dawdling and write something about the importance of voting. I have wanted to post my daughter's words, because — as a millenial — she has something important to say about voting in a way I could never replicate. 

So an article right before Super Tuesday I thought would fit the bill. 

Sandra Karina Tovar, center, main speaker at the LASSO Conference (Latin American Student Success Organization)
Tarrant County College, South Campus in Dallas, Texas

Camila Pacheco-Fores is young, yet she is old enough to vote, and she has the privilege to do so, as many students and young professionals do. A surprising percentage, however, choose not to use that right. I am glad she has been thinking long and hard about the vote, however, and she is talking about it, discussing it with friends, and writing about what moves her. 


I decided to publish this piece right before the Texas primaries because I believe that no matter how we feel about the candidates — whom we want to vote for or whom we think might make a good or despicable president — we need to remember that voting is so special: it is a privilege. 

I am reminded of another young friend and colleague, Sandra Karina Tovar, who presently works with Mi Familia Vota. She is a kindred spirit who slaves away day and night trying to register Latinos who can vote because she believes in the process. Although she knows much more about our rights than the normal citizenry, and she tells us — part of her job is trying to raise everyone's awareness — it becomes ironic that she herself has no right to vote. 

You see, she is a DREAMer; though she is DACAmented, she cannot vote. 

So she needs people like us who can vote to make the difference she herself cannot realize today. 

Sandra Karina Tovar at Univision 23 Phone Bank with María Morales
#vote #votaciontemprana #earlyelections #electionworkers 

Hopefully, someday, she will be able to step into that voting booth as we all can...

But today, she does not have these inalienable rights we take for granted, throwing them away, letting others steal our vote by not voting.

Do not let the Sandra's of the world lose their voice because you did not vote. 

With these thoughts, then, I will leave you with my daughter's words. 

Camila Pacheco-Fores read an article about Hillary Clinton near Christmastime; she thought this piece was forced, especially around the holiday season. She made sure everyone around her knew her displeasure. 

This is a young woman who knows her mind. She has the right to vote, and she will clearly do so. 

But she also knows what she wants and holds dear, and she is telling others to respect that right, to respect her sentiments and beliefs. As you can see, she is tomorrow's future: bicultural, bilingual, and very very proud. 

She will most definitely vote come election time; she wants all of you to vote too. 

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In Reaction to "7 things Hillary Clinton has in common with your abuela"

did you raise 8 or 9 kids, make the best arroz around, or sew me clothes when I was a kid? didn't think so. ‪

My mother, with her granddaughters Sofía and Camila
© Ana M. Fores Tamayo

#‎notmyabuela‬ ‪#‎byeHillary‬
I think I prefer to ‪#‎feelthebern‬

I want to follow up about mis abuelas porque de verdad they're way more bad ass than arroz, kids, and clothes.

one of mis abuelas left her country, alone with 6 kids, to meet up with her husband who fled for his life. they never saw Cuba again because of the US Embargo. she didn't speak English, but she learned and became an ESL teacher after raising 9 kids, keeping them and us (los niños) together still.

[una de mis abuelas dejó su país, sola con sus 6 niños, para reunirse con su marido, que huyó para salvarse su vida. nunca vieron de nuevo a Cuba debido al embargo estadounidense. no hablaba Inglés, pero aprendió y se convirtió en un maestra de ESL después de criar a 9 niños, mantenerlos y nosotros (the kids) juntos siempre.]

mi otra abuela tambien se fue de su país (Chile to Venezuela), crío 8 hijo/as, siempre cuidó su jardín, y todavía viaja por todo el mundo. y te digo también q ella tiene unos poderes de paciencia y diplomáticos increíbles para navegar una familia con tantas personalidades fuertes 

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So really though, Hillary Clinton is ‪#‎notmyabuela‬ and I don't think it's cute.


[my other abuela also left her country (Chile to Venezuela), raised 8 children, always took

Camila picking flowers with her "mutti" in Santiago de Chile
© Ana M. Fores Tamayo

care of her garden, and she still travels all around the world. and I'm telling you too that she has some incredible powers of patience and diplomacy to be able to navigate a family with such hard-headed personalities] 

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Así que, de veras, Hillary Clinton es #‎NotMiAbuela, y no creo que sea cuchi 




About the author

Camila Pacheco-Fores is the daughter of Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants, raised in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. She is currently living in Mexico City working as a Fulbright García-Robles English Teaching Assistant and volunteering at a migrant organization, Sin Fronteras. At the end of her grant, however, she plans to return to the U.S. and work in the field of immigration in Los Angeles. Her life has been shaped by her parents' different backgrounds, their commitment to experiencing a variety of cultures, and being open to many viewpoints. It is because of this atmosphere — the one in which she was raised — that she wants to work with immigrants so they have the same opportunities to live in the U.S. as she has had, and to be surrounded by the many cultures that co-exist here.