♪♪ -My name is Oscar Perez.
I am a second year at Pacific Lutheran University.
-Oscar Perez is 19 and the first in his family
to attend college.
He's majoring in education
with a minor in Hispanic studies.
In November, he will vote [speaking quietly in background]
for the first time in a US presidential election.
He's excited and a bit nervous
-When looking into it, maybe even a little overwhelming.
But I think once I’ve fully looked at the official ballot,
I can definitely make my decisions from there.
-Oscar didn't think much about voting until his senior
year at Thomas Jefferson High School in Federal Way.
That's when he got involved with El Centro de La Raza's
Hope for Youth program that works with the schools,
heritage, Spanish classes and its students.
-The goal is for them
through our program, to feel more supported
in the school environment for this election.
And just with everything happening politically, is how
giving them the tools
to talk and research topics that they're interested in.
-For Oscar,
Hope for Youth helped him to understand
what it meant to become civically engaged,
as well as the importance of voting.
-This definitely sparked a change in how I view the political system
as well as my ways that I can be involved within it.
That was one of the steps that I took
that I didn't really know was going to be a step,
but definitely helped out
how I can make the changes that I want to be seen.
-Oscar Perez is one of some 41 million Generation Z members,
ages 18 to 27 eligible to vote in the 2024 election.
About 45% are young people of color.
-Having a high youth turnout will make a huge difference.
And I'm not saying they're monolithic.
I mean, as you know, 40% of Latinos, one
want to vote one way and we're very divided as well.
But turnout is going to be key.
So if we can get
the youth to turn out,
I think that'll make a difference in this election.
-So next generation, let's join this fight together. [Applause]
-In August, El Centro de La Raza
teamed with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights for Ignite
the Change, a voter
empowerment and registration event.
El Centro de La Raza.
-Thank you for kicking this fight off.
It's a fight of what I call indignation
of apathy, a fight for love for our community.
-The goal was to rally
the Latino community and especially young people
to get engaged
and to help turn out the vote for the 2024 election.
-I believe millennials have a 29% turnout last year.
If you divide it by race,
only one in five Latinos voted last year,
and we saw similarly low
turnout in the block in the black population.
-Most immigrant communities have a low turnout
for voting in general.
For some folks, it's a language barrier.
So having language access is really important.
And I think another one is just not having
representation of folks and talking about issues
that relate to them
in the ways that it impacts their identities.
-You can have your voice heard.
-It's so important that we build a democracy
and a city
that prioritizes and values the young people's voice.
-I did vote.
-I did vote yes.
-This is my first election.
-How often are they able to actually have access
to political information and to candidates
and to people organizing to enter communities?
This new voter advocacy and voter
engagement is so critical and important.
-The beloved community involves everything, right?
It involves loving your neighbor, helping people out.
It involves
that civic responsibility as well to go out and vote
and to make sure that you are coming out
and getting resources for the community.
And a big way to do that is by voting.
-As Oscar Perez prepares to vote in the November election,
he says he's not just voting for himself,
but also for his father, who owns a Seattle restaurant
and who has spent years tied up in the immigration system
in his quest to become a U.S.
citizen as well as others.
He knows who wish they, too, had the right to vote.
-There's many things that I wish would be different,
and definitely one of the steps I'll be taking is voting.
Ese es el momento que necisitamos a votar.
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