Thread: La Raza Con-Latinos want hopefuls to address core issues

LATINO CONVENTION: NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA
Latinos want hopefuls to address core issues

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 11, 2008



LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune
Brenda Huerta (right), outreach and testing coordinator for the San Ysidro Health Center, worked yesterday with volunteers Naun Ybarra (left) and Sergio Rivera and staff bridge worker Lily Ramirez to put together free condom packets for the center's mobile clinic at the Latino Expo USA.

Online: For more about the convention, go to nclr.org


PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Staffers of Hargrove Exposition Services prepare an American flag to put behind the podium for this weekend's national Council of La Raza conference in San Diego.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will be using the National Council of La Raza convention, which begins tomorrow in San Diego, as a platform for courting the increasingly significant Latino vote.
Convention organizers hope to press the senators for answers on some of the thorniest issues affecting Latinos, among them immigration policies and solutions to the nation's health insurance and mortgage crises.

This week, as they prepared to participate in the four-day event at the San Diego Convention Center, some local groups said they were optimistic about what they would hear from the candidates and in convention sessions, while others said they wished even more issues that resonate in Latino communities were being addressed.

Volunteers from the MAAC Project, a social service organization that deals with housing, were among those preparing for a free home clinic Sunday. While the mortgage crisis is being felt across the country, Latino homeowners have been hit especially hard, with some immigrant families duped into risky subprime loans who have fallen behind on adjustable-rate mortgages.

“In Chula Vista, I can tell you from personal experience that all of a sudden you have abandoned homes,â€

Brenda Huerta (right), outreach and testing coordinator for the San Ysidro Health Center, worked yesterday with volunteers Naun Ybarra (left) and Sergio Rivera and staff bridge worker Lily Ramirez to put together free condom packets for the center's mobile clinic at the Latino Expo USA.

I think you better bring a cucumber and teach them how to use those "free" condoms, as i'm not so sure some of your beloved brethren have caught on yet...