The quote expresses a universal sentiment:
“Many of these families are in survival mode. They are doing what they need to do to keep a roof overhead, buy groceries and see that their children attend school. They don’t have time for anything else.”
Lots of families fi nd themselves in precisely that set of circumstances, so focused on day-to-day life that they leave public policy and politics in general to someone else.
The words could apply to the latest members of a family deeply rooted in Arkansas, possibly trying to make a living off of the same hardscrabble ground settled by much earlier generations.
Or they could be a family still new to the state, even to the nation, a part of the wave of immigrants that has literally changed the face of Northwest Arkansas in recent decades.
These two types of families have more in common than they might realize, including that fundamental survival mode mentioned above — and the resulting lack of involvement in the political process.
The context in which the issue came up wasn’t about the struggle that all families face, however. It was about what’s going on in the Hispanic community, most specifically in Rogers, and what local leaders need to do to bring about more involvement and communication from this growing segment of the population.
The survival quote came from Rey Hernandez, a member of the Benton County Quorum Court, as he assessed why the ever-growing Hispanic population has been slow to seek and to win community leadership roles.
Hernandez was quoted in a news article on the increasing diversifi cation of Rogers, where the population is 31.4 percent Hispanic, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. That’s well up from the 19.4 percent recorded 10 years earlier.
Those statistics and many more are part of an analysis released earlier this month by Market Street Services, a national consulting fi rm.
Notably, what was a one-in-fi ve presence of Hispanics in the general population is now closer to one in three in Rogers, as more Hispanics are drawn to all of Northwest Arkansas by the same economic factors that pull other people here.
Also, the families of immigrants are growing in place, just as the families of the region’s settlers have multiplied.
Anyway, you’d think by now that such a strong ethnic presence would be having a measurable impact on local and even state politics. That presence should at least aff ect how candidates appeal for Hispanic votes if it hasn’t prompted more representation from Hispanics themselves.
“It usually takes three generations before leaders emerge from an ethnic group,” Hernandez said.
“I think we are moving in that direction, but aren’t there yet.”
Hernandez is American, born to Hispanic parents in Texas, and is in a county leadership post via appointment. Gov. Mike Beebe named Hernandez to fi ll a vacancy on the Quorum Court.
Carlos Chicas, also quoted in the article, is among the still-small number of Hispanics who have tried to get elected to public oft ce. An American citizen now, he came here from Guatemala. In 2012, he lost a race for a seat on the Rogers City Council but plans to try again this year for the seat.
He and other Hispanic candidates will try to win favor from an electorate that doesn’t necessarily reflect the increasing Hispanic population in the city.
Some who could participate are simply not registered to vote. Others don’t vote for cultural reasons, Chicas said.
Eventually, those barriers may be overcome by educating prospective Latino voters about American politics.
The greater problem, however, may be refl ected in another observation from that Market Street assessment of Rogers.
“Although Rogers is rapidly diversifying, it is really becoming a community of two demographics: whites and Hispanics,” according to the report, which not only cites the explosion of Hispanics to the region but also the dearth of African Americans or other races and ethnicities.
It is a clear caution against future segregation within the city between whites and Hispanics, which could come without focused intervention to improve communication and representation.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE
COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME
JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST
ARKANSAS.