May 10, 2024 • 10 mins
The Florida chapter of the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic membership organization is meeting in an unusual spot. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) state convention is happening in Haines City. Organizers are also sponsoring a job fair and voter education. We speak with Florida director Eliseo Santana about the meeting, LULAC's issues in Florida and the fast-growing Hispanic population in eastern Polk County.
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. The nation's oldest and largest Hispanic membership
organization, the League of United LatinAmerican Citizens, is holding its Florida State
Convention Saturday. This is being heldat the Lake Ava Event Center in Haines
City from nine am to six pm. Elisio Santana Junior is Florida State director
(00:20):
of lou LAC, and he joinsus now Beyond the News. Mister Santana,
welcome, Thank you, thank youfor having me here. I am
so pleased to be able to addressthis issue and to say hi to everybody
this listening. Now, before weget to some of the issues that LULAC
has been addressing in Florida, let'slook at the location where you're holding the
event in Haines City. That's inthe center of the state, of course,
(00:44):
just southwest of Orlando and Polk County, and that area of the state
is becoming a growth magnet in generaland is also growing in terms of Hispanic
population as well. Tell us andtalk to us a bit about what's driving
that growth in that part of thestate. Well, the it is a
basically there's a lot of open landthat's available, the cost of living in
(01:08):
Pole County is significantly less than theadjacent counties like Orange County, Hillsborough County,
and and the availability of being ableto end the facility of being able
to own your own home UH inthat area is a lot higher probability,
(01:30):
and there's a lot of new apartmentcomplexes that are growing. So as far
as the availability for lower price UHresidential areas both for rental land for buying,
that seems to be the place thatthat is most inviting, particularly for
population that works in the Orange CountyKissam area. UH. They were able
(01:56):
to work there and then live ina more rural type of an environment.
So it's kind of spillover from thepopulation. And in this case, I
assume we would be talking about primarilyand predominantly people of Puerto Rican descent in
Orange and Osciola Counties who are lookingfor better housing and less expensive housing and
(02:19):
are moving and spilling over into PolkCounty as well. Yes, and also
the living environment it's a lot morerelaxed and more identical or more similar to
that environment that they had in PuertoRico and the rural areas of the island.
Now LULAC has been involved with alot of issues involving Florida government over
(02:43):
the last year or so, includingconflict with the Dessantus administration over the transport
of refugee migrants to other states,in most recently opposition of the bill that
he signed that bans local governments fromrequiring heat and water breaks. There's a
lot of issues that play there.Where would you say your organization's relationship with
(03:07):
Tallahassee and state government stands well rightnow? I think that the Tallahassee and
state government do not really understand theHispanic population that we have, and so
they're making a lot of decisions basedon something that is happening exterior to Florida.
(03:27):
The majority of the Hispanic population thatis moving into Florida that is living
here up with Dorricanos, which areUS citizens, and they say significant percentage
of the Hispanic population that is nonFor Reagan, there is also citizens and
have fully documented the amount of undocumentedindividuals that maybe in the eyes of the
(03:53):
local government, or should I saynot local, but the state government,
that is problematic. And I questionthat that identity as problematic is extremely low
in this population base that we havehere in Florida. So many of the
(04:14):
laws that are being passed are beingpassed with a with a with a population
in mind that does not exist.It does not happen in the state of
Florida. Now, the event thatyou're going to be holding, the LULAC
State Convention, takes place Saturday inHaines City. What is going on there
and what kinds of activities are goingto be happening there? I assume there
(04:38):
there may be some organizational business goingon. Is is the event open to
the public? And well, wehave we have two phases of it.
One is our state Membership Convention,in which we have some educational aspects like
voter education and environmental issues that weapproach and how they affect the Hispanic population.
(05:05):
And we also have a job farethat is open to everyone and we
welcome everyone that is seeking employment tobe there. There are some government entities
and other private enterprises that will bethere that will be offering jobs, and
also some other organizations will be thereto communicate and interact with people and getting
(05:31):
people to know what services they provide. And that's again going that part the
job fair is taking place. Isthat going on all day from nine am
to six pm. That's from nineam to believe two o'clock. All right,
and once again that's at the LakeAva Event Center in Haines City.
(05:56):
All right, very good. Well, obviously you've identified an area of growth
and people are looking forward to thatand taking part in that event. What
are your organization's plans going into ofcourse we've already had the presidential primary,
but what are your plans for Floridagoing into election season? Well, what
(06:19):
we discovered is that the majority ofHispanics that are registered to vote will overwhelmingly
over sixty nine percent of them willvote for the presidential candidate of their choosing.
But when it comes down to votingfor the representative state level house,
(06:45):
it's city council, mayor sheriff,school board. When it comes down to
these positions, it significantly drops toin most instances to find of the registered
Hispanic voters will vote for these positionsor should I say, not vote for
(07:06):
these positions. What we discovered isthat when we did a questionnaire, is
that they do not understand the civics. They do not understand how government works
at the local level, at thestate level and also in the county that
they're in and in the city thatthey reside. They come from other locations,
(07:30):
they have other ways of governance.As an example, in Puerto Rico,
you do not vote for the schoolboard that is an appointed position.
You do not vote for sheriff that'salso an appointed position. So many of
these the citizens that are now livingin Polk County, and also this applies
(07:53):
to the rest of Florida also donot know the power of the individual that
is running for that local school boardor the city council. So therefore they
do not vote. As matter offact, they usually say, what difference
does it make if I vote forthe person or not? And that's where
(08:16):
we at LULAK are making the changesby educating the Hispanic educating the voter as
to the Civics, the value thepower that's involved in voting at the lowest
level, the low at the lowestlevel at this is really the most powerful
(08:37):
thing that impacts their daily lives.So that is an educational process. And
what we found is that when we'reable to educate them as to the power
of the position, introduce them tothose individuals that are holding them positions,
and then show them what issues arebeing addressed it they are concerned with with
(09:00):
at that level, we have afive increase in voter participation when we do
that. Getting back to the eventand tying it into politics, do you
have any noteworthy speakers that are goingto be presenting there on Saturday? The
Big Cold Corres, Senator for thestate of Florida. He's the highest ranking
(09:24):
his Hispanic at that level. Hewill be speaking. He'll be a guest
speaker there. We're also going tohave Karen Pettis, which is the head
of the school board for Hillsboro County, and Susanne Baldez, which is also
a representative in the area. We'reexpecting some other individuals to appear, but
(09:50):
these are the ones that have confirmedthat they're going to be there right There
will be a lot going on.Lso Santana, the Florida State director of
the League of United Latin American CitizensLULAC, meeting in Haines City Saturday.
Thank you very much for joining uson beyond the News and everybody's invited.
Come on down. If you're lookingfor employment, come on down. If
(10:11):
you're looking for education, come ondown.
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. The nation's oldest and largest Hispanic membership
organization, the League of United LatinAmerican Citizens, is holding its Florida State
Convention Saturday. This is being heldat the Lake Ava Event Center in Haines
City from nine am to six pm. Elisio Santana Junior is Florida State director
(00:20):
of lou LAC, and he joinsus now Beyond the News. Mister Santana,
welcome, Thank you, thank youfor having me here. I am
so pleased to be able to addressthis issue and to say hi to everybody
this listening. Now, before weget to some of the issues that LULAC
has been addressing in Florida, let'slook at the location where you're holding the
event in Haines City. That's inthe center of the state, of course,
(00:44):
just southwest of Orlando and Polk County, and that area of the state
is becoming a growth magnet in generaland is also growing in terms of Hispanic
population as well. Tell us andtalk to us a bit about what's driving
that growth in that part of thestate. Well, the it is a
basically there's a lot of open landthat's available, the cost of living in
(01:08):
Pole County is significantly less than theadjacent counties like Orange County, Hillsborough County,
and and the availability of being ableto end the facility of being able
to own your own home UH inthat area is a lot higher probability,
(01:30):
and there's a lot of new apartmentcomplexes that are growing. So as far
as the availability for lower price UHresidential areas both for rental land for buying,
that seems to be the place thatthat is most inviting, particularly for
population that works in the Orange CountyKissam area. UH. They were able
(01:56):
to work there and then live ina more rural type of an environment.
So it's kind of spillover from thepopulation. And in this case, I
assume we would be talking about primarilyand predominantly people of Puerto Rican descent in
Orange and Osciola Counties who are lookingfor better housing and less expensive housing and
(02:19):
are moving and spilling over into PolkCounty as well. Yes, and also
the living environment it's a lot morerelaxed and more identical or more similar to
that environment that they had in PuertoRico and the rural areas of the island.
Now LULAC has been involved with alot of issues involving Florida government over
(02:43):
the last year or so, includingconflict with the Dessantus administration over the transport
of refugee migrants to other states,in most recently opposition of the bill that
he signed that bans local governments fromrequiring heat and water breaks. There's a
lot of issues that play there.Where would you say your organization's relationship with
(03:07):
Tallahassee and state government stands well rightnow? I think that the Tallahassee and
state government do not really understand theHispanic population that we have, and so
they're making a lot of decisions basedon something that is happening exterior to Florida.
(03:27):
The majority of the Hispanic population thatis moving into Florida that is living
here up with Dorricanos, which areUS citizens, and they say significant percentage
of the Hispanic population that is nonFor Reagan, there is also citizens and
have fully documented the amount of undocumentedindividuals that maybe in the eyes of the
(03:53):
local government, or should I saynot local, but the state government,
that is problematic. And I questionthat that identity as problematic is extremely low
in this population base that we havehere in Florida. So many of the
(04:14):
laws that are being passed are beingpassed with a with a with a population
in mind that does not exist.It does not happen in the state of
Florida. Now, the event thatyou're going to be holding, the LULAC
State Convention, takes place Saturday inHaines City. What is going on there
and what kinds of activities are goingto be happening there? I assume there
(04:38):
there may be some organizational business goingon. Is is the event open to
the public? And well, wehave we have two phases of it.
One is our state Membership Convention,in which we have some educational aspects like
voter education and environmental issues that weapproach and how they affect the Hispanic population.
(05:05):
And we also have a job farethat is open to everyone and we
welcome everyone that is seeking employment tobe there. There are some government entities
and other private enterprises that will bethere that will be offering jobs, and
also some other organizations will be thereto communicate and interact with people and getting
(05:31):
people to know what services they provide. And that's again going that part the
job fair is taking place. Isthat going on all day from nine am
to six pm. That's from nineam to believe two o'clock. All right,
and once again that's at the LakeAva Event Center in Haines City.
(05:56):
All right, very good. Well, obviously you've identified an area of growth
and people are looking forward to thatand taking part in that event. What
are your organization's plans going into ofcourse we've already had the presidential primary,
but what are your plans for Floridagoing into election season? Well, what
(06:19):
we discovered is that the majority ofHispanics that are registered to vote will overwhelmingly
over sixty nine percent of them willvote for the presidential candidate of their choosing.
But when it comes down to votingfor the representative state level house,
(06:45):
it's city council, mayor sheriff,school board. When it comes down to
these positions, it significantly drops toin most instances to find of the registered
Hispanic voters will vote for these positionsor should I say, not vote for
(07:06):
these positions. What we discovered isthat when we did a questionnaire, is
that they do not understand the civics. They do not understand how government works
at the local level, at thestate level and also in the county that
they're in and in the city thatthey reside. They come from other locations,
(07:30):
they have other ways of governance.As an example, in Puerto Rico,
you do not vote for the schoolboard that is an appointed position.
You do not vote for sheriff that'salso an appointed position. So many of
these the citizens that are now livingin Polk County, and also this applies
(07:53):
to the rest of Florida also donot know the power of the individual that
is running for that local school boardor the city council. So therefore they
do not vote. As matter offact, they usually say, what difference
does it make if I vote forthe person or not? And that's where
(08:16):
we at LULAK are making the changesby educating the Hispanic educating the voter as
to the Civics, the value thepower that's involved in voting at the lowest
level, the low at the lowestlevel at this is really the most powerful
(08:37):
thing that impacts their daily lives.So that is an educational process. And
what we found is that when we'reable to educate them as to the power
of the position, introduce them tothose individuals that are holding them positions,
and then show them what issues arebeing addressed it they are concerned with with
(09:00):
at that level, we have afive increase in voter participation when we do
that. Getting back to the eventand tying it into politics, do you
have any noteworthy speakers that are goingto be presenting there on Saturday? The
Big Cold Corres, Senator for thestate of Florida. He's the highest ranking
(09:24):
his Hispanic at that level. Hewill be speaking. He'll be a guest
speaker there. We're also going tohave Karen Pettis, which is the head
of the school board for Hillsboro County, and Susanne Baldez, which is also
a representative in the area. We'reexpecting some other individuals to appear, but
(09:50):
these are the ones that have confirmedthat they're going to be there right There
will be a lot going on.Lso Santana, the Florida State director of
the League of United Latin American CitizensLULAC, meeting in Haines City Saturday.
Thank you very much for joining uson beyond the News and everybody's invited.
Come on down. If you're lookingfor employment, come on down. If
(10:11):
you're looking for education, come ondown.
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