Is Latino Leadership Self-Censoring?

Mar 9, 2015
10:05 AM

This weekend, our founder @julito77 (who is also the Digital Media Director for Futuro Media Group, producers of NPR’s LatinoUSA) was part of a very honest radio discussion with Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa and political strategist Alida García about why national mainstream Latino civil rights organizations (read NCLR, MALDEF, LULAC) have been pretty silent about the recent shoooting deaths of Jessica Hernández, Antonio Zambrano-Montes, Rubén García, Alex Nieto, as well as John Paul Quintero, David Sal Silva and others.

Left to right: Antonio Zambrano-Montes, Jessica Hernández, Alex Nieto, Rubén García (via LatinoUSA)

Left to right: Antonio Zambrano-Montes, Jessica Hernández, Alex Nieto, Rubén García (via LatinoUSA)

This weekend, Latino Rebels reviewed the websites and media pages of many prominent national Latino civil rights organizations. Last November, LULAC issued a statement about the Ferguson verdict. NLCR issued its own statement during that time as well. Last October, MALDEF commented on Flores v. City of Westminster, which alleged that Latino police officers were receiving second-tier assignments. None of the organizations have issued specific public press comments the recent shootings of Latinos, according to their websites and recent news searches.

Right after the Ferguson verdict, Voto Latino issued a co-statement with Global Grind, but it appears that no recent statements have been made.

Presente.org has provided the most specific example of a national Latino organization specifically commenting on any of the shooting cases mentioned above. On February 9, Presente issued a release about Hernández’s death. An online petition was also created. The group also initiated an online petition about the Zambrano-Montes shooting.