Texas Latino Policy Symposium

Accountability / Civil Rights / Public Policy

Texas Policy Legacy: A Powerless Latino Underclass

Latino and Black families are being regulated to a generational and permanent underclass population status. The history of Texas’ minimalist approach to policymaking has perpetuated limited human capital investments, and unequal opportunities to achieve family…

Accountability / Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Public Policy

Data Brief: Latino Improvement Profiles Across Texas’ Economic…

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission Hearing held in San Antonio in 1968, and the 1997 publication “The New Texas Challenge: Population Change and the Future of Texas” led by Steve H. Murdock are entangled. Latino…

Accountability / Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Public Policy

Latino Center for Social Justice and Equity

The Latino Texas Policy Center (LTPC) is a developing statewide organization based in San Antonio. The Texas Latino Policy Symposium (TXLPS), which includes this blog, has described the need; and advocated for leadership to establish…

Accountability / Civil Rights / Public Policy

Uvalde Tragedy: Latinos Want Justice and Change

The Uvalde tragedy resulted in extensive media, punditry, and political attention. Yet, has anyone asked what the children’s families and predominant Latino community want? The failed communications and understanding of their wants serve as a microcosm…

Civic Engagement / Public Policy / Socio-Economic

Inflation and Texas’ Regressive Tax Policy

The people and vital services least able to handle increased costs for food, gas, housing, and utilities are the ones least likely to benefit from inflation-related adjustments. Yet, the Texas Senate Finance charged with examining…

Civil Rights / Health and Human Services / Public Policy

Texas’ Climate Disaster: Latino Community Impact and Policy…

The Texas Winter Storm, in February 2021, disproportionately impacted Latino, Black, and low-income peoples. The winter disaster occurred while they were struggling with pandemic conditions and its concurrent disproportionate economic and health effects. TX CLIMATE…

Accountability / Civic Engagement / Electoral Power

Robert Santos, the new U.S. Census Director wants…

The U.S. Census is about power and money, and Texas Latinos have so far lost on both counts; in electoral power and federal funding that helps support important vital infrastructure and health and human service…

Civic Engagement / Civil Rights / Public Policy

Chicano Movement Legacies: Fifty Years of Raza Unida…

A Reunion and Celebration of the Legacy of Raza Unida Party –One of the Most Influential Organizations of the Chicano Movement. Participants will review the history and legacy of the Raza Unida Party, and its…

Civil Rights / Health and Human Services / Public Policy

Decades of Latino Health Injustice

There are 2.5 more uninsured Latinos today than their total population of 1.8 million during the 1968 U.S. Civil Rights Commission Hearing conducted in San Antonio. It’s a social justice issue that requires change from…

Civic Engagement / Education / Public Policy

What Texas’ Classroom Censorship Law Means for Students…

Texas’ classroom censorship law, Senate Bill 3 (SB 3) will make it even more difficult to undo the myths of the Alamo. In particular, the myths and lies of its so-called heroes who supposedly died…

Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Civic Engagement / Public Policy

Latinos Think Tank: A Catalyst for Policymaking Power

Texas needs a Latino-focused Think Tank. It is confounding and disconcerting that none currently exist. Preferably, the Think Tank should be an independent non-institutional organization that can contribute to critical policy dialogue and a catalyst…

Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Electoral Power / Public Policy-Making

Latino Bienestar (Well-Being) among Texas’ 12 Economic Regions

Latinos are a diverse population that also encompass their respective achievement of social and economic progress across the states’ 12 distinct economic regions. The authors argued that much more progressive policies are needed than even…

Accountability / Civic Engagement / Electoral Power

Building Latinx Electoral Power

The Texas Organizing Project is a grass-roots membership organization organizing in four cities at a neighborhood level. They’re organizing model involves strategic issue-based campaigns that engage people in the fight for their daily lives, direct…

Civic Engagement / Public Policy-Making / Socio-Economic

Texas’ Tax System: Why We Need To Change…

Texas’ ideology to accommodate the tax policy needs of the corporate sector while limiting human capital investments (e.g., education, health, housing, economic development) that equalize opportunities for economic mobility are legendary. The state’s regressive tax…

Civil Rights / Messaging / Organizing

Mexican American Civil Rights: 1968 vs. 2021

Recent publications and events regarding the history of Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas have garnered public attention. It could not be timelier given current enacted state laws that target voter suppression and white-washing historical…

Education / Equity / Public Policy

Texas is Not Financing College Readiness

Texas boasts about its economic power and its investment in economic development, but it doesn’t ensure that there are high standards for math and science. It really does create a double standard when you start…

Civic Engagement / Civil Rights / Electoral Power

Paid Sick Days: Workers Bienestar (Well-Being) Unfullfilled!

Over 4 million Texas workers, half of them Latinos, have their economic mobility impeded because they lack employer-based paid sick leave. The 87th State Legislative Session preferred focusing on divisive issues and corporate hand-outs versus…

Labor/Employment / Public Policy-Making / Women

Latinas and Covid – 19 Workforce Impact: Who’s…

The resilience and importance of Latinas to our families have always been apparent. Their pivotal population and economic contribution to Texas’s growth and future must no longer be undermined or ignored. Covid-19 magnified multiple gender…

Labor Training / Labor/Employment / Public Policy-Making / Women

One and a half years since COVID: A…

Between the lingering impacts of last year’s economic shutdown and emerging variants of the coronavirus, the long-term effects of the pandemic on the workforce are still uncertain. Texas employment has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but…

Health and Human Services / Health Workforce / Public Policy-Making

How Stressed Are Health Providers During the Covid-19…

Latina front-line Covid-19 health workers and providers experience negative effects in the workplace and at home. Their care to farmworkers, immigrants, the homeless, and people living in poverty led to high levels of stressors and…

Civic-Voters / Demographic / Electoral Power

A Reflection on the Latino Vote in Texas

Political pundits have tried to make sense of the disappointing 2020 outcome in Texas for those of us who have wanted to see the state turn blue. In this essay, I provide my analysis of…

Immigration / Public Policy-Making / Socio-Economic

Immigrants Economically Vital But Disparaged and Unjustly Treated

Immigrants are a vital part of Texas’ economy. Their consumer spending power totaled 120.3 billion dollars, and they paid $40.6 billion dollars in local, state, and federal taxes. They are significant economic contributors to every…

Accountability / Civic Engagement / Electoral Power

Texas Legislature, Advocacy, and Latino Interest

One would expect Latino interests and concerns among the 87thLegislative Session’s budget priorities given they represent 40% of the states’ population and are a major reason for the state gaining 2 congressional seats: however, … Texas Legislature,…

Accountability / Civic Engagement / Education

Latino Professors Over-Perform and Underpaid

Latino faculty representation and leadership is crucial across Texas’s higher education system. Yet, Latino/a faculty is experiencing wage inequities regardless of equivalent and better qualifications. A group of Latino/a professors at UT Austin have been…

Civic Engagement / Health and Human Services / Legislation / Public Policy-Making

Improve Health and Economic Security: Expand the Medicaid…

Latinos comprise over 62% (3.2 million) of Texas’s uninsured population. It includes over 2.5 million and 674,000 Latino adults and children respectively. These numbers do not include Covid-19 related loss of employment-based health insurance coverage. …

Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Legislation / Public Policy-Making / Socio-Economic

Covid-19 and Latino Legislative Priorities: TXLPS III Summary

The 3rd Texas Latino Policy Symposium (TXLPS III) urged local and state Covid-19 recovery support and structural policymaking change. Covid-19 further exposed Texas’s inadequate and unequal investments in education, employment, housing, health care, and economic…

Demographic / Electoral Power / Public Policy-Making

2020 Census: Impact on Money and Power

The coronavirus pandemic has rocked our world, completely changing our lives and our routines. It is a significant threat to Latinos’ 2020 census response and outreach efforts. Money and political power are at stake. Texas…

Economic Public-Private Development / Education / Labor/Employment

Texans in their twenties: a window into the…

According to one researcher, it appears most Texas children live in neighborhoods with below average opportunities. Further, the state has an underdevelopment problem that is evident in its ability to produce the workforce needed to…

Health and Human Services / Labor/Employment / Public Policy-Making

Coronavirus Pandemic: The ‘Si Se Puede’ Challenge

The coronavirus pandemic is challenging Latino advocacy strategies and ‘Si se puede’ (yes we can) social change mantra. Latinos are at high-risk of experiencing disproportionate social, financial and health hardships from the coronavirus pandemic. High…

Civic-Voters / Legislation / Ordinance / Public Policy-Making

Latino Voters Identifies Top Issues

Jobs (wage), health care (costs), and immigration including treatment of all Latinos were among the top issues for Texas Latino according to a UnidosUS and Latino Decisions conducted “2020 Texas Latino Electorate Survey”. The survey…

Civic Engagement / Electoral Power / Legislation / Public Policy-Making

Texas Policies and Latino Economic Mobility

Without transformative change to the State’s minimalist policy making approach, Latinos will experience another generation of unequal opportunity for economic mobility. Latinos and their allies must transform Texas policy-making to an approach driven more by…

Bienestar (Well-Being) Profiles / Demographic / Socio-Economic

Latino Political, Social, and Economic Progress Across Texas

Latinos have experienced inequitable and discriminatory state and local public policies with negative impacts over generations. Progress has been made but challenges remain. Improvements in the social and economic mobility of Latino families first occurred…