Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Rep. Dora Olivo, D-Rosenberg

AUSTIN - State Rep. Dora Olivo told a gathering of Las Comadres members that issues important to women, such as family and children, will not get heard in the legislature until more of them vote.

The Rosenberg Democrat made her remarks at the group’s Comadres with Clout breakfast event at the state Capitol. The event honored the state’s eight Latina legislators. Olivo also attended the group’s two-day Worldwide Comadrazo, which attracted thousands of Latinas from across the country, and Central and South America.

Las Comadres which started in 2000, seeks to empower Latinas through community building and networking.

“If things are like they are in this nation it’s because not enough of us are voting,” said Olivo, who has been a community activist for 33 years and a state representative for five terms.

“Let me tell you, it makes a hell of a difference who is in office. We are fighting for major issues and we can’t get them because of who is voting and who’s in power. There are some issues that are being held up because we have people at the top who think differently.”

Olivo said she heard far too frequently from women that all politicians are the same. She said that was not true. She encouraged the 100-plus Latinas at the breakfast event to run for office. “We need women that are strong, that are not afraid, that have courage and are not afraid to speak up. Money buys influence and it is happening, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” she said.

In an interview later with the Guardian, Olivo said her experience in the legislature has taught her that policy changes don’t just happen in a vacuum. “If you want your viewpoint heard, you have to be in there. And we are not using our voices. That is why we are having a hell of a time,” Olivo said. “We Latinas have to come into the system and not forget who we are, who we represent and what we are fighting for.”

The key ingredients to the growing strength of Las Comadres are e-mail networking, coordinated by one of the group’s founders, Nora Comstock, and monthly potlucks where Latinas get together once a month at a member’s home to relax, eat good food and share their experiences. While the Austin group, numbering 1,600, is the largest, there are Las Comadres networks developing in El Paso, Laredo, and the Upper and Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Olivo said she has not participated in the monthly gatherings but is on the group’s list serve. She told the Guardian the group has so much to offer, not just in Texas, where it began, but across the country.

“There’s such a beauty in who we, as Latinas, are. Bringing that across is going to be a powerful thing because the world needs that,” Olivo said. “They need to see who we are and where we come from and what makes us who we are. I don’t want to generalize but there is a warmth about our people. My message is, it’s okay to be who we are. We bring our own values to the table.”

Comstock announced at the Comadres with Clout event that the group would be hosting a leadership program in conjunction with the University of Texas’s LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin.

The program will start in July and run for six months, with one meeting per month held on a Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Only Las Comadres will be able to apply to participate in the 30-member class. If successful, the group plans similar programs in New York and California.

“It’s this big,” Comstock said of the program, with her arms stretched wide. “This thing (Las Comadres) is just blowing up within us. We have to let it out and this program will help us do it. We are going to change the world.”

Comstock said voting in an election was not enough and that Latinas had to get involved in the political process. “What skills do you have to have to run for office? Can you do the job you are running for? What does the job require? What does it mean to be a lobbyist and what does it mean to be a legislator? These are the sort of things the program will cover,” she said.

Jason Casellas, assistant professor of government at UT’s Center for Mexican-American Studies, is helping develop the Las Comadres leadership program.

“My research is about Latino representation and legislatures and Congress. It’s up my alley, as it were,” Casellas said. “It’s going to be a great endeavor. I’m excited about the potential of more Latino representatives in office, especially Latinas. I think the sky is the limit when it comes to a program like this. We can nurture and cultivate a new generation of leadership which is desperately needed.”

Comstock said she had learned about leadership and the importance of community involvement from attending an LBJ School of Public Affairs-run course called Innovation 88. “It was one of the most impactful experiences of my life,” she said.

Innovation 88, which ran for 11 years, was spearheaded by Lauro Cruz, who, in 1966, became the first ever Hispanic state representative from Houston. Cruz attended the Comadres with Clout event.

Cruz said the new leadership program was just as important as the one he coordinated.

“Back in 1989 we could see that Hispanics would be the majority in Texas by 2010 or 2020. A group of us got together and asked ourselves, if they handed us Latinos the state of Texas on a silver platter, were we ready? We said no, we need more trained leaders,” Cruz explained.

Asked if the Latino community was ready to run the state of Texas now, Cruz was forthright. “We are still not ready. That’s why we need more programs like Nora’s,” he said. “I am impressed, though, with the number of kids coming through from migrant farm worker backgrounds in South Texas. They go a long way because they know what the bottom looks like and they want to get out.”

The Worldwide Comadrazo, held Friday and Saturday at El Buen Samaritano mission in South Austin, attracted hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors from across the country.

Sylvia Melendez-Klinger, a registered dietician, came in from Chicago. She said Las Comadres had room for growth in her city because it contained the fourth largest concentration of Latinos in the country, mostly Mexican American in origin. She said that currently, only two Latinos are in office in Chicago as alderman.

Melenzez-Klinger said that when she first joined Las Comadres she was kind of cautious.

“But, the more I got to know the group I knew I had to be part of it. It gives you energy. It’s contagious,” she said.

“Las Comadres is an empowering organization. It’s a relaxed atmosphere where we help each other. We help people get jobs. We help them connect to other people. It could by family, health issues, whatever it is we are here to give a helping hand. It’s a two-way street of giving.”