New America Media, Audio, Hana Baba, KALW, Interview with Marcos Gutierrez, Posted: Oct 11, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the latest in a weekly series of interviews with ethnic media journalists, Marcos Gutierrez, radio host and producer of “Hecho en California [Made in California]” airing on KIQI 1010 AM, explains the issues that Latino voters are closely watching in the 2012 elections.

Latinos currently comprise almost 40 percent of California's population, and in San Francisco, Latino Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, and Christina Olague are up for re-election in November.

This series is part of a collaboration by New America Media and 91.7 FM KALW Public Radio.
Every Tuesday until Election Day, KALW’s news program "Crosscurrents" will interview ethnic media reporters on the stakes for their communities in the 2012 Elections.

Marcos Gutierrez explains how Gov. Jerry Brown's vetoes of several recent immigrant rights bills are impacting predominantly-Democratic Latino voters in the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes Brown’s rejection of The Humane Treatment for Farm Workers Act , which would have made it a crime for landowners not to provide shade and water to farm workers; the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which would have provided overtime pay, meal breaks and other labor protections to caregivers, nannies and house cleaners; and the TRUST Act, which would have allowed local law enforcement to refrain from submitting to immigration holds in detaining suspects for deportation unless they were charged with serious or violent felonies.

In this interview with "Crosscurrents" co-host Hana Baba, which aired on Oct. 9th, Gutierrez stresses that these developments are disappointing to Latino voters who, he says, "...go out and vote, we make campaigns, we go for something, we work for something, and then it is taken away from us. That is so basic to our democracy...We are listening to our media that is saying, 'Vote for this, go out and vote, become a citizen, register to vote'...but then when we actually become citizens, and go out and vote, they are able to destroy it in this fashion.. that to us, or at least from the perspectives that I get, is most important [to the community] as far as politics is concerned."

Click to LISTEN to this interview.

CORRECTION FROM 91.7 FM KALW (10/10/12): In the interview above, the host erroneously stated that City College of San Francisco is losing its accreditation. It should have stated that the school is in danger of losing its accreditation.


This new NAM-KALW weekly segment collaboration is hosted by Hana Baba and co-produced by NAM News Anchor Odette Keeley. Editorial supervisors are KALW News Director Holly Kernan and NAM Executive Editor Sandy Close. The segment's engineer is KALW's Seth Samuel.
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*Photo credit: "Crosscurrents" & 91.7 FM KALW