Luis believes that civic duty extends beyond serving in a jury and voting in elections. It also encompasses being active in bringing forth communal problems to city officials and being a part of the legislative process, including running for office. 

 

The United States is a representative democracy which means our legislators need to represent the communities they serve. Therefore the best way to represent a community, especially an underrepresented community, is to ensure that the legislator for that community comes from that community, is connected to that community, and knows the issues they face firsthand. It is Luis’ belief that more everyday citizens should at some point run for elected office to bring forth the issues their communities face as part of their civic duty and should be educated on how they are able to do so.

 

Additionally, Luis believes there should be term limits in legislative positions which would encourage ordinary community members to run for office and bring forward the most current and pressing issues their communities face. This would ensure that the legislation that is getting passed does not remain stagnant but would rather be dynamic, and continually represent the issues that the community is dealing with day to day and year to year. It would ensure that the laws keep up with the times, so that when communities evolve, so do the laws as well. 

 

Government should help encourage civic education in communities, and encourage community members to become more involved in politics. As members of our communities we know best what issues need to be solved and it is our civic duty to be a part of the legislative process to help solve those problems.

 

It is due to this personal philosophy that it is one’s civic duty to be part of the legislative process and bring forth the issues of one’s community that Luis has decided to run for Congress, to advocate for the needs of his community, including working towards a comprehensive immigration reform, affordable housing and affordable healthcare for low and middle class families. 

 

From the moment Luis immigrated to the United States with his family, he has worked diligently and thoughtfully to try to help his community, through teaching, advocacy, volunteer efforts, and encouraging others in his community to voice their concerns. Luis feels he can relate to many of his students who are also immigrants, through lived experience and similar struggles such as learning a new language and working hard to be treated with respect in this country.

 

Luis is passionate about continuing to help and empower his community, and give back to the people who have long inspired him. Luis understands the struggle of immigrant families where parents work very hard to support their children, who are often first-generation students, to go to college and universities. He remembers that his parents could not even make it to the United States. They stayed in Mexico to help their children succeed. It was very hard. He now wants to help those families that embarked on a journey to this country not just to get better opportunities for them and their children but to keep those freedoms which many of us have seen threatened in our native countries. 

 

Vote for a Latino community leader who is a native Spanish speaker, who is passionate about advocating for his community and seeks an opportunity to demonstrate that Latinos and Latinas can also work very hard and excel in many other areas of our society, including government.