Latino and Vietnamese organizations in California’s 45th congressional district, which features one of the most closely watched races of the 2024 election cycle, have joined forces to advocate for a more representative and responsive government.
“There is more that unites us than separates us,” said Carlos Perea, executive director of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, during an Oct. 10 meeting at the Tram Chim Live King Crab restaurant in Westminster.
“I’m tired of seeing our communities being used as political pawns,” he said. “What I hope to do is build our own political power together.”
The meeting of community leaders centered on recent documentary-style videos from several progressive community organizations — VietRISE, Harbor Institute for Economic and Immigrant Justice, El Centro Cultural de México and Tenants United Santa Ana — in partnership with the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
The three-part video series, in English with subtitles in Spanish and Vietnamese, highlighted Santa Ana’s sanctuary city fight, its rent control campaign and efforts to allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.
In 2017, Santa Ana became the first city in the county to enact a law designating itself a sanctuary for all residents, regardless of their immigration status. In 2021, it became the first city in the county to enact its own rent control and just cause eviction laws. And in November, Santa Ana voters will weigh in on whether to extend voting rights to noncitizens.
In the three videos, Latino and Vietnamese residents, young and old, shared their experiences of grassroots organizing around those issues. There’s a shared bottom line: Immigrant deportation, rising rent and a lack of representation in local government don’t discriminate.
The Westminster restaurant, where the video series launched, is located in California’s majority-minority 45th congressional district, which has a significant population of both Vietnamese and Latino people.
Perea said despite being neighbors, the Latino community in the past held misconceptions about the Vietnamese community. Part of that was due to political messaging, he said.
Perea recalled mailers from a local campaign several years ago that portrayed Latinos climbing over a barbed-wire fence, while other immigrants were depicted in a photo being sworn in as citizens.
The “model minority” stereotype, which portrays Asian Americans as universally successful — especially in education and economic achievement — only reinforced those misconceptions, he said.
“Many of us thought issues like housing and immigration only impacted us, and that Asian folks are more well-off,” he said. “We didn’t think rent control was a concern for Asians.”
It wasn’t until organizers from both communities joined forces for Santa Ana’s sanctuary city status and rent control that Perea discovered many Vietnamese individuals are also undocumented and impacted by deportations — especially as former President Donald Trump sought to deport Vietnam War refugees during his presidency.
National polling and data suggest Latino voters tend to support Democrats — although a recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates Democrats are losing Latinos and other minority voters — whereas Vietnamese voters are more inclined to favor the Republican Party.
In Orange County, the city of Santa Ana, where Latinos comprise the majority of the population, overwhelmingly turned out for President Joe Biden in the March primary election. (Biden was still running for re-election at the time.) On the other hand, many Little Saigon neighborhoods — mainly in Garden Grove and Westminster — supported Trump.
According to community organizers, those data points place both communities in a “political box,” so to speak, allowing for situations where they could be pitted against one another.
Tracy La, executive director of VietRISE, said she hopes outreach efforts and materials like the videos will help dismantle the dominant narrative surrounding the community, which often focuses on hyper-conservatism and red-baiting, a political tactic that involves accusing individuals or groups of having communist sympathies and insinuating that they are “un-American.”
“A lot of us feel like we keep seeing the same recycled campaigns over and over again,” she said. “Our community is getting really tired of the same headlines every four years with the red-baiting and focusing on anti-communism without really talking about issues that working-class Vietnamese are experiencing.”
California’s 45th congressional district, a majority-Asian area that includes Orange County’s Little Saigon— the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam — is represented by Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach. Notably, the district went for Biden, a Democrat, in 2020 while re-electing the Republican House member.
This year, it’s one of 31 congressional seats held by Republicans that the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm sees as a “key to winning a Democratic House majority.”
As of Sept. 6, state data shows that 37.3% of registered voters in the district are Democrats, 33% are Republicans and 24% have no party preference.
La said she hopes people will watch the videos and realize that the fight for change is more powerful when communities come together.
“I’ve seen what it looks like when community members have the power to voice their experiences, and for that power to actually come to fruition,” she said. “This is why it is important for us to engage in cross-community organizing.”
The videos can be found on VietRISE’s website.
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