Your Vote is Your Voice

Voting is a privilege that allows our voice to be heard. We are fortunate enough to have a say in who will be in control of our country. This opportunity to vote should be seen as not only a privilege but as a responsibility. Voting has not always been an option to many people including Latinos, women, slaves, etc. In Born in Blood & Fire John Charles Chasteen describes the many hardships Latinos faced throughout history to get where they are today in society. After World War II, Latin America began to change in ways that still apply today. After World War II, the idea of populism was introduced, this idea focused on politics and winning elections; this is where voting came into play. This was the time period in Latin America where voting became open to women, the voting age was declared as 18, and the requirements to be able to vote were not extremely hard to meet.  These are extremely important milestones in Latin American history, but they also apply to US American history, and regulations that we still see today.

            Throughout Latin American history, women were never given the privileges and freedoms that we see in today’s society. As society in Latin America progressed, women were always left behind because they were only seen as breeders and caretakers. The fact that women were finally given the right to vote in Latin America shows the true progress that was starting to overtake society and people’s views. This is true not only for Latin America, but for the United States too. Women were never given the same privileges as men which led to the Women’s Suffrage movement in US History. This is when women protested for the right to have their voice heard through voting. Before Latin America gave women the right to vote, the United States had done the same through their constitution. On August 18, 1920 the United States added the 19^th amendment to their constitution which gave women the right to vote.

            When Latin America gave women the right to vote, they also made the legal voting age 18 and lowered the literacy requirements to be able to vote. This is a factor that is still true in today’s society. The legal voting age in the United States today is 18. It gives everyone from that age and up, who is a citizen, the opportunity to vote for who they feel would best take care of our country. Unlike voting for women, Latin America first made the voting age 18 before the United States actually wrote that into their constitution. In 1971, the United States established the voting age to be 18 which was the 26^th amendment. This is important when referring to Latin America’s history because at the age of 18 most Latino men were working in hard labor, but with progress they were able to have their voice heard through the privilege of voting.

            Being Latino in general comes with many assumptions about our race, and usually comes with many requirements or judgments from people of a different race  I believe that having the opportunity to vote is extremely important because it gives us as Latinos a reason to better inform ourselves on America’s government and use that knowledge to vote for the person that will help our country in ways that will apply to our lives. That is why as soon as I turned 18 I made sure I went and voted, and I will be sure to do so in every other election. It is important to take advantage of this opportunity, but also remember the struggles faced in Latin America, and why voting was such a big milestone in history, and why it remains a milestone today.

Sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/somah/2254869755/ 

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/28/do-we-need-to-redefine-adulthood/leave-the-voting-age-alone
http://www.history.com/topics/19th-amendment