EASTON, Pa. – A legislative Hearing on the state of the Latino community in Pennsylvania was held in Easton on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It coincides with this year’s 9th annual Pennsylvania Latino Convention, bringing attention to the realities facing the Latino population.<\/p>\n
During the convention’s third and final day, a more than two-hour hearing inside Easton City Hall brought together lawmakers, community leaders and policy experts from around the Keystone State.<\/p>\n
More than a discussion, it’s a statewide urgency highlighting the priorities and opportunities affecting the more than one million Pa. Latino residents.<\/p>\n
“We have to remember that Latinos who come into this country are seeking a better life not only for themselves and their families, but also to be part of that American dream,” said State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz.<\/p>\n
Cepeda-Freytiz, who represents Berks County’s 129th legislative district, is the chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus.<\/p>\n
She sat alongside a panel of legislators, listened, questioned, and encouraged testifiers as they addressed statewide issues impacting Latino residents.<\/p>\n
“We do have policies and bills in place that might be either stuck in committees or are stuck in the Senate, and so I think it’s very important for people to understand that elections have consequences,” said Cepeda-Freytiz.<\/p>\n
Topics include demographics and civic engagement, gun violence, housing, economic development and workforce, and more.<\/p>\n
“We heard from areas ranging from education and the need for more bilingual teachers, bilingual psychologists, bilingual therapists. We also heard about the need for access to health,” said Cepeda-Freytiz.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Latino Convention Chairman Normal Bristol Colon said the hearing and the convention overlapping is intentional, strategic, and serves as an opportunity for all attendees, especially young professionals.<\/p>\n
“Sharing what they think will be the Pennsylvania of their dreams, the Pennsylvania of the future,” said Bristol Colon.<\/p>\n
“Because you belong. We all belong,” said Cepeda-Freytiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. – A legislative Hearing on the state of the Latino community in Pennsylvania was held in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,40360,102378,1160,227,120995,53998,120994,120993],"class_list":["post-291823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-civic-engagement","tag-demographics","tag-economic-development","tag-education","tag-health-access","tag-latino-community","tag-legislative-hearing","tag-pennsylvania-latino-convention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}