Centro Presente was established in 1981 to
serve as a guiding light and political resource for the Latino-American
immigrant community of Massachusetts. They are active state wide, and
led primarily by Central American immigrants. According to their
mission statement, Centro Presente's major objectives are to establish
and uphold the self-determination and self-sufficiency of Latin
American immigrants. To do this, the group pushes for immigrant rights,
economic and social justice within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
through community organizing and leadership.

The press
conference was held to address the new campaign Centro Presente has
launched, which is targeted at the education of Latino-American
immigrant youths in regards to politics and social involvement therein.
According to Ms. Montes the campaign has been put into action through a
series of workshops that edified understanding of civic importance,
allocation and movement, as well as door-to-door visits to policy
makers. The goals of the workshops were to not only instruct
Latino-American immigrants and new citizens how to participate in
government, as well as enlightening them to the names of local elected
officials that these immigrants and new citizens can hold accountable
for their actions.

Among Ms. Montes' colleagues was Diego
Huezo-Rosales, a 19 year-old advocate and active political voice of
Centro Presente. When asked why youth involvement is important, Mr.
Huezo-Rosales stated that the campaign helps to develop leadership
skills, and give them the imperative tools to build a voice in the
political realm. This will act as the means to enable the
Latino-American immigrant community to establish communication with
government officials.

Although Centro Presente does not have a
department that works with the schools directly yet, the speakers at
this press conference stated that this campaign is still very much in
its beginning stages. The campaign will go through advancements as it
gets out to the public. For now, the organization will push along in
its highly grass roots fashion to raise public interest. The major goal
is to raise awareness amongst the Latino-American immigrant community
of the importance of having a voice as a population.

Ms.
Montes cited Tony Morales' running for an Alderman position, as well as
various other Latino-American personalities running for government
positions. Representation of the Latino-American community in
government offices is essential to the economic and social growth. As
of now there is a very low amount of Latino voice in office across the
country, in the Commonwealth and in Somerville. With the ever-growing
population of immigrants and new citizens, the traditional face of the
state and city governments will go under changes of their own.

For
any more information on this campaign or the other ventures of Centro
Presente, visit their website at www.cpresente.org. There one can find
a schedule of upcoming events, as well as resources for immigrants and
new citizens to get involved.