{"id":8397,"date":"2024-01-10T14:36:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T14:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=8397"},"modified":"2024-01-10T14:36:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T14:36:25","slug":"latinos-make-toledo-city-council-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/latinos-make-toledo-city-council-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Latinos Make Toledo City Council History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Theresa Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By La Prensa Staff<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Never before has Toledo City Council seen two elected Latinos serve at the same time. But that will be the history-making norm for the next four years, as Theresa Morris<\/em> and Adam Mart\u00ednez<\/em> were sworn in to serve new terms as district council members.<\/p>\n

According to Ms. Morris, \u201cyou can count on one hand\u201d the number of Latinos to ever serve on city council since Toledo\u2019s founding in 1837, which makes this latest political accomplishment all the more important to both elected officials within the local Latino community.<\/p>\n

For just the second time in the city\u2019s history, the two-Latino representation on Toledo City Council reflects the city\u2019s overall Latino population, which has hovered just above ten percent in the last two census cycles. Taylor Balderas was appointed to city council in 2006 to serve a few months alongside then-city council president Louis Escobar<\/em>. However, Ms. Balderas but did not win the open seat in the special election that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it shows the amount of growth that our community has had, the engagement, and the support from the overall community,\u201d noted Mart\u00ednez. \u201cI think the Toledo community, as a whole, is very welcoming. I think they really don\u2019t care about race as long as you\u2019re doing your job and that you\u2019re being an advocate for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means everybody has a seat at the table. Everybody deserves to have a seat at the table. When you\u2019re putting out materials, you want to make sure you\u2019re putting them out in both Spanish and English,\u201d said Ms. Morris. \u201cYou want to make sure people who may not have a (immigration) status feel comfortable calling the police so that ICE is not going to come after them. There really are so many things our community needs to have and it\u2019s important we keep after policymakers and decisionmakers to know those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Adam Mart\u00ednez swearing in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the second time Mart\u00ednez has served on city council. He was elected to an at-seat in 2009. He ran unopposed this time for the opportunity to represent the second district on city council.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em>. I\u2019m excited and nervous all at the same time,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI feel like this is my first time on council and I\u2019m excited to serve. This time it\u2019s in a little different capacity, but I\u2019m still here to support our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

After both council members took the oath of office, Martinez nominated Ms. Morris to serve as city council president. She has been serving the past two years as city council president pro tem, which is essentially vice president, presiding at city council meetings in the president\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have known Theresa for decades and remain impressed by her commitment to public service,\u201d Mart\u00ednez told his council colleagues. \u201cI hope we can make a little history today.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is exactly what Ms. Morris was seeking to do as the first Latina Toledo City Council president in the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause a Latina has never held a leadership post in the city of Toledo, specifically on city council,\u201d she explained before the vote. \u201cIt\u2019s time. It\u2019s time. It\u2019s been a long time since 1837 (when Toledo became a city) and it\u2019s time for a Latina to represent our constituency and show that there are opportunities for leadership in Toledo.\u201d<\/p>\n

But two of her city council colleagues also had designs on becoming city council president, each receiving a nomination in two rounds of voting by council members. During the second vote,<\/p>\n

Carrie Hartman<\/em> won approval from a divided city council for a two-year term as president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always the hard part in the political life is having external forces that come into play and unfortunately, really can sometimes muddy the water for merit-based advancement,\u201d lamented Ms. Morris about the outcome.<\/p>\n

But both Latino city council members maintain they will remain staunch advocates for members of their own heritage while serving their district needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy primary responsibility is for the district, but my community is my community. They have been here for me from the very beginning, and I\u2019ll be there for them until the end. It\u2019s a balance,\u201d said Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n

Some the issues involved include bilingual information, both online and in print, as well as cultural competence in city government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re working on it,\u201d said Ms. Morris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By La Prensa Staff Never before has Toledo City Council seen two elected Latinos serve at the same time. But that will be the history-making norm for the next four years, as Theresa Morris and Adam Mart\u00ednez were sworn in to serve new terms as district council members. According to Ms. Morris, \u201cyou can count<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[184],"class_list":["post-8397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in-300x208.jpg",300,208,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",640,444,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",648,450,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in.jpg",500,347,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/adam-martinez-swearing-in-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By La Prensa Staff Never before has Toledo City Council seen two elected Latinos serve at the same time. But that will be the history-making norm for the next four years, as Theresa Morris and Adam Mart\u00ednez were sworn in to serve new terms as district council members. According to Ms. Morris, \u201cyou can count","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8401,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8397\/revisions\/8401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8397"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=8397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}