Cristi Del Cid owns a candy store in Las Vegas and has lived in the city for 21 years. Karime Canales, an independent esthetician, has been in Southern Nevada for 16 years. Alvaro Gomez, a banquet server, has been in the state for 30 years.

They all have something in common:  In all their time in the state, none has ever interacted with an elected official and none know much about the legislative process.

The Nevada Independent (TNI) aims to change that for them and for all of the Latino community, especially those not proficient in English. We will produce Spanish-language content and make the often-inaccessible capital happenings more understandable for those far removed from the proceedings.

A new chapter in the history of the United States begins Jan. 20 when Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of this, a nation that millions of Latino immigrants consider their home. As uncertainty about the future of national immigration policy persists, they also will have to contend with a slate of new state laws.

Does the Latino population know how the laws that affect them are created? What changes to state and federal laws would they like to see? What cultural changes would they like to see in their communities? What are the most crucial needs of their families? What are the perceptions of members of the community when it comes to political rhetoric and its impetuses?

These are the questions we will seek to answer at TNI here on our En Espanol page, where we are dedicated to translating, literally and figuratively, what is happening in government on important public policy questions.

“Let us remember that with what the Latino population has, it is already an immense community; it is almost 30 percent of the population in the United States, more than 52 million people, and the Latino market is more than a trillion dollars,” said Miguel Tinker Salas, a political analyst and professor of Latin American History and Chicano and Latino Studies at Pomona College in Claremont, CA.

“It is a community that is part of the social fabric historically, as well as contemporarily, and in addition can determine elections in states like Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico or California. We are an integral part, even though it is not always seen this way. We are in a certain way considered foreigners, even though there are Latino people who have a generational heritage in this country since its beginning, even before.”

All three of the longtime Southern Nevadans interviewed by The Nevada Independent for this piece emphasized the desire to be involved, to be better informed.

Canales said the Latino community is often left to trusting social media sites like Facebook as their only source of news, and that they are often misinformed as a result.

“In unity there is strength, and that is what we need,” said Canales. “As parents need to become more prepared so we can support our kids, so we are more prepared to help our children. Many in our community do not even speak English well. We should be involved more with schools to motivate children and give us the opportunity to get to know other races.”

Del Cid said she hoped that the politicians who are ready to take on their new responsibilities take immigrant Latinos into consideration, and that they try to help them understand the law, especially on crucial matters about which they are confused, including whether they should and stay in the United States or to return to their countries of origin.

“One does not even realize what is happening,” Gomez said. “I find out what they do through what the newspapers publish, or when I was in the Culinary. That is how I found out about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.”

Salas spoke of Prop 187, proposed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in California as a way to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits. While the topic is legitimate in policy debates about how to manage federal and state financial issues related to undocumented population in the United States, Salas says it is too often used to drive a wedge between the undocumented Latino population and the rest of the country.

“Let us remember that Pete Wilson utilized the same policy that Mr. Donald Trump utilized,” Salas said. “He tried to win the governor’s campaign utilizing immigrants as a scapegoat and that led to very important mobilizations within the Latino community, and the number of people now willing to seek citizenship, activate politically, and participate in the election process increased.”

“It fundamentally changed California, like it is changing Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and also long term will change Texas,” Salas said. “That is political participation, getting involved at whatever level, in your church, community, or your union.”

Salas said it is natural for Hispanics to be wary of the Trump administration right now. “From the first moment, we were a scapegoat of a campaign that looked to utilize hate and fear to accomplish votes,” he said. “Therefore, I do not believe we can expect much of this administration. Let us remember that the campaign since its beginning also made emphasis in creating a wall, which is symbolic between two communities and in certain way created a very important rupture with the majority population… Cracks were created instead of creating solidarity, instead of unifying a country. It is as a result from that, that I believe the Latino community has to prepare.”

Nevada Latinos have some access to information:  workshops for first-time homebuyers, nutrition classes for children, citizenship fairs, and even help to quit smoking. All are examples of free programs that various non-profit organizations offer to the community. But how many families find out about this? What is the quality of information that gets to Latinos? And how does this affect their decision-making?

Fernando Romero, president of Hispanic in Politics, a group founded in Nevada in 1980, put it this way: “Many times good and bad groups see the Latino community as if we had a ring in the nose and that ring had a hook, and that we are pulled here and there. When they need us for a movement, they go get us and tell us the point of their argument regarding a bill draft. They take us to protest or to support what they want, what is not good for us.”

Romero invoked ESAs, the school choice program. He said some groups promoting the program aren't explaining both sides of the issue.

“They did not tell them everything that is involved with that, and of course if one has three children and they go and tell them ‘we have $15,300 dollars that we will give you, and if one of your children has a disability, then we will give $5,700 to your bank account,'” Romero said.

“Parents were not told about the hooks, to use that word, that are involved with that law,” added Romero.

A couple of Las Vegas Hispanics interviewed by The Nevada Independent suggested the legalization of recreational marijuana could be an issue that affects them as well.

“I would have liked for it not to pass,” said Del Cid. “The children are now going to get to know it more through the young people.”

Cristina Gomez, who is originally from Texas and has lived in Las Vegas for 20 years, sees it the same way. “It is necessary that, just as they created this law, politicians fight to eliminate it.” (The law passed by ballot initiative in November 2016 and cannot be amended by the Legislature for three years.)

Salas said that the federal government may not be helpful, but some new federal officials may be.

“It is symbolically very important, the presence of the first Latina senator, Catherine Cortez Masto, of the state of Nevada,” he said. “Breaking that barrier that had existed, of not having any Latino person in the Senate. Also, the presence of so many Latinos in the Congress, in the Assembly, increases the voice and projection of the community.”

State and federal issues are of concern to the Latino community, just as they are to other communities.

The Nevada Independent is committed to helping the Spanish-speaking community track and understand the proposed measures and laws that affect them.