Latinos have been voiceless for too long in New Orleans, according to Lucas Díaz at “¡Juntos!,” a forum on Latino New Orleans March 18.

Díaz and others representing the city’s Latino population from both the private and public sectors came together to discuss issues affecting the community. They spoke about the needs of the growing Latino community and the importance making partnerships and connections over community issues. The director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Uriel Quesada, moderated the forum.

Those who attended included Latino community leaders and professionals, day laborers, university students and New Orleans residents.

Díaz, executive director of Puentes New Orleans Inc., a community building organization for the Latino community in New Orleans, said that many Latinos in New Orleans do not realize the obvious and striking cultural connections and similarities New Orleans culture has with Latin American culture.

“I represent a group of people in this community that has been living here for a long time — that has been voiceless,” he said.

Díaz said the inspiration for Puentes, which was formed in 2007, came from the realization that there was no representation for the Latino community in New Orleans.

“Imagine the first Latino-run, Latino-serving community development organization in the city of New Orleans founded in 2007, and we’ve been here since the 1700s so, long time coming.” Diaz said.

The forum also discussed the rights of day laborers. Jacinta Gonzalez from the Congress of Day Laborers, an organization created by and for day laborers, brought members of the congress along with day laborers who are working against abuse on workers from employers and the authorities. The congress is currently working on pushing for an ordinance in New Orleans to protect against wage theft.

The panelists also spoke about health care. Rodrigo Gamarra from the Louisiana Office of Public Health said there is a rapidly increasing population of Latinos and the United States is not ready to provide different forms of health services.

“I think this country is not ready to provide services to people who do not speak English,” he said.

He said he thinks that networking with organizations that work with Latinos is the solution to create more research and materials in languages that convey to the Latino population.

Others that participated in the forum included Katrina Badger from Reach NOLA, Martin Gutierrez of Catholic Charities and Laila Hlass who represented a law clinic that works with Loyola.

Carlos Alberto Inca, a radio anchor for Spanish-language station La Fabulosa, attended the event and said he thought the message was significant.

“For me it’s very important because I have never seen so many organizations that are trying to help the most needy.” Inca said.

Santiago Caicedo can be reached at [email protected]