Joaquín Avila, a voting rights attorney who has challenged discriminatory voting structures across the country, spoke on the importance of political inclusion and integration at the 12th annual Ernesto Galarza lecture on Friday.

Avila, described by Jose Barilla, director of California Rural Legal Assistance as "the Chicano community's legal cartographer," has a long history of involvement in voting rights. In 1982 Avila testified before Congress in support of the extension of the Voting Rights Act, and from 1982 to 1985 he served as president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). In addition, he has argued 50 major voting rights cases in Texas, Arizona and California, including one before the Supreme Court in 1996.

Voting, Avila maintains, is more than simply pulling a lever. It is an integral part of belonging to the body politic. And without minority representation in the body politic, he says, it is impossible to hope for a more racially cohesive society.

"The glaring reality is that there is a tremendous disparity in the receipt of benefits" between minority and Anglo society, Avila said. This disparity takes many forms, he said, including economic and educational access.

Avila said the concept of "fairness" must be examined as it relates to this crisis. "Similarly situated communities must be treated in a similar fashion," Avila said.

He noted that the anti-affirmative action claim that merit-based comparison alone should determine acceptance to institutions of higher learning is unfair, because minorities do not have access to the same educational opportunities as their Anglo counterparts. "Action must be taken to affirmatively level the playing field," Avila said.

This unequal distribution of benefits is a "a recipe for social disaster in the near future," Avila said. "It will ultimately lead to a self-destructive society."

The solution, Avila said, lies both in increasing minority voter turnout and in increasing minority access to elected positions. Same-day registration and longer voting hours at polling sites are two ways to make the process more accessible. However, obstacles such as racially polarized voting also make it difficult for minorities to get involved in the political process, Avila said.

Minority candidates in an at-large election in a dominantly Anglo community are often not elected due to racially polarized voting, Avila said. "It is unfair for states to maintain election systems that maintain the practice of race-based voting," he said. Avila has used the Voting Rights Act to challenge the at-large electoral process as discriminatory, and to encourage district-based voting, which he said enables minorities to have a greater impact on the election process.

But electing more minority representatives is not the only goal of his fight, Avila said. "I'm trying to empower local communities to elect representatives who will impact the distribution of local resources."

It is the local level that is most important and that is in danger of being overlooked with the surge of optimism that followed the tremendous increase in Latino voters in the November elections, Avila said. "At the local level, these gains do not have a significant impact," he said.

"The only viable tool at the local level is the Voting Rights Act," Avila said. "It is the only avenue we have here in California to dismantle discriminatory voting structures."

But voting rights lawsuits are often undesirable for plaintiff and attorney alike. They are extremely expensive, Avila said, and often involve severe emotional strain for plaintiffs. "You have to have a thick skin to be a plaintiff in a voting rights case," he said, adding that while he was working in Edwards County, Texas, plaintiffs lost jobs for being involved in lawsuits.

Avila also recalled talking to the owner of a segregated cemetery in Edwards County. The man got so upset with Avila's questions about voter districting that he chased Avila out of the office, shouting, "My advice to you is that you leave town before sundown."

"I grew up in Compton," said Avila with a grin, "so my first reaction was to duck."

Avila emphasized that voting rights litigation is not intended to further polarize society. Rather, political integration is in the interest of all communities in California, he said. "It is indispensable for the creation of a more cohesive society. Only by integrating voters can we start to the long overdue process of healing racial division in our society." SR