Unite Oregon Action Visits Chicago to Canvass with Mijente
Written by Metzin Rodriguez, Unite Oregon Action Climate & Environmental Justice Policy Coordinator
Unite Oregon Action is a Civic Health C4 Power Program grantee!
From left to right: Meredith Wadlington, Metzin Rodriguez, Cynthia Aguilar-Arizmendi, Jessie Fuentes, Marisol De La Torre, Beth Chvilicek
We were delighted to be hosted by Mijente in Chicago, Illinois and to support the campaign of Jessie Fuentes for Ward 26. Our goal was to get as many signatures from community members as possible. Who would’ve thought that campaigning during Halloween and a snowstorm would be so much fun? We saw firsthand creative costumes like Loteria, which in a Hispanic neighborhood is so welcoming to see, and lots of kids trick-or-treating.
During this trip, we learned about:
Planning fieldwork
Chicago politics
Neighborhoods
Door knocking
Community spaces to connect with voters
Surveying to gather specific information and data to understand the community of the target better and be equipped to have a good plan
Our staff are used to door knocking, but this time we were in another state and representing another organization. Heading into this experience, we wondered, were most of these neighborhoods Latino/Hispanic? And I think that’s where the beauty of community engagement comes from—adapting your skills to your community can be via language, information, culture, etc. We truly enjoyed being able to canvass through a bilingual lens, and each group of two had at least one Spanish speaker.
Our favorite part was on our last day, we walked through a neighborhood where elementary school students were getting out of class. Street vendors sold Mexican snacks outside the school, anything from fruta picada (fruit) to sabras preparadas (prepared chips) and much more. It reminded me of when I went to school in Mexico, and I would be so excited to get out of school and buy a snack. This was something extraordinary that I shared with my group.
We even talked about Jessie Fuentes and got some signatures from the parents and vendors who hadn’t heard about the election or candidate.
On the other hand, we also got to experience the other, less enjoyable, side of canvassing. You are given a specific turf area to doorknock, you are given your group (in this case, groups of two people), materials, signature list, and phone. However, there were times when our shift was 2-3 hours, and you got some rejections, or no one answered the door, and of course, a few positive outcomes. But I think this is where grassroots organizing comes from, where you focus on the people, and even if it’s only one yes, one is better than anything. There were times that we would catch people walking and give them a run through our information, and there were folks who said that this might be the only time they felt engaged or did this.
The benefits of programs like C4PP are opportunities to acquire more skills to continue to serve our communities better, increase voting engagement, support more transparent elections, and create memories that will go down in memory line.
As a team, we became even stronger, more resilient, knowledgeable, and, of course, more resistant to the cold temperatures of Chicago. We hope to continue growing from this experience, but most importantly, we plan to plant a tiny seed of legacy. That’s what the Unite Oregon Action political team is really about, unity and experiences.
Lastly, as an organization, we continue to leverage the work to represent our communities and continue to be led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities, and people experiencing poverty.
We thank the Mijente team for their trust and support, as well as the C4PP program and NWHF.