Wisconsin has gained at least four Latino State Representatives in the State Assembly for 2019, while no Latinos have been elected to the State Senate.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
December 28, 2018
Madison, WI - In January 2019 when elected state legislators get sworn in to take office, there will be three Latino State Assembly Democrats and one Republican in the Assembly. The Latino descent State Assembly Representatives are JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee), Marisabel Cabrera (D-Milwaukee), Jimmy Anderson (D-Fitchburg) and Yesenia Eldermira Rodriguez "Jessie" Rodriguez (R-Franklin). There are no Latinos elected to the State Senate.
In February 2018, the joint Black and Latino Caucus was created for Latino and Black state legislators, but with the increase of Latinos in the State legislature, expectations have risen that two separate Caucuses could be a benefit for both the Black and Latino legislators in the Assembly and Senate to increase empowerment as well as having representation at national Latino Caucus conventions.
State Representative Rodriguez has not taken the initiative to join the Black and Latino Caucus to date. But, Rodriguez has faced ridicule by a fellow male Republican that identified her as a Latina who he wouldn't have or share a drink with during a gathering. Rodriguez when she was first elected to the State Assembly made it clear, that she was not elected solely as a Latina and on several occasions did not support a proposed bill by Representative Zamarripa for an optional Cesar E. Chavez holiday for state employees.
Rodriguez who was re-elected in November 2018 has also voted and supported anti-immigrant bills along Republican party lines. Rodriguez was outed by Zamarripa during a debate in the Assembly in March 2016 as being an undocumented immigrant when she entered the U.S. illegally with her parents as a child fleeing from El Salvador. Rodriguez later became legalized in the U.S.
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