2020 Hispanic Heritage Month: Hermanas, time to regain our power

NEW YORK, NY - September 17, 2020 – (LATINX NEWSWIRE) - Latinas in Business Inc. President and CEO Susana G Baumann, is asking Latina leaders in particular, and all members of the Latino community at large, to support five petitions to both Houses of Congress the organization posted on MoveOn.org.

Please sign up for these petitions: 2020 Hispanic Heritage Month: Hermanas, time to regain our power.

“This Hispanic Heritage Month, Latinas in Business Inc. will be turning 6 years old. We launched our initiative in a time of HOPE, and CHANGE we could believe in. We knew we were GREATER TOGETHER because we were BETTING IN AMERICA,” Baumann said. “Unfortunately, in the last four years, we have seen our American Dream vanished, our Latino community bullied, and now we are living the loss of our loved ones due to this horribly handled pandemic by the Federal Administration,” she continued.

As a non-profit organization, Latinas in Business Inc. does not proclaim or endorse any political candidate or party. “However, we are calling YOU to regain our power, our Latino power. We are encouraging you to take the bull by the horns, to step up, and to say enough is enough,” Baumann stated.

The five petitions are related to either COVID-19 related issues that affect Latinos the most, or long-standing problems that several Federal Administrations, as well as both Houses of Congress, have taken from granted for a long time.

“For low-paid employees who clean the floors, do the laundry, serve fast food, pick the crops, work in the meat plants, which means having the jobs that keep America running, the pandemic has come with a heavy price. They have been deemed “essential” and that means being a target. Along with blacks, Latinos have taken the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic in California and other parts of the United States, becoming infected and dying at disproportionately high rates,” Baumann said.

The leisure and hospitality sectors alone -a sector where many Hispanics work- shed 459,000 jobs - 65% of all the positions lost in March. The largest share of these jobs came at restaurants and bars, which slashed 417,000 jobs.

Now, with the COVID-19 crisis, millions of businesses are facing a massive potential disruption and some risk permanent closure. However, for the Federal Administration and Congress, there is not the same urgency to address COVID-19’s impact on minority-owned small businesses. It has already been established that these businesses DON’T COUNT, reflected in the lack of access to capital and resources. However, it has also been established that closing these disparities would result in the creation of millions of new small businesses and bridge the gap in unemployment and the economy.

“Among the petitions for protection of unrecognized essential workers that keep running America at cost of their own lives, immediate freedom of all immigrant children in deportation camps, and financial assistance to families that have lost their jobs by no fault of their own, we also request immediate forgiveness for small businesses who received PPP Loans of $150,000 or less, and are suffering the most in this pandemic and economic crisis,” Baumann said.

Please sign up these petitions: 2020 Hispanic Heritage Month: Hermanas, time to regain our power 

Baumann continued, “This is what the American Dream has become for Latinos and many others in this country, an enormous propaganda machine that constantly tells them that they are a failure if they don’t provide for their families, that they have to be self-made and self-sufficient or they are losers, and that they are criminals or rapists if you came to this country to find better opportunities.”

“As mothers, daughters, sisters, most of us carry the burden of our families, looking after our children, caregiving for our families and relatives, and making sure everyone has a roof over their head and food on their table. Now, we call you to step up and regain the power for our Latinx community,” Baumann concluded.