Cesar Chavez

When Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are trying to up their appeal to Latino voters, they’ll often try on a few words of Spanish. But, perhaps too often, those words don’t come out the same way they sound in the candidates’ head. And that can be a problem.

For years, Filipinos have been largely absent from American politics, despite being the second-largest group of Asian- Americans. But, for at least two people in California, that’s starting to change.

Filipinos comprise the second largest group of Asian immigrants in the United States, second only to the Chinese. Yet, despite their numbers, Filipino-Americans haven’t achieved much success in the halls of political power.

Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America alongside Cesar Chavez in 1962. She responds to the injunction which blocks major parts of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law.