A recent Caló News article about Congresswoman Barbara Lee's visit to East Los Angeles, during her campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, contained this set of comments regarding representation for the community:

“I’m happy to see a U.S. candidate actually visiting our community,” said Genesis Coronado, who is running for California State Assembly District 52. “One of the reasons our community isn’t turning out to vote is because we don’t have campaigns that are investing the necessary resources to engage our voters and our working class families.” 

Coronado said she has been a resident of East Los Angeles for 20 years. She asked Rep. Lee about having representation for East Los Angeles, which is an unincorporated area. “We have no representation at the local level, so we have no one advocating for us there. How can we also make sure that going upwards, at Congress, state level, we also have someone that is bringing up the needs of communities like East Los Angeles?”  

The representative responded that she would look at the federal earmarks that can help unincorporated areas and help get “taxes back to do work in the community.” 

Thank you, Genesis Coronado, for speaking up on behalf of unincorporated communities!