On Thursday, six state legislators representing Maryland’s Montgomery, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties will officially announce the start of the state’s first Latino Legislative Caucus. For the first time in Maryland’s history, there will be a Latino Caucus to help fight for the Hispanic community’s needs. Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez stated that Latinos have been invisible for too long, and the caucus will help change that. Maryland State Delegate, Joseline Peña-Melnyk commented that it is a huge deal, and now legislators will have the opportunity to better examine how bills will affect the state’s Hispanic communities. One of the key areas that they are looking at is education. For example, Maryland has had a language access law since 2002. But many state agencies have yet to enact language access in Spanish. For instance, she pointed out a state website that described vaccination requirements for students only in English. The members of the new caucus are all Democrats, and include: caucus chairwoman Joseline Pena-Melnyk, David Fraser-Hidalgo, Marice Morales, Will Campos and Victor Ramirez.
