Salvadoran-Americans win political office on Long Island

Approximately 100,000 Salvadoran and Salvadoran-Americans live on Long Island. (Long Island is not quite New York City, but it is close.) Only recently, however, have Salvadoran-Americans run for and won elected office. Four Salvadoran-Americans have been elected to office on Long Island, including a Babylon town council seat in 2009, a Uniondale school board seat in 2010, a Brentwood school board seat in 2012 and a Suffolk County legislative seat this year.

The Babylon town council and the Suffolk County legislative seats are occupied by a brother-sister combo of Tony and Monica Martinez

In one of the more contentious races, Salvadoran Monica Martinez, an assistant principal at Brentwood East Middle School, grabbed the Democratic nomination in the primary for Suffolk's 9th Legislative District from longtime incumbent Rick Montano. She then unseated him with 71 percent of the vote in the general election.

Martinez, 36, won in the immigrant hub spanning Brentwood, Central Islip and North Bay Shore by campaigning to end what she characterized as the district's neglect. She knocked on doors to share the story of her American journey as one of four siblings brought from El Salvador by their mother. She told it in English and Spanish

... 

Martinez, of Brentwood, said she was proud to campaign as "a product of the success of immigration" and saw her roots as a positive factor in courting voters.

"We are just another immigrant group following in the paths of others who came before us, including the Irish, the Italians," said her brother Tony Martinez, 44. He became the first Salvadoran elected in the state when he won the Babylon council seat in 2009 and ran unopposed this year.

"Part of it is that people have to integrate into the social fabric of America, and what that means is us getting involved in the democratic process," he said.

Growing up in a predominantly Irish section of Queens, Rockaway Beach, I can't say that I remember many Irish politicians. I interned with Lew Simon, a local Democratic official, and would run into Chuck Schumer, Audrey Pfeiffer, and Greg Meeks, among others. I remember going to a meeting with Geraldine Ferraro sometime in the early 1990s as well.

Anyway, one of the challenges for Salvadoran-American candidates on Long Island is that few Salvadorans actually vote. Estimates are that only about half of the Salvadorans on Long Island are US citizens. They don't appear to be politically active to vote in large numbers but that could be changing. But while it would be nice for local Salvadoran-American candidates to count on the support of Salvadoran-American voters, most people are not going to vote based upon their ethnic heritage anyway.

Either way, it's good to see Salvadoran-Americans running for and winning political office on Long Island.