McALLEN — Noon on a Sunday is not the time of day one would typically find people hitting the dance floor in downtown McAllen but a handful of people found themselves rhythmically moving to the sound of Tejano music at an event where the cost of entry was voter registration.
As the smell of popcorn that has become ubiquitous at Cine El Rey filled the air, attendees enjoyed the free concert that was put on by Austin Texas Musicians to encourage eligible Rio Grande Valley residents to register to vote.
Before allowed entry, people were asked if they were registered to vote. Those who were not already registered could do so with the voter registration forms made available at the door.
The performers included Veronique Medrano, a Tejano artist from Brownsville; Sonja De La Paz, a Tejano singer from Laredo; and RayBurger, an EDM Cumbia artist from Dallas.
For Medrano, misconceptions about the Valley through its portrayal in the media, is what motivates her to get involved and why she wants to urge people to vote.
“I do advocate really strongly for the Valley because I feel like it has gotten such a bad rap in the media,” Medrano said. “How they engage with us is like this place is dangerous and that is not at all what our environment is like.”
She said that narrative is also amplified by state and federal leaders who often visit the border region as a photo op. and paint the region as one in crisis.
“That affects us,” Medrano said. “That affects the tourism, that affects so much, and so to dispel that and to say, ‘Hey, we’re making our voices heard here in our border region, we are enacting change, we are being active’ — that’s important.”
“It will always be the reason why I make the art that I do; why I have such a large activism bug for properly representing us the way we should be represented in a genuine way,” she said.
Another reason why she hopes more people will turn out is because of the continued gerrymandering of the region, specifically Texas’ 15th Congressional District. During the congressional redistricting process last year, the district boundaries were amended to include areas more favorable to Republicans.
But for Medrano, the fact that the district extends so far up north is a problem.
“The fact that the voting lines and who can vote for this region has extended way past people who live in this region is crazy,” she said. “How can other people from areas that are not from here affect us in that way?”
That is why, she said, more people need to participate in elections, especially local ones.
“I’m not saying, no this is the solution to everything but if you’re more actively involved in what’s going in your city council meetings — who are your city council (members), what are they doing for those communities — it is a big part of making major change that is equitable and that will affect your future kids, your future grandkids, your friends, your family,” Medrano said.
Among the concertgoers was Jose Lopez who works with Valley Interfaith to encourage voter turnout.
“It’s very important for me because we select our candidates, we select our governors,” Lopez said of voting, “and if we don’t do the job, why complain later?”
Valley Interfaith is a non-partisan organization that represents various local religious institutions.
Lopez said he had hoped for a bigger turnout for Sunday’s concert and lamented the difficulty in getting people in the Valley to participate in elections.
“I don’t know why even though we encourage them, even though we go to their homes, it’s very hard for them to go (vote),” he said. “They always say, ‘Why vote? The politicians won’t do anything,’ and I answer them, ‘That’s why they don’t do anything, because you don’t vote.’”
But it’s possible more people are finding reasons to be engaged and wanting to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
Ana Zendejas, the president and the co-founder of the Intersectional Feminist Student Organization at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said she’s seen an increase in people wanting to participate with her organization.
“People volunteer a lot more and they’re more engaged and they’re more interested and I feel like they’re also more scared,” Zendejas said. “They’re all very interested in becoming … being able to help people to register to vote and get training and get more information. They want to be more informed because of everything that’s going on.”
Following the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which rolled back abortion rights, candidates nationwide have drawn attention to the issue as the midterm elections draw nearer.
“The biggest thing on my mind at the moment is reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, and our ability to choose, and LGBT rights,” Zendejas said, “and I feel like a lot of people are in danger because of the politicians that we have at the moment, so I just want to encourage people to vote to make our community safer.”
She said she hopes to encourage more people to vote, inform them of the process and inform them on the dates they can vote.
“I just want more people to register to vote and be able to have their voice heard,” she said.
