A Response to Hillary Clinton's 'To Latinos, I Stand With You' Op-Ed

Last week Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued an op-ed saying "to Latinos, I stand with you." In her statement, she singled out Jorge Ramos, Dolores Huerta, Pat Mora, and others, including me, saying "I stand with Maria Hinojosa, who founded the Futuro Media Group to tell stories of the overlooked and underrepresented."

It's good to know that a presidential candidate is aware of the multimedia storytelling of Futuro Media and Latino USA. But the real proof of Clinton's stand with Latinos -- or the commitment of any of the candidates for that matter -- will be if they create access points for us to discuss the issues Latinos care about. Will they recognize that just like the rest of America, Latinos also worry about our children, our aging parents and grandparents, want access to educational opportunities, job training and healthcare, to support innovation, and we yearn for access to new technologies and new opportunities? We also care about families being torn apart, about US citizen children growing up in fear because their parents were, like me, born in another country. And we care about due process and the conditions inside immigrant detention centers.

If candidate Hillary Clinton stands with me, will she - and the other candidates - also sit with me, for interviews and access to the campaign so we can get beyond sound bites and ask the hard questions and discuss substantive issues and policies?

We appreciate you standing with us. Now, to all candidates, sit down with us.