Rachael P. Torres was born and raised in predominantly Latino East Austin where she recalls her grandmother walking about a mile to pay a poll tax to vote. Torres is an office temp who lives in East Austin and stays connected to her community by volunteering for political campaigns.

“I do think that it’s necessary for people to know that I’m just a regular person, but I feel very adamant about how important voting is,” Torres said. “I know that there are lots of countries that women cannot do a lot of things, and voting is one of them.

“As a Latina, it’s the same thing… There are many places in the world … that people just don’t have that right,” Torres said.  “It’s only professional men, or only men in power that can do those things, and I think that as an American, as a woman, as  a Latina, as a parent, we have to teach our children that we have that right. People fought for that right, and if we don’t use it, it was all for naught.”

By Lizzie Chen, News21