New Fort Worth district could increase Hispanic representation on City Council
Fernando Florez, 80, fought to add a second Hispanic opportunity district in the south side for three decades in an effort to increase Hispanic representation on the Fort Worth City Council.
Residents like Florez joined the final redistricting meeting to show support to split up District 9’s powerful and higher income residents of the neighborhoods around TCU and the lower income Hispanic residents of the Southside. When the council ultimately decided in their favor, Florez said the historic move was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
“How does it feel? Fantastic. I don’t know. I don’t have the words to describe it, but it’s a high — as high as it can be,” Florez said. “I never would have imagined that it would’ve taken this long.”
The council has had a minimum of one Hispanic representative for decades. Carlos Flores is the only Hispanic council member (representing the north side), despite Hispanic and Latino residents making up nearly 40% of Fort Worth’s population. For decades, the prominent percentage of the Hispanic population in the south side struggled to outvote communities near TCU. Despite originally being over 57% percent of District 9’s population, Hispanic residents in the area have a historically low voter turnout and not all Hispanic residents are citizens.
“You don’t want to pair two completely different areas. And that’s what happened in City Council District 9,” Florez said. “Over time, people quit voting.”
During 2000’s redistricting cycle, Florez said he was challenged by another District 9 resident for his efforts to separate the Hispanic community from the district. She told him that he should be encouraging his people to vote instead, Florez said.
“She was missing the point,” Florez said. “No matter whether the person votes or not that one person is entitled to the same rights as a person who does.”
District 11, the new Hispanic opportunity district, covers much of east Fort Worth between Loop 820 and Interstate 35. Its map is shaped like a horseshoe to connect neighborhoods like Poly and Riverside with a high Hispanic population in the east to the Hispanic south side, including Worth Heights and the Hemphill area. Out of the district’s total population, 58.8% is Hispanic and is of legal voting age.
Florez said he’s optimistic that the new district would not only push more Hispanic residents to run for a seat on the council, but it would also encourage more Hispanic residents to vote after being separated from the strong voting power of the current District 9 voters.
“I predict that Hispanics in a few years are going to turn out in big numbers, much larger numbers once they see that they can elect,” Florez said.
Peter Martinez, a professor at Tarrant County College who has studied redistricting in Fort Worth’s Hispanic communities, agreed that the new district could affect how Hispanic residents vote.
“I think we’re starting to see a little more excitement and activity with some of the younger Latino voters,” Martinez said. “I think we will have at least two council members next year, which would be historic.”
Pablo Calderon, 77, lives in Meadowbrook, which is included in the new Hispanic district. He submitted a council district map for consideration early on in the redistricting process this year and has since followed along with the process.
But he, like several others, wasn’t entirely happy with the decision. Some communities like the predominantly Hispanic Rosemont neighborhood were split between District 9 and District 11. Ultimately, Calderon said they weren’t able to get the percentage of registered voters in District 11 as would have been possible.
“It could’ve been a lot better,” Calderon said. “We had tried several times to free up the south side Hispanics from District 9 unsuccessfully and at least we got a little bit more than half, and from that point of view, there’s some partial success. It was a compromise.”
Martinez agreed that splitting up the Rosemont area was a mistake. He said he suspects this was to not decrease the population size of District 9.
“The numbers that they’re adding [in District 9] are people that don’t vote at historically high percentages, and since nothing’s really changing for them, they’re probably not going to vote any higher than they have in the past. If anything, it may make them vote less,” Martinez said.
But Calderon is still hopeful that the move will encourage more Hispanic representation.
“It was painfully obvious in all the conversations that I watched with [Carlos] Flores and in the council in their work sessions, he was a lone voice,” Calderon said. “By virtue of his being Carlos Flores, the Hispanic community looks to him to carry our message forward. Hopefully, we get a second voice and, maybe, a Latina. Who knows?”
