First Time Latino Voters Embrace Their Political Power; New Film Digs Into Gold Rush Myths

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New Film Explores the Power of the Latino Vote in 2024 Election

Latinos make up the second largest voting group in the upcoming 2024 election, totaling 32 million eligible voters nationwide. But Latinos are not a monolith, and both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been courting Latino voters on the campaign trail. Andrés Cediel is a filmmaker and a journalism professor at UC Berkeley. He’s also a producer of VOCES: Latino Vote 2024, a new PBS documentary project that explores the vast interests and priorities of Latino voters across the country. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha spoke with Cediel about how California’s Latino voters could tip the balance.

Opera and Documentary Shine a Light on Women of Color During the Gold Rush

Who were the real people who inspired the opera “Girls of the Golden West?” A new documentary film takes a peek behind the curtain of a San Francisco performance about Black and Latina women during the California Gold Rush. In conversation with The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha, the film’s director, John Else shares the true story of a mob-fueled lynching of a Mexican-American woman, and the lessons that can be learned from it today.