Monterey County leaders urge residents to be counted; census returns lower than average

Dozens of leaders from the county's Latino, Asian and indigenous communities held a press conference outside the county administration building to urge residents to fill out their census forms. The leaders also wanted to remind them that mailing those forms would bring Salinas Valley communities about $1,300 for each resident yearly in federal funding, said Monterey County Supervisor Simon Salinas. Community leaders spoke in Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Triqui and Mixteco to showcase the county's ethnic and language diversity. "We have the most recent immigrant group in the county," said Leoncio Vazques, a Triqui leader who works for the Greenfield's Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities. "This is an opportunity for us to be counted for who we are."

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[posted by Andrew Brown]