Born in Chile, Saavedra and his family fled to the US when democratically elected President Salvador Allende was ousted by Augusto Pinochet. The family settled in North Dakota and Saavedra eventually came to Minnesota to study and received his law degree from Hamline University.

Saavedra then went on to work as an attorney and civil rights advocate. For six years, he served as the Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer of Centro Legal, Inc., a nonprofit community law office that provides legal assistance and advocates on behalf of low-income Latinos in Minnesota. There he launched the nonpartisan Latino Voter Participation Project, the Latina Leadership Institute for women, and the Latino Community Advocacy Project.
While at Centro he also gained national recognition when he successfully defended of a group of Holiday Inn Express hotel workers that were placed into deportation proceedings after they participated in a union organizing campaign.

Saavedra says, “I’ve been working for social justice and for stronger communities my whole career, my legal career has been dedicated to public service and for me, this is an opportunity to continue this work in public service with a much broader impact.”

He assures that his interests have always been firmly based in both the Latino community and the community at large. He has been a volunteer director for both Latino-focused organizations such as El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad fund of the St. Paul Foundation and The Resource Center of the Americas as well as progressive organizations such as Growth and Justice and Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action/Progressive Minnesota. He has also been an active volunteer and local officer in the DFL party and was the Minnesota Co-Chair of Latinos for Kerry in 2004 .

He says, “One of the reasons for me to get involved in this race is that I really bring a message of hope, I bring a message that looks over the horizon at what our communities can be and I see that government right now is working against our vision for a successful and strong community. I want to make government a partner in success again.”
He is adamant about stepping away from what he calls “divisive and corrosive” debates. He calls the current climate, a time of “political darkness” and states that “what has sustained us is hope but now we need to bring that to its fruition. I represent change, a new voice in public service, I represent the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual reality of the 5th District today and I want to bring a powerful voice that not only respects our traditions but really looks to the future and all the opportunity that lies ahead.”

When asked why he did not start out smaller and run for a political office where he will not face such tough competition (just to be endorsed he faces Gary Schiff and Paul Ostrow among others), Saavedra says, “there is a powerful message that has been building in that community and I want to carry that voice. And we can’t wait to address the issues that are facing our society and our community right now. I can’t wait to run in 2012 or 2018 because I think the energy and the ideas and what I represent as a candidate, we need that now.”
Saavedra’s stand on the issues clearly follows the progressive Democratic line. Working families, income disparities, fair labor, economic development, education, healthcare, better foreign policy, the environment – these are among his top concerns and he elucidates on each topic, from his dismay at education becoming a “luxurious extravagance” to the “simply unacceptable” state of healthcare in the country.

He says that both locally and nationally, politicians are out of touch. Instead of working for their constituents, money and corporate interests talk. He says, “I’m running for that person who listens to the news and asks himself ‘how can our policy makers be so out of touch with the reality that is so apparent to me and my neighborhood and my community?’”

Regarding the inevitable immigration question Saavedra is very clear. It is a huge concern, but is one of many, many concerns that he has. “The debate that is happening in Washington about immigration is not an intelligent debate trying to arrive at reasonable solutions that benefit our community. They’re about driving a wedge and dividing our community politically … The corrosive immigration debate and the policies that are being proposed here in Minnesota and in Washington are so out of touch with what people in the 5th District believe the role is for immigrants in our communities. We need intelligent immigration policy that supports business, that supports individuals and families and family unity and that strengthens our communities not just economically but culturally and socially as well.”

More than anything, Saavedra exudes a very unique blend of extreme level-headedness and extreme passion. While clearly an avid advocate for certain issues, he also talks about coalition-building, debate, hearing other voices and finding reasonable solutions.
Instead of then morphing into someone bland and predictable, he adds that “there are so many critical issues in our community right now, so many things that need change right now, so many things that need resources and ideas right now. Much of what has inspired me to jump in this race is that I believe in democracy and that I believe that the voice of the people in our community at the grassroots level is going to determine the future of our government. And who represents them?”

Patricia Torres Ray is running for Minnesota’s 62nd Senate District, one of the most liberal districts in the State. She’s a veteran of public administration and is an education and social service advocate.
She was born in Colombia and married to a University of Minnesota Student back in 1984. At her Campaign Kick-Off party, on Friday, March 17th, and we were surprised to see the huge amount of people who attended the event. The Kick-Off party began with the traditional “Copal” celebration, inspired by ancient indigenous people. The ceremony was performed by Susana De León, a close friend of Patricia’s and a community leader.

Patricia is more than a Latina running for office. She’s a professional Latina and has two degrees from the University of Minnesota: a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Studies and a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the Humphrey Institute. She is one of the few people in the whole country who has had the opportunity to work with people from all the communities of color and is widely known within the Latino, African-American and Native-American communities.
Through her years of service, she has had the opportunity to work with and create strong bonds with public officers and people throughout Minnesota’s 87 counties.

Asked about her reasons for running Patricia said “Because that way I can make a difference.”

She describes herself as a Latina candidate that happens to be a member of the DFL and, as a member of the DFL she’s not running against the endorsement. “As a Latina I am a mother and a fighter but the DFL is what I believe in.”

So, why the Senate? “Because the Senate is an institution that I know, the institution that first opened the doors for me when I was lobbying. And I realized that through the Senate I can have the chance to work for my people. The Senate has the power – the political power – to affect all those little things that I am passionate about and it has the ability to change them. The Senate can make a social change for the middle class and we need to have someone there to defend all those social services and benefits that sustain our way of living. We need to have someone to defend our family values and the life we enjoy here at Minnesota.”

Patricia is seeking the DFL endorsement and she describes her mission by saying “I am profoundly disturbed by our state’s retreat from a commitment to the wellbeing of children, families and communities. We are abandoning our heritage of competent, people-centered government, which has enabled Minnesota to rank among the very best in health, education and quality of life.”

Being a Latina and an immigrant, the question was absolutely necessary: does the recent anti-immigrants proposals had something to do with her decision to run for office? She said, “it did push me in some way. But the effect has been a cumulative process during this Republican administration. I have been working for child advocacy for 18 years, child welfare, education, healthcare, housing and we had made progress in those 18 years … and during the last 5 to 6 years in this country we have destroyed almost all the progress that we had made. So we are going backwards. So immigration is just one more example of the direction of where this state and country are going. It’s just one more thing. Personally, it pushes me over the edge because it represents who I am culturally, but it’s just an additional thing to the dismantling of what Minnesota is all about. I truly believe that the approach that this government and that this administration has taken, does not reflect Minnesota. Because Minnesota is this progressive state that wants to maintain a high quality of life for everyone.”

Patricia is going to face the DFL endorsement on April 1st . From there on, it is hard to say. However the road is long still.