photo credit: Shandra Back
On the SOLCA stage, María Teresa Kumar (left) and Arlen Fernández (right) lead the discussion.

This week, hundreds gathered at Sonoma State University for the 12th annual State of the Latino Community Address, bringing together voices from across the region to reflect on challenges, and chart a path forward. The annual event is organized by Los Cien, Sonoma County's largest Latino leadership organization

The session, which ran for over seven hours, featured two keynote speakers: María Teresa Kumar, founding president of Voto Latino and Valarie Kaur, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project.

Los Cien executive director Herman G. Hernandez said this year it sold out in ten days. All seats and even standing room in the back filled with organizations, leaders and individuals from all different backgrounds.

"That's what makes Los Cien very special is we're not just exclusively for the Latino community," Hernandez said. "We're trying to build bridges with our whole community so that we can uplift and engage the Latino community working together."

The event emphasized youth community building and empowerment, ancestral history as a link to the future, as well as the immense economic and political power of a unified Latino community.

Hernandez said with so much doom and gloom in the state of Latino affairs, staying positive and unified is important.

"My hope was, as funny as it was to inspire hope, to get our community together to get inspired and be re-energized, where we put down our differences and come together because we have to protect our people from what's going on at the national level," Hernandez said.

Melissa Valle with the Sonoma County Office of Equity said she left the event feel just that.

"I'm so hopeful. You know, with so much information about human rights violations and attacks against immigrant communities in particular, it's so easy to lose hope," Valle said. "But what I'm taking away from this is that there is no place for us to lose hope. This is a moment for us to harness together our power and to move forward."