This week, Connecticut Latino News Opinion+ had the opportunity to speak with Maritza Bond, the current Director of Health for the City of New Haven and Secretary of State Candidate of Connecticut.
Bond became the first Latina health director for a major city in Connecticut in 2016. She says that “rompiendo barreras” and being a woman leader have been challenging, but that she’s happy to serve the community. She hopes to inspire other Latinas to pursue roles in which they aren’t currently represented as well.
“Listen, a woman like me has been able to be in the position that I am in now, and I want to be able to extend that further and be able to bring hope to others that are in a similar situation that I grew up in, to be inspired to be able to fulfill your passions. There are no barriers to stop you from achieving any goal. I’m so grateful to be in the primary and to be able to run for secretary of state. I’ve never dreamt that this could be possible for a Latina like me,” she said.
Encouraging voter turnout is important to Bond, who says that if she were elected, she would bring early voting to the state because she understands that issues like scheduling time in between work, long wait times at the polls, and transportation insecurity make it difficult for some communities to participate on Election Day.
Martiza says that equity is important to her and that she hopes to help minority-owned businesses by certifying them, maintaining records to make their businesses more visible to larger firms, and offering technical support to help owners with language or literacy barriers overcome those challenges and fully take advantage of the resources available to them.
She invites everyone to vote, stating, “The Secretary of State should have a diverse ticket. Latinos have not served in this constitutional office; we are well overdue. It is ‘el momento de nosotros’. So we have an opportunity to do this, but I cannot do this alone.”
Resources mentioned in this video: