The 115^th Congress started work this week with several new faces. Seven Latinos, all Democrats, are among the people who will represent their states during this new presidential era.

Adriano Espaillat of New York was elected to the House and became the first Dominican American to serve in Congress. With over 400 supporters packing the Capital’s Visitor Center, Espaillat was sworn in to the sounds of “Espaillat que vamos”.  He will caucus both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus and is the first member of Congress to do this.

In Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto was sworn in as the first Latina in the Senate while Darren Soto of central Florida became the first representative of Puerto Rican decent to represent the state. Prior to his swearing in, Soto mentioned, “We’ve had a record of Latino turnout in many key states, including Florida, Nevada and California.

The other new members of the House include Salud Carbajal and Lou Correa of California, Ruben Kihuen of Nevada and Vincente Gonzalez of Texas.  Nanette Diaz Barrahan is the only new Latina in Congress. Representing the 44^th district in California.

This now brings the total of Latinos in Congress to 38. Soto feels that fate has brought this opportunity to make a difference for Latinos. “We are given this opportunity at a time that there has been a lot of anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric from President-elect Trump,” said Soto, “we will be able to bring forth our message, as well as counter inaccuracies that may come forth.”

There lack of new Republican Latinos in Congress is now more apparent because Trump had yet to appoint a Latino to his cabinet.  There has been talks that the President-elect could choose a Latino for the position of Agriculture Secretary.

One major issue and obstacle is how will the new president bring together a country that is divided not just in ideas, but also by race and ethnicity. Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the national Association of Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) says, “Increasingly the Democratic Party is becoming the face of the party of people of color and the Republican Party is the party of just whites”