With 376,088 voters casting their votes early in New Mexico by Thursday night, the state has blown past the 2008 and 2012 early voting totals. One of the people contributing to this number is 96-year-old Abuelita Blasa – originally from San Buenaventura, Chihuahua. She received her citizenship in the 70s, but had never voted until this year. In a Medium post written for Voto Latino, Cindy Medina writes about taking her grandmother to vote at Doña Ana Community Colleges in Las Cruces.
“She has been a bright and independent woman from a very young age,” Medina wrote. “Life was spent mostly at home, as a housewife raising 10 children. She never learned to drive, so I asked her earlier this year if she had ever voted, and she said no. She became a US citizen in the late 70s, but not knowing how to drive and busy at home, no one had [helped her register to vote].”
Medina recorded it all, and captures her beaming abuelita after she finishes voting. When someone asks Abuelita Blasa how it feels to vote, all she can say is, “Bonito.”
Now that her story’s out on the internet, she hopes to inspire all the other abuelitos to get out and vote on November 8.