Latinos lobby on payday loans, other issues

What started as a car-repair emergency quickly escalated into a financial crisis that Mercy Salazar would rather have kept secret.

But instead of hiding her story about how she got tangled up in a cycle of payday lending, the University of Colorado Denver graduate student now tells her story to help move legislation that Latino activists say is intended to protect them.

The recession has hit the Latino community in different ways, in the cost of getting a small payday loan, budget cuts in already poor schools and less access to health care.

More than 100 activists, community leaders and youths met Sunday and Monday for the fourth annual Colorado Latina and Latino Advocacy Day, focusing on those issues and discussing policies to change the way those issues affect Latinos.

Nearing the end of the conference, they rallied at the state Capitol and had a chance to meet and talk with their legislators.

Ray Rodriguez, a member of El Comite in Longmont who was attending for the second year, was ready to talk to his legislators about House Bill 1351, which would cap interest rates for payday loans at 36 percent.

"People (who get such loans) get in a cycle and never get away from it," Rodriguez said.

That's what almost happened to Salazar.

Salazar, 30, estimates she renewed her payday loan at least 20 times, with multiple lenders, increasing her tab by $75 every time she did.

Salazar, like many Latinos who use payday lending, saw the fast money as the only option in an emergency.

At the time, Salazar said, she felt she couldn't turn to her family after her mom was laid off from her job, and, due to student-loan debt, she could not qualify for a bank loan.

Payday loans usually require payment in full.

After a year, a friend stepped in to pay off her loans and then let Salazar pay him back with no interest.

"I was fortunate enough to have a friend, but I know there's so many people who don't have anyone," she said.

Salazar testified at the first hearing on HB 1351 last week, but did not attend the advocacy day.

Researchers at Colorado College found that 83 percent of Denver's payday lenders are in Latino communities.

"That's why I think this is to specifically protect these people," Rodriguez said of HB 1351.

House Bill 1160 also was discussed. Leaders encouraged opposition of the bill that they say would allow health insurance companies to offer incentives — such as cheaper premiums — for being healthier.

Jessie Ulibarri, Latina Latino Advocacy Day spokesman and state director for Mi Familia Vota, said that if health care isn't available in the first place, being healthier is less likely, and that would mean that Latinos would pay more for coverage.

Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1638 or yrobles@denverpost.com