Politics & Power Quote by Dennis Cardoza

Representation here is doing triple duty: demographic fact, political credential, and quiet demand for visibility. Cardoza’s line is built like a roll call for belonging. By anchoring himself to “my colleague,” he signals a coalition inside an institution that often treats smaller diasporas as footnotes. Then he lands on the key phrase: “I represent.” In Washington-speak, that’s less biography than mandate. He’s not merely proud of a heritage; he’s staking authority to speak on policy that touches Assyrian Americans, whether the issue is immigration, refugee resettlement, religious persecution, or U.S. posture in Iraq and Syria.

The specificity matters. “Assyrian” isn’t a catchall label like “Middle Eastern”; it’s an insistence on a distinct people with a long history of displacement and erasure. In that light, the sentence reads like a corrective to the way American politics compresses identity into broad categories, especially after 9/11, when the region’s complexities were flattened into a few blunt stereotypes. Naming “central California” also does political work: it ties a global story to a very local constituency, turning an overseas crisis into a home-district concern that merits congressional attention, not just sympathy.

Calling it “one of the largest concentrations” is a subtle pressure move. If this community is big enough to count, it’s big enough to be consulted, protected, and funded. The subtext is clear: ignore us at your peril, because we are here, organized, and part of the American electorate.