“SEIU is committed to extending and broadening the rights of all immigrant workers in the United States,” he says. “Providing a space for debate and empowerment with respect to the presidential race is one example of that commitment.”

The union also asked Iscayau to campaign for Dean in New Jersey, so she spent three days last October canvassing neighborhoods with Spanish speakers. She proudly declares that she convinced three families to switch their registration from Republican to Democrat.

Now that Dean has dropped out of the race, Iscayau has become a Senator John F. Kerry supporter, reasoning that supporting anyone but the front-runner will only “split the Democrats and help the Republicans.”

According to Bartley, the SEIU will probably endorse Kerry.

“[The SEIU is] stepping back, taking a breather,” he said. “I’d say within another month there will be a new endorsement, but of course members can vote for whoever they want to.”

Though as a U.S. resident she was unable to vote in Massachusetts’ primary last week, her only son and his wife voted for Kerry, who won Massachusetts. She says her son, also a custodian at Harvard, is not interested in politics but she pushes him to the polls anyway.

“I make him vote,” she says. “No vote, no voice.”

Iscayau says that this may be the year that she finally signs up for U.S. citizenship classes, a requirement to eventually obtaining citizenship. It bothers her “a little” that she can’t vote, she says.

THE URGENCY OF NOW

This election is especially important, Iscayau says, because the economic situation has become “desperate” for workers under the Bush administration.

“The economy is pretty bad and people are being fired from the top to the bottom,” she said. “Right now, the rents are so high two families have to share one apartment.”

Iscayau lives with her son, his wife and their two children in an apartment in Allston.

Iscayau recalls a large workers’ rally held in Boston a couple of years ago where Kerry spoke of workers’ rights.

“Even before he was a candidate, he was supporting the people,” she says.

“He is not anti-union like [U.S. President George W.] Bush.”