FORT WORTH, Texas — 2020 was an eventful year for Diana Beltran. She got married at the start of it, became a mother in the summer, all while holding a full-time job.

Though she has a lot on her plate as a mom, wife and professional woman, as she reflects on 2020 one of the things she’s most grateful she made time for this year was working the polls in a crucial election year.

She’s glad she had the right support to do something that is very important to her as a daughter of immigrants.

“I didn’t get home up until about 9:30 at night, so it was a pretty exhausting day, so luckily my husband was working from home and he had the baby," said Beltran.

Because Beltran felt compelled to help people who might have otherwise struggled or walked away from the polling site, she volunteered at a polling location in Fort Worth’s south side neighborhood which has a high Hispanic population with many residents there only speaking Spanish.

"You know in such an important election like this one where the country feels divided, I felt the need to do something for my community,” she says.

Beltran remembers the relieved look from many people who felt more at ease walking in and seeing her there.

“It was just very emotional getting to help people that feel left behind by the government because of their language because you might think they’re not citizens but they are and they just want their voice to be heard." 

The new mom also recalls a higher number of Latinos showing up to vote compared to 2016, which made her even more glad she was able to turn an intimidating process into a positive experience for some of those voters this year.

"It was shocking to see the amount of Latinos that showed up to the polls.” added Beltran.

Beltran says she hopes this trend continues to rise as she wants her daughter to grow up in a country where she sees everyone has the same access to opportunities and having their voice heard.

“Kamala Harris being a daughter of an immigrant, you know it’s about representation. You know there’s someone brown in the white house that looks like us.”