Lost in translation: Engaging Latino voters is a challenge
New language-prediction tool may benefit politicians, pollsters, community organizers
Reaching out to a growing Hispanic populace often can stump politicians and researchers who wonder if they should communicate in Spanish, English or both.
That’s a dilemma that political campaigns, pollsters and researchers deal with when they want to connect with Latinos, either to mobilize their vote or understand the behaviors and attitudes of this multilingual community. And since there hasn’t been a way to predict the language they should use to communicate with specific Hispanic voters, getting “lost in translation” is a common mistake that ends up alienating them.
To tackle this issue, opinion research firm Latino Decisions of Washington, D.C., partnered with the data firm Catalist to produce a model designed to predict language preference among specific Hispanic voters nationwide. It will be released this month.
“This is the first ever such model in the campaign consulting space,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions. “This is a big deal; it’s the first tool that will give campaigns and civic organizations the ability to precisely reach out to voters in their preferred language and have more effective contacts.”
Barreto said to create the model, Latino Decisions merged thousands of national and geographically targeted Latino surveys and research with the voter files and consumer data of Catalist, and then spent a year testing and corroborating predictions on a sample of 20,000 voters nationwide.
This language prediction tool could make an important difference in effectively mobilizing the Latino vote, which is characterized by more variables than the overall electorate due to its non-homogeneous mixture of language preferences as well as cultural backgrounds.
“Cultures and language among Latinos in the U.S. vary across ethnicities; Mexicans versus Cubans versus Puerto Ricans or Central Americans,”
said Michael Frias, President and COO of Catalist in Washington, D.C.
“It also varies geographically, but even harder to figure out is the generational impact of language and culture among this population,” Frias said.
As an example, Frias noted that he is a second-generation immigrant and speaks little Spanish so that he would prefer to be addressed in English. For his parents, originally from Mexico, however, using Spanish would produce the best result.
Unintended outcomes
Cultural relevance in political communications is critical to engage Latinos, something that is missed in many campaigns. “It isn’t a homogenous community and many times campaigns end up alienating (Latinos) because they feel you don’t understand them,” Barreto said.
A common mistake is sending fliers or engaging people in Spanish based solely on their Hispanic surnames, which often can produce an unintended and opposite outcome.
“I’m offended when people think that because I’m Hispanic, I can only speak Spanish,” said David Medina, director of multicultural community relations in the Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs.
“This is not to say that I don’t value Spanish,” said Medina, who has a master’s degree in Spanish.
He noted that he is again reading the classic novel Don Quixote in Spanish, the language of his Mexican ancestors. But he pointed out that “in a country where English is the primary language, I must make every effort to master that language to succeed in this country and become a full-fledged resident, not living on the fringes of society.”
Medina was born in San Antonio, but his country of origin alone would not predict what language he prefers.
Take the case of Marco Bracamontes, a visual communications professional in Houston who is from Tampico, Mexico, and favors English when engaging in political issues.
Bracamontes explained that he understands the issues better when they are spoken in political terms used locally. “I think that when you use Spanish, you lose a bit of the context of the (U.S.) political issues (and) therefore something is lost in translation,” he said.
Prefers native language
Still, many voters prefer their native Spanish language for meaningful communications.
In Harris County, many voters prefer to be engaged in Spanish. More than a third of the population speaks Spanish, and 724,000 speak English less than very well, according to the Census Bureau.
In the Houston metropolitan area, there are more than 230,000 Hispanics 18 years of age older who are foreign-born naturalized citizens, according to Census Bureau.
And an estimate by the Migration Policy Institute indicates that around 350,000 Latinos in the same area are eligible to vote but are not registered. Reaching out to this sizable population by using their language and cultural preferences could result in a significant gains for both the Democratic and Republican parties in upcoming elections.
“From differences in political ideology to national origin to generational status and more, we know Latino voters in the Lone Star State are diverse,” said Claudia Ortega-Hogue, the state’s director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).
And while there are many Hispanic voters in the area that are up for grabs, available to be registered and mobilized, many families in Houston haven’t been approached “in any way by either Democrat or Republican campaigns in years,” said Crystal Zermeno, director of electoral strategy for the Texas Organizing Project, a community organizing nonprofit dedicated to civic and electoral engagement.
Having operatives who are capable of speaking to Hispanic voters in Spanish or English has been a successful strategy for Texas Organizing Project and other organizations working to mobilize this electorate.
In general, it takes several generations for immigrants to assimilate and become involved in the political processes of their new country, said Renee Cross, Senior Director of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. First generations usually are overwhelmed with the hard work and family tasks demanded as they settle into a new country. Even second-generation immigrants can still be oblivious to political participation due to a lack of personal exposure to politics, civic instruction in school or efforts by campaigns to reach out to them.
‘The best way’
Mobilizing Latinos who are eligible to vote and don’t have a history of political participation “is a labor intensive work that requires a lot of contacts” and communications, TOP’s Zermeno said.
“Ensuring we reach Latinos where they’re at, be it through their preferred language or the issues that matter most, is ultimately the best way to increase Latino political participation in Texas and nationwide,” Ortega Hogue said.