SIQUEIROS Latino votes elected Biden

health pandemic that has disproportionately impacted Latinos, active efforts to suppress the vote and the looting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Latino voters are too often taken for granted, ignored altogether or invited to prom the night before the dance because your date panicked and realized he needed you.

The media are not the only ones leaving Latinos out with their unsophisticated storylines. So are both major political parties and most campaigns. When campaigns realize they need to engage Latinos, it’s often too little, too late. The result? Usually, they settle on a Spanish language media strategy and call it their Latino voter engagement plan. Don’t get me wrong, every Latino engagement strategy should include Spanish language and first-generation immigrant engagement — but it should never be your entire strategy. In case you didn’t know, more than 70% of Latinos speak English, consume English media and won’t see any of your Spanish language outreach. In addition, like most voters, we prefer to hear from you directly or from trusted community leaders who understand our concerns and don’t just come calling a few weeks or months before the election.

Any effective campaign must include experts with experience in the communities they seek to engage. Real resources to ensure organizers can go door to door, register voters and make sure those voters turn out. We also want to see you deliver on promises made and are watching for how your policies affect us. Latinos are not all the same, nor do they blindly support one candidate or party as this election demonstrated. However, in states that Presidentelect Biden won by a narrow margin, we saw record voter turnout by Latinos. We also saw: Most Puerto Rican Americans didn’t forget President Trump’s failed response to Hurricane Maria and voted for Biden. A majority of Cuban Americans didn’t forget Trump’s anti-castro promises and voted for Trump. And most Mexican-americans didn’t forget how Trump launched his campaign attacking us or how he has dealt inhumanely with immigrants at the border, especially the forced separation of 4,300 children from their parents.

Latino voters, especially women and Generation Z, are engaged. Will we continue to be blamed or will the media and future campaigns look in the mirror and make it a priority to engage, invest and take us seriously?