VOCES: Latino Vote 2024

(gentle music) - [Clarissa] In 2024, one out of every five Latino voters who are going to cast a ballot are going to be doing so for the first time in a presidential election.

- [Crowd] Legalization for all!

- [Mike] That is a tsunami of new voters coming, meaning Latinos will be the decision makers in who becomes the next president of the United States.

- [Gabriel] Nobody speaks for the great diversity of Hispanics.

We are Venezuelans and Cubans and Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and Mexicans and US-born Latinos.

- [Sam] So politicians in America when they attempt to put Latinos in one block, good luck with that.

- [Mayra] I believe that we are the future of the Republican party because Hispanics have always been conservative.

- [Chuck] A lot of people saying the Republicans are making all these inroads with Latinos.

Everybody's shifting to Republicans.

But now with Kamala Harris, it's anybody's ball game.

- [Gabriel] Latino Evangelicals we're exhausted of the polarization.

We want immigration reform that treats people humanely.

- [Mara] People think that Latinos are extremely anti-abortion, but anytime there's an abortion issue on the ballot that galvanizes Latinas to go out and vote.

- [Julin] The destiny of the United States is intertwined with the destiny of the Latino community like never before.

- [Alejandra] Latinos are turning out at historic numbers and we are gonna shift the direction of this country.

(dramatic music) - [Ronald] America needs the values of our Hispanic citizens.

We need those values to be expressed at the polls and through our political system.

[Bill] Me gusta habla espaol.

(crowd cheering) - [George] We welcome diversity in this country.

- [Barack] For the first time in history, there is a Latina on the bench of the highest court in the land.

(audience applauding) - [Donald] Illegal aliens, they're taking the jobs from our Hispanic population.

- [Joe] You're the reason why in large part I beat Donald Trump.

I need you.

I need you badly.

I need the help.

- [Kamala] We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.

[Eva] She Se Puede!

- [Donald] We love our Hispanics.

Get out and vote.

The Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.

(guitar music - U.S. National Anthem) - [Clarissa] For a very long time there's been this narrative that Latinos don't belong in this country, that they are a recent addition, even though Latinos have been part of the country since its very beginnings.

And so that perception has created this sense that the majority of Latinos are immigrant and undocumented.

When the reality is that out of every 10 Latinos in our country, 8 are United States citizens.

Latinos are now the second largest voting age population in the country.

And it is expected that around 17 and a half million Latinos are going to be voting.

For 20% of these voters, this is gonna be their first presidential election.

The highest concentrations of Latino voters are gonna be in places like California, Texas, and Florida.

But, Latinos will also be decisive in places where we are seeing extremely thin margins and even a small population can tip the balance.

(dogs barking) (trumpet music) Levantate!

(audience cheering) - [Victor] Good morning everybody!

Levntate de esa cama que hay que trabajar.

Hay que ganarse el arroz y habichuela.

Escucho El Relajo por la maana, camino al trabajo, rindome con ganas.

Conect con El Relajo Conectado a esta hora de la maana.

Qu tal?

Buenos das Mr. Diamond Boy Luis?

Eso es!

Buenos das V.J.

Mar!

(guitar music) - [Victor] I first came to the Lehigh Valley to Allentown in the early 2000s.

There were Latinos here, but back then we were probably 20% of the community.

Fast forward 20 years, now we are 55% of the community.

(lively music) The majority of the Latino population in the country is from Mexican descent.

The East coast is a little different.

It's mostly Dominicans and and Puerto Ricans.

We could definitely decide who the next president is.

We can definitely decide who the next governor is, who the next senator is.

We the Latino community, have that power right now in the state of Pennsylvania.

(gentle music) You know, it's funny 'cause a lot of people ask me, so what is the Latino want?

What do the Latino community want?

We want the same thing you want.

To make sure that we are employed, to make sure that we got good jobs, good paying jobs.

- [Zaleeae] You're such a good big sister, I'm proud of you.

- [Resident] She loves him.

- Can I get a high five?

High five.

(laughs) - [Resident] Living situation, I mean the cost of living is just ridiculous.

- [Zaleeae] Ridiculous.

- [Resident] Like they want three to four times the income.

There's people that are out here living on $12 minimum wage.

It's the way the government is running things nowadays.

- [Zaleeae] Here in Allentown, every block is very different, but the higher up in the numbers you go, the better it looks and the lower you go in the numbers on our streets, it gets worse.

Yeah.

So these are brand new apartments that are built and our community can't even get in these apartments.

Any of the housing that is in Center City, Allentown is not affordable for our community.

So you could see how they feel like they're being pushed out of some place where it was their home.

(light-hearted music) - [Johanna] My husband and I, we're Puerto Rican and we go to Puerto Rico twice a year minimum.

So for Johanna's Cafe, the concept came from bringing a little part of what's home, to Milwaukee.

(light-hearted music) De qu tamao le doy los jugos de maracuy?

Mediano.

[Johanna] Cuando la gente viene ac, mucha gente viene de Puerto Rico, dice, <<Oh my God>>, Me siento como si estuviera en Puerto Rico..

And that's what we like.

This business is our baby.

It's gonna be like five years, and you know when you think it's like, okay, finally survived the first year, the second year.

And then you know, the economy hits and then it's like, okay, so what happens now?

Things have gone up tripled and quadruple.

Oil, when we opened, it was like $16 the container.

Now it's like $52, but we can't charge quadruple for our products.

We can't do that.

So we're struggling because it's like, it's not adding up.

The math is not adding up.

Okay.

I'm not even like a Democrat or a Republican.

At this point, it's just like something's gotta be done with the economy.

It's affecting small businesses in a way that people have no idea.

We like what we do.

I have a responsibility, because our employees have bills to pay.

But, um, if somebody gives us enough money to pay what we owe and at least have three months of, (laughs), sleep, (laughs) I think I would consider selling.

It is what it is.

- [Mike] There's this out of touch element that we're hearing from Washington right now about how great things are from the traditional economic metrics.

Lemme put it this way, interest rates have tripled in the last four years.

It's completely shut down both the home buying and home construction industries.

The US dollar has been devalued by about 25% over the last four years with inflation.

Quantifiably, you are worse off now if you're at the middle or lower income level than you were four years ago.

(pensive music) - [Friend] He's all, "yeah" - So Gina's officially.

- [Mike] Cheers everybody to Moorpark.

- [Friend] The wheels of justice.

- [Mike] To friends, to family, to tradition.

- [Friend] Salud.

- [Mike] Guys is the country getting better or worse?

- [Friend] I think it's getting worse.

- Worse.

- [Friend] So many of us have said like we were just so lucky to grow up here in the time that we did.

- [Friend] Yeah.

- [Friend] Because I feel like middle class is being squeezed out.

- [Mike] Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the blue collar workforce, but the consolidation of the Democratic Party is largely amongst wealthier white home-owning progressives.

And they are animated by cultural issues, not economic issues.

- [Friend] All the way there.

- [Mike] On the other hand, the Republican Party's becoming the party of the working class.

- And that happened to me.

- [Mike] And the struggle of working class people in this country is getting more dire.

And so that becomes the decision-making point.

They may believe Donald Trump is racist.

They may believe the Republican Party is anti-immigrant.

They may not like that.

But are there policies that I'm gonna have to live with because of the immediacy of my economic, uh, condition?

- [Friend] You know, it came out in the news that the median for someone to have a house in California, it's $900,000.

- Yeah.

- It's, what do we do?

Do I have to work till I'm 80?

- [Friend] The younger generation, like my nephews and nieces who are now in their 30s, they want money.

They're voting for Trump.

(seagulls flying) (upbeat rock music) - [Ted] God bless Donald J. Trump.

- [Donald] Illegal aliens they're taking the jobs from our black population, our Hispanic population.

- [Hilario] This is like a Trump rally on steroids.

This is like a thousand Trump rallies together.

I keep running into lots of people that are Latino and I'm Hispanic, I'm Latino.

So it's great being able to show that form of diversity within the Republic Party.

This is the party of the big tent.

Thank you guys for being out here.

We love MPD.

- You invited a bunch of out of town cops to come to my city.

- You're a paid agitator.

Democrats paid them.

They're agitating the crowd.

(maracas rattling) - [Karl] The Hispanic vote, despite popular belief, is not an automatic plug for the Democrats.

This is, not in this election.

Our polling shows that President Trump carries significant momentum amongst Latino voters.

Super important.

[Speaker} President Trump will win the Hispanic vote this year.

(audience applauding) - [Mayra] A lot of times the reason why they have voted Democrat in the past is because of lack of information.

They've been told that the Democrat Party is the party of the poor, which they are.

They're the party of poverty.

All they do is create poverty and the Republican Party, we're the party of prosperity.

We wanna strengthen the economy.

We want safer communities.

So it's so important that we do have a massive deportation to those that come to this country to commit crimes because they tarnish the Hispanic community and also those who who immigrate here to do the right thing.

- Ay, Dios te bendiga.

- [Mayra] President Trump shares our values.

JD Vance shares our values and that's what matters to me the most.

This is my first convention ever.

I hope in the next four years that, you know, half of this convention is, uh, Hispanic.

I want more Latinos throughout the United States to join the Republican Party because we need that representation.

- [Daniel] To groom that next generation of elected leadership, you know, from the Latino community, um, it's exciting to see.

(dramatic music) The kind of leadership that we're getting now in the halls of Congress - that means we are in the inside looking out now.

We are, we have taken ownership of the American electoral process.

(lively Hispanic music) (crowd cheering) - [Daniel] Latino growth in Pennsylvania has been absolutely incredible.

Deberan de sentirse orgullosos lo que estn creando aqu en Pennsylvania.

Y me da un orgullo ser parte de eso.

(audience cheering) The name "Libre" of course, is Spanish for free.

Free people, a free nation, a free market.

Capitalism, if you will.

When we started The Libre Initiative, we wanted to be in the business of being a part of the community by considering their priorities, what their needs were.

- [Reporter] The Libre Initiative funded by the billionaire Koch brothers was formed to help Republicans reach out to Latino voters across the country.

- [Daniel] Through our C3, we've helped thousands get their driver's license, thousands learn English, but also letting them know what our priorities are.

When we have about 800,000 to a million Latinos in the state, we get to that end game.

We are now the largest swing voting block in the country.

And so what we want to do is influence Latinos in support of Conservative or center-right policies.

- [Moderator] She is the first Mexican-born immigrant to be elected as a congresswoman.

(audience cheering) - Thank you.

- I'm so proud of you.

- [Mayra] Thank you.

Are you ready to take back our country?

Estn listos?

Hispanics have always been conservative.

It's in our DNA.

And I believe that we are the future of the Republican Party.

- [Daniel] In the end of the day, we get across that message that this candidate, that espouses these ideas is the choice you should make.

And so the strategy is mobilize Latinos in support of good policies and in opposition to bad policies, or you will pay the price.

(Laughs) - [Clarissa] We will see in 2024, and what follows if we are indeed seeing a trend of Latinos turning more to the Republican side, but to speak of a realignment, which is what some folks have said, uh, is just not supported by the data.

If you look at Latinos, historically, about two-thirds of their support ended up going to Democrats and about one-third to Republicans.

The high-water mark on the Republican side was achieved by George W. Bush, who hit 40% of the Latino vote.

And when the support for Republicans started going down, Democrats benefited from that erosion.

But Democrats didn't solidify that to their column.

And so what you've seen in the last couple of cycles is Republicans getting back to their 30% or so.

But traditionally that was the norm.

And so if you don't know the context, you arrive at the wrong conclusion.

- [Donald] We got a lot of Hispanics.

We love our Hispanics.

Get out and vote.

- [Mara] Politics is not static.

It's dynamic.

What folks, again, don't realize, there is a political calculus that they do expecting the Latino community to be ultra conservative.

And when they get to the ballot box, the opposite is true.

(gentle music) - [Reporter] Arizona will soon be the latest state with a near total abortion ban.

After that state's Supreme Court revived a 160-year-old law.

The conservative majority wrote, "Physicians are now on notice that all abortions except those necessary to save a woman's life, are illegal."

- [Reporter 2] Latinas are the largest group of women of color affected by current and future state abortion bans and restrictions as more than 4 in 10 Latinas of reproductive age live in the nearly two dozen states where officials are working to make abortion inaccessible.

- [Mara] People think that Latinos are extremely anti-abortion, but the majority of Latinas voters today, they're in their prime of deciding what their future holds.

And so anytime there's an abortion issue on the ballot that galvanizes Latinas to go out and vote.

- [Gina] We're supposed to be at the capitol right now because there's a bill that was introduced and they're hearing it on the floor today.

And we have a pretty good feeling that we can get it through.

And so that's happening right now.

(pensive music) - [Reporter] After a contentious battle at the Capitol, it leads to the state Senate eventually voting to repeal that near total abortion ban.

- [Reporter 2] Two Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in repealing that law.

- [Gina] So it just got through.

And honestly like this is a really huge moment.

- [Anna] I wanna be clear with the people of Arizona, if we do not have our rights protected in the Constitution, we do not have rights.

And as we heard on the Senate floor today, they will still continue to look for every path and every avenue to prevent us from accessing the care that we deserve.

Let's get politicians like our MAGA Republicans out of those decisions.

(crowd cheering) The greatest thing that I want Latino, my Latino community to understand is that we should be trusted to make the choices that is best for us and our family.

And when you have restrictions like this on the books, that's not allowed to happen.

(pensive music) - [Gabriel] Hispanic Evangelicals are historically pro-life, but this is not a political ideology for us.

This is a moral understanding of where life begins and life ends.

People may disagree with us, but we stand firm on that conviction.

Bendita la gracia de Dios.

But we also stand firm on, we don't just care about life in the womb.

I sought the Lord And he heard and he answered I sought the Lord - [Gabriel] So this is a holistic view of pro-life because for Jesus, the least, the last, and the lost are important.

And that is our approach.

A seamless thread of life, from the womb to the tomb.

That's why I trust in God, my savior En esta ciudad hay puertorriqueos dominicanos, venezolanos, cubanos.

- [Gabriel] Latino Evangelicals, we're about 9 or 10 million.

Obviously not all are voting age.

And some of them are undocumented immigrants.

Quin se acuerda cul es el pecado principal de Sodoma?

No es lo que t piensas.

- [Translator] Who?

Who?

[Gabriel] No es lo que t piensas.

[Translator] What is the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?

[Gabriel] En Ezequiel, [Translator] In Ezekiel, [Gabriel] la Biblia dice, [Translator] the Bible says, [Gabriel] que el pecado que ellos tenan, [Translator] that the sin that they had, [Gabriel] es que no le dieron la bienvenida al extranjero [Translator] is that they did not welcome the foreigner.

[Gabriel] y no compartieron su pan - [J.D.]

The message from the Trump administration is simple.

We do not consent to an invasion of this country for millions of people who shouldn't be here, and we are going to deport people.

(audience applauding) - [Donald] They're poisoning the blood of our country.

That's what they've done.

- [Gabriel] For Latino Evangelicals, it's lamentable.

Because when you begin to allude to the US system being poisoned by the blood of immigrants, unacceptable.

(pensive music) I think Latino Evangelicals in many ways have similarities with white Evangelical counterparts.

We're historically pro-life.

We believe in religious liberty, but on immigration, the truth is we've led the way and we've invited white Evangelicals to join us in that.

And some have and some haven't.

But we want a nuanced response that is bipartisan and that is humane.

Because as pastors, we are the moral conscience of this nation.

And we cannot allow slights against communities to go unaddressed.

(gentle music) - [Sam] Republicans have a problem with Latino Evangelicals because of immigration.

The Democrats have a problem with Latino Evangelicals because of faith.

In the past few elections, you see Latinos, in spite of very strong anti-immigrant rhetoric from certain quarters, you see Latinos shifting more and more towards conservative ideology.

What drives Latinos to go that way in spite of the rhetoric?

It's faith and family.

Oh my gosh.

- Yay.

- [Speaker] Are you hungry?

- Starving.

Come on.

Since we're about to eat, let's make a prayer.

- Really good.

- And at the end of the day, we know that all the glory goes back to you, God.

So we are grateful.

We are thankful God.

- [Sam] When I met Mr. Trump I shared with him the fact that, you know, I would love to see you, sir, really elevate the truth that immigrants are a blessing to America.

But we want people to come here legally.

You come in here illegally, we're gonna deport you back to your country, your nation of origin.

And that initiated a relationship that resulted in yours truly being invited as the first Latino Evangelical in American history, in a presidential inauguration.

(crowd applauding) - [Speaker] I call Reverend Dr. Samuel Rodriguez to provide readings and the invocation.

- [Sam] God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

- [Donald] From this day forward, it's going to be only America first.

America first.

(crowd applause) - [Agustn] In 2016, I saw that a lot of Latino Evangelicals, you know, rallied behind Trump.

But undocumented immigrants from part of our community.

So what are we gonna do?

Yes, come to my church, yet I'm not gonna advocate for you.

Isn't that hypocrisy?

Yes, I'm gonna love you until election time comes.

[Nino] Los que yo conozco de mi iglesia son gente fieles, aman a Dios, activos en la comunidad, familia sana, saludable.

Entonces yo vengo a defender a ese.

[Agustn] A lot of Latino Evangelicals, you know, they tend to lean conservative, but they also care for justice issues for the poor, for the marginalized.

They're invested in making sure that Latino Evangelicals, undocumented immigrants have a path to citizenship.

- [Nino] The political arena has divided the church, but we need to mobilize patiently.

Agustn, the Lord has, uh, has called you.

(laughs) - [Agustn] We have no choice.

We have to do this work.

We have no choice.

- [Nino] Father, we come in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and we pray for this nation, father.

And we pray for tomorrow, God, that there will be nothing in the way so that we can meet together in Tallahassee and we can speak to people that are in high position.

(upbeat music) Esa montaa se mover, se mover, se mover - [Agustn] For two consecutive years, we've been going on to Tallahassee, to the state capitol.

This year we're calling out a bill that's actually, it intends to incarcerate undocumented immigrants who drive without a license.

Florida has been very hostile to our immigrant community.

And out of that pain, a movement of churches is gonna rise up to say we want justice for all.

[Agustn] How you doing?

Bishop Nino.

So we need to meet with Stasi, Deputy Secretary Stasi.

- [Nino] Yeah, we wanna meet with the - [Augustin] Stasi.

- He's already come out and met and so he's not coming out again.

- [Augustin] He hasn't met with us, the Latino.

Another group.

- I'm sorry, no.

He's not available.

- [Agustn] Will you mind at least asking him, to see if he's willing to meet with Latino Evangelicals?

We represent 2,500 churches in the state.

We're Latino Evangelicals.

This is bishop... No nos escuchan.

- [Nino] Can we hand some letters?

- [Agustn] I wanna drop off some letters here.

We wanna drop off letters for the governor.

Um, so.

- Let me go see if I can get one more card.

- [Agustn] The governor receives probably 90% of our vote and we never get a chance to speak to him.

2,500 churches, so hopefully one day we can meet with him.

[Agustn] Pngalo, pngala ah.

Pngala las cartas aqu.

S eso es todo.

- [Speaker] Is it about immigration?

- [Agustn] Yeah.

Some of them, you know, mean well.

They wanna do the right thing, but, um, they get caught up in this rhetoric that if you stand against immigration, you are gonna get the vote.

But you know what happened to the DeSantis?

Even with that hard rhetoric that he had, he was not successful at a national level because that's a message to Florida and to the nation.

The message to go forward is love not hatred and division.

- [Tamoa] Cada vez que se acerca las elecciones, tambin ahumenta la polarizacin y tambin ahumenta la desinformacin.

Sabemos, que recirculan las mismas viejas narrativas sobre, no solamente el fraude electoral.

Por ejemplo, el "Great Replacement."

El gran reemplazo es que hay un partido interesado en traer inmigrantes para que de forma ilegal, sin ser ciudadanos, puedan votar por ellos.

Entonces, bueno, estamos muy atentos los periodistas porque este tipo de cosas van alimentando menos democracia, menos confianza en las instituciones y menos empoderamiento de la gente para exigir cosas precisas que les sirven para tener a su vez ms informacin.

Mi carrera como periodista inicia en Venezuela, que es mi pas natal.

Nosotros empezamos a ver cmo nuestra democracia se dilua.

Yo trabajaba en uno de los tantos medios que fueron comprados por el chavismo.

Eso signific censura, despido de periodistas y yo decid renunciar.

Yo soy periodista.

Yo lo que s, investigar cosas y tener un lugar y un medio para decirlo y que la gente se informe y que tome sus decisiones.

(dramatic music) Qu pasa con alguien que habla ingls en Estados Unidos y recibe algo que sospecha que es una desinformacin?

Tienes por lo menos 10 plataformas de fact-checking en ingls.

Si vamos a los hispanohablantes en este momento, somos no ms de tres plataformas de fact-checking que trabajamos en Estados Unidos para esa comunidad.

Entonces ah vemos claramente lo vulnerable que podemos ser.

Yo vengo de un pas donde perdimos la democracia.

Entonces creo que tengo muy claro que estas cosas van en detrimento de la democracia.

Y la democracia no se puede dar por sentado.

Es algo que construimos y que tenemos que mantener todos, todos los das.

- [Victor] Donald Trump volvi a decir que la gente que est cruzando la frontera son presos, que las, que abrieron las crceles de Latinoamrica y que estn mandando los presos para ac.

No hay ninguna evidencia de eso, pero eso nos denigra a nosotros.

Porque los que lo siguen a l, los racistas que no nos quieren a nosotros aqu, utilizan eso para justificar el maltratarnos a nosotros.

Yo siempre he sido claro cuando a m me dan la opcin de votar por un hombre que maltrata a nuestra comunidad.

Yo no puedo votar por un tipo as.

That's it.

El verdadero juicio final va a ser el 5 de noviembre, el da de las elecciones y el poder lo tienen ustedes.

- [Clarissa] One of the things that happens is that when the immigration debate gets toxic, Latinos have also been targeted simply because of who they are as a result of toxic narratives and rhetoric.

- [Mara] The El Paso massacre happened not on a whim, it was someone who was inspired by then-President Trump tweeting about a Mexican invasion and the poisoning of the blood.

- [Clarissa] And so gun violence has also become a lot more pressing than it used to be.

- [Darryl] My family comes from South Texas and everybody owns firearms.

The joke down there is the first time you get your first tricycle, it comes with a gun rack.

(laughs) Right?

It's okay to own a gun.

It doesn't make you a bad person.

I own 'em.

I love 'em.

It's a huge source of enjoyment.

It's a way of life.

I grew up hunting with my family.

So, um, you're gonna see all the firearms we have are related to hunting, but there's a big difference between doing that and, um, taking on the streets, intending to do harm to somebody else.

I, um, graduated from college, a Reagan Republican, and, you know, I believe in party loyalty and those types of things.

But, um, when the former president came on the scene and started using the type of rhetoric that was literally inspiring hate crimes and attacks on people of Hispanic descent, um, that's when I formally renounced, um, my membership and became an independent.

(pensive music) Latinos are more than two times more likely than their white counterparts, uh, to be shot and wounded by a firearm.

And when you see the number of mass shootings taking place, that's why the issue has really, um, become so critical in the Latino community.

(pensive music) At Forward Latino, um, we are a clearing house where we provide a lot of assistance to victims of hate crimes.

We receive calls on almost a weekly basis of individuals who feel they've been threatened and in most cases attacked.

And sadly we know we're not even catching a fraction.

(somber music) More times than not, the victims are US citizens with prominent Hispanic features or Hispanic surnames.

- [Mahud] He start arguing why you came here and invade my country?

Why you came here illegally?

Sir, you don't know my status.

- [Darryl] But this has all really come up to a whole new level with extremists and false rhetoric and remarks that are being made by Donald Trump.

- [Donald] And I'd love to ask him and will, why he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails, and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country.

- [Darryl] Now we'll never be able to directly link this to the words spoken in the debate.

But the following day, not even 24 hours later in Crete, Nebraska, an entire family, including four children, one of which was three-years-old, and three adults were shot by their neighbor.

- [Police] The suspect had flipped them off, told 'em to go home or back to where they came from, to speak English.

- [Darryl] The most difficult part to overcome is, is when you're in the room with these people, and you see what they've gone through.

And they're every bit as American as anybody else.

And people think they have the right to dehumanize them.

(pensive music) - [Mara] From 2018 to 2021, our community was impacted 48%, an increase in gun violence compared to the rest of the population that have experienced a 22%.

Now we recognize that any gun violence among any community is too much, but the upward tick in our community and no one talks about it is very real.

- [Zaleeae] So this park is called West Park.

Community loves this park, but we've actually seen a lot of violence happen in this park.

So that's why we like to come here, outreach and canvas, make sure the kids are doing okay because that is one of our hotspots.

We're dealing with a community who is almost every day impacted by gun violence.

And when you don't see that, your lawmakers are prioritizing that, saving lives, your community gets angry.

- [Server] Here we go.

- [Zaleeae] This is our healing wall.

And on our healing wall, we actually have my uncle on here who I lost at nine-years-old.

Um, he was murdered in 2012 in his home.

My uncle Kareem, he was the protector of the family, but he was 17-years-old and he was part of a gang.

My grandmother was coming out of work and she found his body.

You know, it was very hard to deal with.

But what really motivated me after his passing was my grandmother, Jeani Garcia.

She really was looking into the systems that affected her, the family.

And then she actually started talking to our city council, joining city council meetings.

Mind you, this was something that we never did as a family before.

And they started calling her actually the mother of Allentown.

(indistinct) - [Jeani] Did you?

- Yeah.

- [Jeani] You must know I'm the feisty one huh?

- There you go.

- My voting experience started, um, shortly after losing my son.

I vote for every primary, every election, even if it's city council, I'm voting.

If I would've been this involved with community, my son would still be alive today.

Zaleeae being my granddaughter, um, she has built her pain into purpose also.

And she's an elected official here in, um, our school district.

(pensive music) - [Hasshan] Because one of the reasons that we want Zaleeae and leadership is 'cause we say what?

Programs, policies and practices will always reflect the values of the people that design them.

If Zaleeae doesn't sit at the head of the table and I don't sit at the head of the table, there's a dude in a red hat that's gonna sit at the head of the table.

Somebody gonna say, I got this, don't worry.

And people gonna follow them.

- [Zaleeae] You know, it's my first time voting.

And I just hope that whatever we decide as a country, even if we have a candidate that doesn't keep the promises that they made, I hope that as a community and as a country, that we all come together and understand that your communities have so much power.

- I think in the next four years, whoever does become president, we have to take care of our city.

We are the ones that have to take care of.

- [Jeani] Nobody's gonna save us.

Didn't you say that doc?

- [Hasshan] Nobody's coming to save us.

- [Jeani] Nobody's coming to save us.

- But we're gonna have to save our city.

- [Hasshan] We gotta step up.

That's why we're here.

(slow piano music) - [Zaleeae] The only added responsibility I feel when it comes to voting is, um, letting people understand the importance of it.

Because in my community too, you don't really see people going and filling out the application to be able to vote.

Some people don't even know how to work that system.

- [Clarissa] Latinos are gonna be decisive in 2024.

That's undeniable.

And at the same time, even though Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups in the electorate, we have nearly 13 million who are eligible but are in need of registration.

We call that one of the greatest opportunity gaps.

- [Mike] We've got the lowest voter participation rates of any race or ethnic group in the country.

I mean, for the rest of our lives, there will be a record number of Latinos every presidential election cycle just because there's so many more Latinos.

But we are not matching the turnout rates of other communities.

- Many of 'em, including the youngest of them, say that it's not so much that they're not interested, but it's that nobody had ever invited them into the process or they don't know how to go about it.

So we are already decisive in many ways.

Imagine how much more that could be if we narrowed the voter registration opportunity gap.

(lively music) - [Mara] Every 30 seconds, a Latino youth turns 18-years-old.

So there are 4 million young people aging into the electoral base every single four years.

So in a place like Arizona where Biden won by less than 11,000 votes, we're expecting 163,000 Latino youth to turn 18 by November.

That's massive opportunity to get them into the game.

- [Adriana] Excuse me.

Hi.

By any chance, are you guys registered to vote?

- [Speaker] We're not citizens.

- Oh, you're not?

No.

Oh, thank you.

Anyways.

Hi, by any chance you registered to vote?

- No.

- [Adriana] No.

Why not?

- We don't vote.

- [Adriana] Why is that?

- [Alejandra] There is a lot of skepticism about the Latino vote.

(lively music) However, what we have seen here in Arizona is that every single election, whether it is a midterm or a general, Latinos are turning out at historic numbers.

And so it is important that they feel like they are embraced when they are ready to participate and ready to voice their vote at the ballot box.

- [Ismael] This is my first year being able to vote.

So I'm kind of excited.

Lots of my friends, they wouldn't have like voted this year.

If it wasn't for like people assisting us to like, register.

- [Adriana] It takes a quick minute.

You can get it outta the way.

You can get a ballot sent to your house so you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

- [Alejandra] What we have done this year is, um, partnered with "Grita Canta Vota," who are working with artists to promote how important voting is.

- [Adriana] Thank you.

- [Alejandra] That has been through concerts.

Bailando, cantando, y votando.

(laughs) - [Speaker] Se la pasaron a toda madre?

We have to show the world who we are.

Arriba los latinos!

Grita, canta, vota!

Muchas gracias.

- [Alejandra] And this is actually happening across the country.

- [Speaker] I wanna hear a round of applause really loud for Grupo Control, who are not only a portrait of the Latino family across the United States.

It's a family band.

So can we hear a huge welcome?

A D.C. style welcome to, Grupo Control.

Que se oiga bonito!

(Spanish music) Por eso: grita, canta, vota.

El futuro esta en tus manos - [Mara] Our democracy depends on a thriving group of citizens actively participating.

So if you ignite the imagination of a young person, that they are part of the political system, they can change the direction, not just of their community and their family, but of the country.

(upbeat music) - [Speaker] Welcome to the DNC!

- Fix the courts.

- Are you guys ready to go in the United Center for Trump?

Do it for Trump.

- [Mara] The moment that Kamala Harris went on the ticket, we went from registering 60 to 100 voters a day to that first week of registering 8,000 voters a day.

[Victor] Seoras y seores, "El Relajo de la Maana".

Yo me encuentro ac en Chicago en la cobertura de la Convencin Demcrata.

- [Victor] We take phone calls, you see the comments on Facebook, people saying they're coming out to vote for her and now they have a choice.

This injection of energy that you've seen nationally, I can tell you I've seen it with my audience locally in Pennsylvania.

- [Darryl] Vice president knocked it outta the park with her selection for vice presidential nominee.

Like me, he's a hunter.

So I think he'll do a great job of articulating the need for responsible common sense gun violence prevention measures.

- [Dolores] We have a woman of color that is running for the presidency that sends out a very strong message to all of our community because knowing that someone that looks like us can actually be the president of the United States of America.

We can make it happen.

S se puede.

- [Speaker] Pleasure.

- [Speaker] Pleasure to meet you, so much.

Great inspiration for us young Mexican-Americans here.

- [Julin] Young Latinos are paying more attention, they're more enthusiastic and they're probably more likely to vote in November than we could have said five weeks ago.

(audience applauding) (audience chanting "AOC") - [Alexandria] If you're an immigrant family, just starting your American story, Kamala is for you.

(audience applauding) [Mara] We will make history and elect Kamala Harris, President.

Vota!

- [Mike] How are things going there in, uh, in Chicago, Chuck, you're there.

You've been a part of the festivities there.

How's it feel there on the floor?

- [Chuck] There's just more energy.

Is that gonna relate into more vote?

Latino vote is back.

We're gonna win.

We're gonna lose.

I just know that there's just a palpable - I think I said that right - more energy around everything.

30 days ago I was having to call Democrats not to jump off the top of buildings.

We had a Democratic party and a base and a Latino electorate that was not motivated to show up.

Enthusiasm was at an all time low, lower than I've seen it in my 34 years of running campaigns.

Folks were just not excited to vote for Joe Biden.

Compare this to 2020.

The Bernie Sanders campaign inspired a whole new generation of Latinos and young activists to be involved in their own party.

Just because we didn't win overall, there's more and more that came from that than just an election result.

We keep talking about Latinos are so hard to reach.

I think what we're doing here at the convention, what the DNC is doing is the perfect thing to reach this younger electorate to at least give them the option to see what are the Democrats even talking about?

And do you like it?

There's 200 content creators sitting in the front, couple rows of the convention who are Tik Toking this and who are folks with lots of followers, who then the next day, if they're not involved in politics, they will see somebody else talking about that.

But again, it's the hat tip to the community.

You can say you don't like TikTok, great.

Don't like it.

But that's where our people are.

- [Mike] The way we campaign, the way we communicate is fundamentally different.

Um.

And it does seem for the moment that there is at least been some very significant strides that have been made.

(Crowd chants "USA") - [Mike] It is remarkable to hear a DNC crowd with the "USA, USA" chant taking away this peculiar fascination that Republicans have thinking they own these things.

They own the flag, they own the USA chants.

I thought I was watching the Republican Convention of the 1980s.

- [Kamala} I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities.

- [Mike] One of the things that's been really fascinating is that to make themselves competitive for this election, Democrats made a pivot on immigration.

I don't know that I've ever seen a party pivot as strongly and decisively away from, away from its orthodoxy, the way the Democrats have just done under a woman of color.

It's extraordinary.

- [Kamala] Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades.

The Border Patrol endorsed it.

- [Mike] We wanna say that it's a bipartisan bill, and technically I suppose that's true, but basically it was a capitulation by the Democrats to give the Republicans everything they wanted on border security.

- [Kamala] We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.

(audience cheering) - [Protestors] No troops!

No wall!

Legalization for all!

No troops!

No wall!

Legalization for all!

- [Demonstrator] From Palestine to Mexico.

- [Crowd] From Palestine to Mexico.

- [Demonstrator] These border walls have got to go.

- [Crowd] These border walls have got to go.

- [Demonstrator] From Palestine to Mexico.

- [Crowd] From Palestine, to Mexico.

- [Christine] We have waited too long for the promise of immigration reform for 11 million essential workers and their families who worked in the pandemic yet are not treated as the heroes they are.

We call on Harris and Walz to deliver on immigration reform in the first 100 days of the new administration.

S se puede!

Immigration is a very important issue because so many Latinos have someone in their family who's impacted or a friend.

For our community, we know what, uh, deportation is like.

You know, we know how that, uh you know, how that affects the children, how that, um, you know, causes emotional trauma.

So the North Star has been immigration reform.

Kamala Harris necesita reconocer la importancia del voto latino, no despus de las elecciones, pero ahorita mismo y tiene que cumplir con las promesas por la reforma migratoria.

Necesitamos ms reconocimiento pro inmigrante, para que la gente se anime y salga a votar.

Ahora, en el tiempo que queda.

- [Crowd] No hate!

No fear!

Immigrants are welcome here!

No hate!

No fear!

Immigrants are welcome here.

- [Christine] So many Latinos may be, uh, disappointed in the Democratic Party, but Trump, the GOP have really blamed everything on immigrants.

We are undeniably the target.

We have had the experience of a prior Trump administration to know that these threats are real.

Policies of family separation.

Those were real.

The efforts to try to implement policies of mass deportation are real, and that future is not a future that Latinos support or want.

(pensive guitar music) [Crowd] Legalization for all!

- [Mike] With Latino voters, Kamala Harris could make further incursions.

She could absolutely push Trump into the low 30s, high 20s, which is really where the more historical range would be for a Republican.

She's almost back to where Biden was in 2020.

But we need to be clear-eyed and sober about this because it's so important.

There's a long way to go.

The Biden 2020 numbers, were not good.

- [Crowd] Free Palestine!

- And so there's a ways to go before this is truly a race that Kamala Harris can feel both more competitive about and actually good about.

- [Linda] I think as a voter, there's nothing that Kamala has done that has made me want to vote for her because she continues to uphold the genocide that is occurring.

This is the number one issue on my mind as a voter, and I will not give my vote up until I see a presidential candidate that comes out in support of the Palestinian people.

(emotional piano music) - [Clarissa] One of the tools to achieve transformational change is to make sure that people are civically engaged.

And so we need to understand how important our voice in the different arenas we move in is.

That will always increase our community's agency and the political process.

(emotional piano music) [Clarissa] To show up everywhere, including in the voting booth, is only a positive.

And what keeps me hopeful is that while politics may be of the moment, this moment is not permanent.

And the more of us that participate, the more that tomorrow's moment can be different than the one that we are experiencing today.

(lively music)