Latinos, Their Low Voting Participation and the Price They Pay

Thesis: The limited Latino political participation and low turn out to the voting
polls is a big issue. In order to understand why many Latinos have this political
behavior, it is necessary to understand the role that political background and culture
plays on their voting decisions and the consequences this has as a result.
I.

Why many Latinos dont get registered to vote?

A.

Political culture, background and history of corruption in our countries of

origin.

B.
II.

Have the impression of their political participation is meaningless.

Many Latinos that are registered to vote dont show to the voting polls.
A.

Corrupt political background

B.

Little interaction with the political candidates, language barrier and the
concentration of Latinos in uncompetitive states.

C.
III.

IV.

Very little political involvement/education.

The price Latinos pay for political inaction is very high.

A.

Victims of discrimination and hate crimes.

B.

Underrepresentation in the House and Senate.

C.

Laws that negatively impact the Latino community.

D.

Fewer educational and job opportunities poverty.

Introduction to Fernando Espuelas, a political and social educator.

A. Brief look to Fernandos early years and education.
B. Fernandos contributions to the Latino Community.

V.

Conclusion, the Latino community has to take responsibility of their civic/political

education, thus, create a political change.

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Latinos, Their Low Voting Participation and the Price They Pay
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the
American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
Franklin D. Roosevelt. This seems to be true especially among Latinos. It is a fact that
each election year the number of Latinos that vote is increasing. Still if we compare the
number of Latinos who are eligible to vote with the number of Latinos who actually vote
the numbers are depressing. According with the Center for American Progress, there
were 23.3 million of Latinos eligible to vote in 2012, from those only 13.3 million are
actually register to vote and only 11.2 million Latinos voted on the 2012 elections. Not to
mention the ones that can become American citizens but for some reason decide to
stay with the residence status. But, what causes Latinos not to vote? What is holding us
back to exercise our vote? And more importantly what are the consequences of our
inaction? The limited Latino political participation and low turn out to the voting polls is a
big issue. In order to understand why many Latinos have this political behavior, it is
necessary to understand the role that political background and culture plays on their
voting decisions and the consequences this has as a result.
There are many Latinos that are eligible to vote but they dont even get
registered. I believe that a possible explanation for this behavior could be the political
culture, background and history of corruption in our countries of origin. The political
process in Latin America is so corrupted and the elections are many times fixed
voting ballots get lost, people are intimidated, the counting ballots does not match the
voting population, etc. According with Transparency International.org, in 2014 most of

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Latin American Countries had a 40% or less ranking when it comes to

government/political transparency. Even though this situation is not equal for all Latin
America - as there are a couple countries that have a more transparent political
process. According to The Economist in a study conducted on 2015, Uruguay, Chile and
Costa Rica have very low corruption index. Sadly, for the rest of Latin America the level
of corruption is overwhelming. Many Latinos grew up knowing that their political
participation was meaningless and when they immigrated to the United States they
brought their political background as well. having the mindset that my vote doesn't
count is hurting our community and what is more important parents pass along this
mindset to their children, not only by talking about it but by showing that voting or
getting registered to vote is not important.
There is a common phrase that says what kind of country are we leaving to our
children, but I believe that is equally important to ask ourselves what kind of children
are we giving to this country?. Education is the answer to many of our problems and
the same goes for politics. We have to guide our children with the example of our
actions, they will learn more from what we actually do than from what we say. As Pipher
says Healthy cultures pass on healthy stories from generation to generation. Lets give
our kids a political culture that they can pass to the future generations. Lets talk to them
of the importance of voting, and the impact it will have in our community. Educate
ourselves, our family, friends and neighbors about what is going on in our country and
how we can either change it or make it stronger. It is crucial to get involved in our
community, know our representatives and the role they play on solving the issues that
matter to us.

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It is a fact that many Latinos are disconnected from the political process.
However, what are we doing as a community to change that or at the very least to start
a change movement? It is true that younger Latinos - especially the ones with a higher
level of education are getting more and more involved in politics. This election, 44
percent of eligible Hispanic voters will be millennials between the ages of 18 and 35
years old (PBS). But we cant delegate all the political responsibility to the younger
generations; we all need to get involved in one way or another, there is so much work to
be done to create a political/civic culture in the Latino community that everyone is
needed in order to make political impact. There are many barriers to cross cultural,
traditional, political history, old believes that is easier to give up and continue with the
old ways but if we want anything to change, we need to get the work done even if this is
not easy.
Nevertheless, many Latinos get passed that ideology and get registered to vote.
But when it comes to election day millions of Latinos dont show to the voting polls. The
actual number of Latinos who vote on the elections are so low that very few politicians
take us seriously. According with the Pew Research Center, only 48% of the Latinos that
are eligible to vote turned out to vote in 2012. That means that 52 percent of Latinos
thought that voting was not relevant to them. According to The Huffington Post, the
reasons are many, as I stated before the political background is a factor as well as the
almost nonexistent interaction with the political candidates, language barrier and the
concentration of Latinos in noncompetitive states.
Although this is true, I believe the reasons are far more complex. There is an
almost nonexistent political education

sources for our community. A large number of

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Latinos are not technology friendly and their only source of political information is via the
ads they see on TV which many times tend not to be accurate. The Spanish speaking
TV channels and radio stations seems to believe that Latinos are only interested in
novelas, soccer and music, there are no educational programs not to mention
political programs that can truly foment a political culture into our community.
Univision radio had an excellent political radio program that broadcasted from 2008 until
2015, despite the fact that the number of listeners grew constantly and the ratings were
great, Univision decided to cancel it, in order to convert the radio station into a payprograming and music station. This was one of the very few sources of real political and
other issues that the Latino community use to have. Radio is I believe the most
accessible via of information and education for many Latinos because of the fact that
many members of my community are so busy working hard in order to provide for their
families that there is no time for reading newspapers or any other educational materials.
The price we pay as a community for our purposely or none-purposely political
inactivity is extremely high. On one hand we are discriminated. Some politicians and
others who choose to believe whatever the right wing media reports, refer to us in a
very despicable manner, trying to convince others that we are not equal to them, that we
dont belong here and that we are less than human. We can especially see this in the
current election, the manner most republican presidential candidates express their
feelings/thoughts about Latinos. As a consequence, some Latinos are abused at work
places, or being victims of hate crimes. Also we are perceived by others with
stereotypes we dont want to learn English, we are here just to abuse the social
system, we are drug dealers, rapist, or gang members in other words we are

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destroying the country. When in fact most Latinos are hardworking people, that want to
achieve the American dream as well as anybody else.
Additionally, our lack of voting participation is clearly shown on the Latino
underrepresentation in the House and Senate. According with the Huff Post Latino
Voices, there are only 29 congress representatives out of the 435 and 3 senators out of
the 100. This affects the way laws are made and how they impact our community. As
we are not fairly represented, our needs are not a priority for politicians and the
decisions that many times are made have a negative impact toward our community.
Being education and social services two of the areas that are more affected. As a
consequence, the opportunities to achieve a higher education keeps on shrinking as the
tuition for college seems less and less affordable for many Latinos. Because of that the
employment opportunities are very few and with a very low payment this leads to a high
level of poverty and becomes a vicious circle that is very hard to break away from.
It is crucial for Latinos to search for quality political education in order to make
informative voting decisions. Therefore, I would like to introduce Fernando Espuelas, a
social political educator, political analyst, public speaker and entrepreneur that uses
technology to inform people about the emerging power that Latinos can utilize in the
public square. Fernando was born on August 6, 1966 in Uruguay. His father divorced his
mother when Fernando was only eight years old. Two years after the divorce his mother
decided that it was safer for her and her son to immigrate to the United States where
the political system was more stable and she could provide with better opportunities to
her son as well a decision that many Latinos make every year.

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They arrive at Greenwich, Connecticut when Fernando was ten years old with
100 dollars worth of savings. Because of the mothers long work hours and the fact that
she couldnt afford to pay a babysitter, young Fernando had to spend his after school
hours at the public Library where he developed a love for reading especially politics
and history related books. He quickly adapted to the new country and became an
outstanding student and member of the community. While in school, he formed a kids
bank and trust, a student government in the school which was the first of its kind
and was made the president. He also started the school paper and worked as the chief
editor.
In 1984 he made the transition to high school where he was involved in a lot of
extracurricular activities. He was the president of the Debate Team as well as the
Political Action Club. He was also the host of a local cable television show, The Bottom
Line with Fernando Espuelas, interviewing personalities from Greenwich and nearby
communities. At the same time trying to help his mother he was working odd jobs as a
food delivery boy, babysitter and greeting car salesman. After high school he attended
Connecticut College, where he was an important contributor to The College Voice
The college newspaper. His passion for politics also inspired him to become an active
member of the college council and later on become a member of the Board of Trustees
of Connecticut College. He graduated with Distinction in 1988 with a B.A. in History.
Fernando holds various important positions in important companies before
moving to Southern California. In 2008, while living in Los Angeles he started a new
venture. He develops and launches a radio talk show The Fernando Espuelas Show
that aired on Univision Radio Los Angeles. The focus of the program was to inform and

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educate the Spanish speaking community of Los Angeles about politics and social
issues. Despite the odds as many told Fernando that Latinos werent interested in
politics the program was a hit and the audience kept on growing each day. He has
interviewed such leading political figures as President Barack Obama, Vice President
Joe Biden, Senate Leader Harry Reid, Senator John McCain, Governor Jeb Bush,
Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Rand Paul, Chair of the Democratic Party Debbie
Wasserman-Schultz, the Chairman of the Republican Party Reince Priebus, Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi, Senator Richard Durbin, the US Secretaries of Labor,
Education, and HHS, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, White House
Press Secretary Josh Earnest, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and many
other senior national political and cultural figures. Through his program he has inspired
and awakened the political and civic consciousness of many Latinos, giving them the
tools and information they needed in order to make more informative decisions,
motivating them to vote and become politically active. This was the first program that
had a truly political view and that informed Latinos with facts and not only opinions. The
program was so successful that a few years later made the transition from Spanish-local
radio program to a bilingual-national radio program.
During this time Fernando had to enroll his children into school and he was
shocked of the poor performance of many public schools in the Los Angeles area. He
then decides to join the Parent Trigger Revolution a non-profit public schools
advocacy group working to drive education reform across the nation where serves as
a member of the Board of Directors. Fernando moved to Washington D.C. in order to
bring more accurate and faster information to his public and he became even more

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involved in the political process. Sadly, Univision decided to cancel the program in 2015
to transform the radio station into a paid advertisement and music station, a big
disappointment for many Latinos and a shame that Latino TV and radio stations keep
on spreading ignorance instead of educating the community. Fernando is currently
working as a host for the national politics TV show Matter of Fact with Fernando
Espuelas. I hope that he will keep on educating and inspiring people to execute their
legal right and responsibility of voting and to become politically active members of
society.
In conclusion, it is true that the numbers are against us, but there is hope for
change. We need to identify the causes that are keeping us away from the political
process and understanding the consequences of our lack of participation and how this
is affecting our community, our families. Then, get truly engage and use every single
resource we have at our reach in order to influence the political process. Voting is the
only way politicians can hear us, and by doing that we are giving a voice to those who
dont have one. The decision is ours, either we take responsibility of our civic rights or
keep on letting others make the decisions for us. It is time to influence change, every
single member of the Latino community can contribute to accomplish that. We have as
a community the responsibility to seek for education, to become better and to contribute
to this countrythat is our country, and the country of our children. We owe it to our
country, to our childrento ourselves.

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Works Cited
Bush, Daniel. Latino Millennials Could Be Major Voting Bloc If Turnout is High
Enough. PBS Newshour. 20 January 2016. Web. 30 April 2016.
Fernando Espuelas Personal Biography Web Page. 2016. Web. 26 March 2016
Ocampo, Lizet. Top 6 Facts on the Latino Vote. Center for American progress.17
September, 2015. Web. 30 April 2016.
Pipher, Mary B. Writing to Change the World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007. Print.
Planas, Roque. The Most Latino Congress Ever is Coming in 2015. Huffpost Latino
Voices. 5, Nov 2015. Web. 2 March 2016.
The Economist. Corruption in Latin America. Democracy to the rescue? From the
Print Edition. 14, March 2015. Web. 2 March 2016

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The Pew Research Center.1615 L Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036. 2016.
Web. 2 March 2016.
Transparency International Secretariat. Alt-Moabit 96 10559 Berlin, Germany. 2015.
Web. 2 March 2016