"The impact of the Latin electorate in the presidential campaign of 2008"
Last Wednesday 6th of August, in facilities of the American representation, the second conference of the cycle dedicated to the elections of November was developed before a vast concurrence.
In this opportunity the speaker was Octavio A. Hinojosa Mier, Executive Director of Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI), non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to creating a broader awareness of the diversity of thought, heritage, interests and views of millions of Americans of Hispanic and Portuguese descent.
Prior to his current position, Octavio served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Conference (CHC), a Congressional member organization committed to promoting the best interests and policies of more than 40 million Americans of Hispanic and Portuguese descent.
Through a very complete speach, and the interchange with the public, Hinojosa Mier shared opinions, data and realities about the reality of the latins living in the United States. In particular he emphasized the fact that the Hispanic community in the USA is of 49 million people (including the 4 million of Puerto Rico); what constitutes them in the second bigger Spanish-speaking group of the world, after Mexico.
In spite of that, only 16 million can vote (the rest don`t have the right documents or are minors), and in 2006 just half of those 16 million voted. The positive, nevertheless, is that a tendency to increase its participation is observed, motivated by issues like immigratory reform, economy, health, education and security. Finally, he recommended that for November the attention should concentrate especially in the states of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada; where the Hispanic population is 20 or 30% of the total (on the other hand, Texas, California and New York would not be disputed states). Other thing that he said is that, even though traditionally the Latins votes for the democrats (with the exception mainly of the Cubans), Obama comes having problems to attract that part of the electorate.
Photo: the outstanding public present listens to Octavio A. Hinojosa Mier (photo of Infobae).
...| Accede to the cv of Octavio A. Hinojosa Mier
...| Accede to information on the elections and the Latin electorate
