Photo by buschap/Flickr (Creative Commons)
A bilingual after-voting sticker, February 2008
No one is more familiar with the power of the Latino vote, considered pivotal in tomorrow’s midterm election, than the organizations working to get Latino voters to the polls.
Unlike some groups that focus outreach efforts on Spanish-dependent immigrants, Voto Latino focuses on younger Latinos who are U.S-born and English-dependent, employing popular culture and social media in its outreach. The nonprofit was co-founded in 2004 by actress/activist Rosario Dawson and its executive director, Maria Teresa Kumar. Since then the organization has registered tens of thousands of voters.
Born in Colombia, Kumar has been named by PODER Magazine as one of the most notable 20 U.S. Hispanics under 40 years old. She is a political contributor to MSNBC and has also appeared on CNN’s AC 360 and American Morning, NPR, Telemundo and CNBC.
Kumar discusses the role and influence of young Latino voters, and how to reach them.
M-A: Voto Latino focuses on U.S.-born, English-dominant young Latino voters, vs. Spanish-dominant immigrants. What made you (and Rosario) decide this was the group you wanted to focus on? How much of this comes from your experience growing up here as a child of immigrants?
Kumar: As we know, young Latinos, 1st and 2nd generation and “1.5s” consume their media in English, not Spanish, and their preferences track more along the lines of mainstream American youth. The fact is there are 50,000 Latinos, eligible to vote, that turn 18 in this country every day. If they all exercised their right to vote, that group alone represents true political power.
