Conservatives are trying to reach out Latinos and benefit from the growing political power of our Brown communities -or as they call us Hispanics. A conference being held in Washington, DC, have gathered right-wing politicians and thinkers from the United States, Spain and [Latin] America to discuss on how to convince Latinos to support the conservative agenda.
Photo AP
The Americano First Annual Hispanic Conference is organized by former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich's venture
The Americano "a bilingual site that [...] offers a more balanced view on all the issues that concern American Hispanics today, while celebrating the richness of
Hispanic Heritage". This conference is being held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC.
As a blogger,
I registered to this event and The Americano staff was kind to grant me a media credential. My interest is to learn on what
conservatives have to offer to the Latino communities. As you might know by now, I am not a conservative but I support non-partisan social justice.
At the same time, I am not fond of the
lack of inclusiveness that both the
Democratic and Republican parties have shown towards Brown communities, as both lack of a strong and proportionate
Latino leadership in their parties.
This video shows the
opening session of this conference, with former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich, former Prime Minister of Spain
Jose Maria Aznar, Mexican Ambassador
Arturo Sarukhan with introductory remarks from author and political analyst
Leslie Sanchez. They talked about the growing impact of the
Latino vote, the role of "Hispanics" in the
U.S. politics, and the increasing
violence in Mexico which originates in the U.S. somehow, among other issues. This is
worth watching:
I have recorded very interesting interviews and taken photos during the opening day of this conference, which I will
post later on in this blog. Also, I have prepared
personal commentaries about this event, of what I have seeing and learned. This will be posted later as well.
Even after the resonant
election of conservative Latinos in the recent mid-term elections, including
Susana Martinez as the governor of New Mexico,
Marco Rubio as Senator for Florida, and
Brian Sandavol as the governor of Nevada - I still
don't believe the Republican party has a great future among
Latinos. Their ideas can appeal to old-fashioned and elitist Latin Americans, but they are a
minority among us.
We can understand the
lack of support from Latinos to conservatives in the U.S. just by reading the list of
speakers, topics and the
program of this conference. The lack of a numerous
attendance -and media coverage- of this conference is a reflection of this reality.
Last night for instance, The Americano gave
special awards to Cuban-American Congressman
Lincoln Diaz-Balart (a Republican and supporter of right-wing coups and abusive governments in Latin America), former Colombian president
Alvaro Uribe (denounced of
horrendous crimes against humanity), and Cuban-American physician
Orlando Silva as "Outstanding Hispanic".
Among their
guests included Spain's
José María Aznar (a controversial Bush supporter in the illegal war in Iraq), former Bush's Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutiérrez (a Cuban-American fierce free-trade policies advocate),
Alvaro Vargas-Llosa (the son of conservative writer Mario Vargas Llosa),
Jeb Bush Jr. (the handsome but mediocre son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush), and
Hernando de Soto (a free-trade advocate who is trying to convince Indigenous communities in Peru to sell their lands to destructive U.S. corporations).
Among the
sponsors of this conference, are included private corporations, mostly focusing on
corporations interests, national and
border security, trashy and racist media (Univision), and think-thank groups linked to the
Republican party, among others.
I feel that the
conservatives will fail to capture the support of Brown communities, as long as they continue to promote an
elitist and unrealistic right-wing agenda which has caused so much violence,
inequality, racism and poverty in the Americas.
Personally, I reject their use of the
term Hispanic, an imposed term of Euro-centric roots that will never reflect the true origins and heritage of our Brown communities, so
diverse in races and cultures that are mostly
indigenous to the Americas, not to Europe.
.
