By Christopher Heffron
Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground OCTOBER 6, 9–10 P.M., VOCES ON PBS (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS)
Vice President Joe Biden attends a Culinary Union protest.
Latinos for Trump gather at a rally in February 2020.
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ccording to a Pew Research Center study, in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won the Latinx vote in a walk: 66 percent to Donald Trump’s 28. Democratic candidates, in fact, won the group’s favor in the laset three elections. But that shouldn’t suggest that Latinos will always back the left. As Dr. Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition says midway through this impactful documentary, “No political party has a monopoly on Gospel values or Hispanic priorities.” Candidates who fail to connect with Latinx voters do so at their own political peril. Another Pew Research study showed that naturalized citizens will make up one in 10 eligible voters in the 2020 election—roughly 10 percent of the country’s electorate. What director Bernardo Ruiz’s Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground does so well is the way that it juxtaposes the Latinx community as both an imperiled, misunderstood population and a powerhouse voting bloc. In 21st-century America, you can be both. The documentary introduces us to a dizzying number of community organizers and activists, among them Adrian Rivera-Reyes, a young scientist in Philadelphia who seeks to mobilize the city’s Puerto Rican community. Pasqual Urrabazo, a Las Vegas pastor and Trump supporter, tries to energize Latino evangelicals. Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative, addresses the ever-present xenophobia within politics. While the people profiled here may differ in their political beliefs or which candidate they support, all are united in engaging their diverse communities. Some of the most penetrative voices in the film belong to first-generation Americans, children of parents who fled violence or corrupt governments in their home countries for better opportunities in the United States. One of these young activists, Cuban-born Daniela Ferrera, a fiery and articulate orator, wants to help move her adopted country forward. She is the American dream in motion. Latino Vote, which covers a lot of ground in 60 minutes, says one thing clearly: The Latinx community is not a monolith, nor can it be categorized neatly. Rather, it is an important ingredient in the melting pot that is America today: conservative, liberal, and independent alike. And they are a growing, mobilized community. Come the November elections, the film asserts, 32 million Latinos will be eligible to vote. The presidential candidate who can relate to the Latinx community without pandering to them—the latter happening far too often, historically—will have a true superpower backing him.
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