Engaging the Hispanic community

by Bill Moore, From the Right, April 13, 2014.

I recently had the privilege to hear Daniel Garza speak and to talk with him personally. He is the Executive Director of The Libre Initiative based in Texas. His is a group that outreaches to the Hispanic Community explaining the economic benefits to the Free Market and the freedoms it brings. In fact his organization has financial backing  both from donations and the Koch organization. His mission is described best by the following statements taken directly from their website

"Founded in 2011, The LIBRE Initiative is a 501(c)4 non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization that advances the principles and values of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community so it can thrive and contribute to a more prosperous America.

LIBRE is dedicated to informing the U.S. Hispanic community about the benefits of a constitutionally limited government, property rights, rule of law, sound money supply and free trade through a variety of community events, research and policy initiatives that protect our economic freedom.

Our mission is to equip the Hispanic community with the tools they need to be prosperous. We are committed to developing a network of Hispanic pro-liberty activists across the United States so that our message reaches every corner of the country."

He explains the Hispanic community in the US is about equally divided into thirds for language. Roughly 1/3 speak only Spanish, 1/3 are bi- lingual and the final third speak only English. His organization has run ads in key states in both languages on primarily Spanish speaking stations. In fact they recently spend over $1 million in ads to educate and give the other side to Hispanics.

He has dedicated his energies to fight the Lefts dominance in the Hispanic community.  Why is that important to us? As Republican /Conservatives we know the future of this nation depends on finding like minded individuals to join us. The facts are as follows:

• In Texas there are about 27 million people. 9.5 million are Hispanic students. Half of them are registered to vote. Only  38% did vote. If the Left can reach the remaining Hispanics, Texas will become a purple state.
• In Florida, there was a 62% turnout of Hispanic voters. Yet through efforts from many people including Garza's organization, we were successful in the last special election.
• They are currently working in 12 states and hopes to expand even further.
• Places include, New York, Los Angeles, Florida and Colorado

Garza believes outreach will inform Hispanics of the opportunity and freedoms here and they will support our beliefs if given the information and the chance. What do we have in common?

• Hispanics are traditionally family oriented
• As a rule, Hispanics are deeply religious
• They are often leaving a nation where the Government, Police are Statist,  corrupt and cruel to its citizens. They like our ancestors, came here for a better life
• Hispanics are being hurt by Obamacare as job after job is disappearing or not being created
• Their fulltime jobs are becoming part time
• He points out Hispanic support for Obamacare has dropped from 75% to 61%.  All from people starting to understand how  the law is affecting them. Think what a concentrated effort would accomplish
• A Pew Hispanic Center report in 2012 highlighted 32% of all Latinos said their political views were either "conservative" or "very conservative". An additional 32% identified themselves as moderates. Only 30% said their views were liberal.

Garza points out most Hispanics get their news from two stations, either Univision or Telemundo. Both stations have a left slant to the news that is 6 times higher than the right slant. The word needs to get out through grass roots movements like The Libre Initiative. It runs informational ads to get a different viewpoint out to the Hispanic community, one that apparently will be well received. As an example, he is running ads in Arizona reminding the Hispanic community that the 2 incumbents running for Congress both voted for Obamacare and they are to be held accountable for the loss of jobs and opportunity. The general tone of the ads state Obamacare does more harm than good.  This is done through a program from his organization called 'The Accountability Project"

When asked for his views on the illegal immigration issue, Mr. Garza was quick to point  out the following:

• The borders must be secured first
• He does support a Guest worker program
• He supports some type of a  program that would eventually allow people to work toward citizenship.
• He points out this nation was founded by wave after wave of hard working people that came here for a better life. Previous immigrants were allowed to enter a system that allowed them to thrive. Hispanics are no different and came for both freedom and opportunity.
• He believes the Hispanic population is being disproportionately  impacted by Federal programs that keep them dependent and poor.  Public policy should allow people to thrive.
• He has then opposite view to the popular one that if all illegal's were given citizenship it would add about 30million additional Democrats. He believes that when Hispanics are fully informed about the evils of Collectivism and Statism, the bulk will support conservative ideals.

Daniel Garza believes there are really no Hispanic issues just American issues. We all agree we need to outreach but all we do is talk. This man is doing something about it. Google "The Libre Initiative", find out more about the organization and volunteer to be a grassroots person to make a difference. If this nation and its free market ideals are to survive, we must come together and outreach to non -traditional Republican/ Conservatives and get them on board. Failure to do so will doom this nation to continue its slide to Socialism. Remember President Reagan, we will not agree on everything but we cannot allow the fact we do not agree on everything to stop our goals and successes.

Stop talking, come together, support most if not all of Garza's ideas and start doing something to expand our base!!!