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Axios Latino is published every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1 topic to highlight: A vote in Texas that will mark the route of the future
This Tuesday it will be decided which Latino Democratic candidate in South Texas will compete in the midterm elections in November... and, given the conflicting perspectives of the two candidates on issues such as abortion rights, it will also be pointed out what the route may be in the future of the Democratic Party.
Big picture
: Democrats aim to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives in November, hoping the abortion issue will mobilize their voters in the face of the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning this constitutional right.
However, that message may not work in certain districts like the one in Texas where Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros are facing off.
More details:
Cuellar, the current representative of a district that includes San Antonio and parts of the border with Mexico, is a Catholic who is against the right to terminate a pregnancy and believes that it should be restricted to certain circumstances.
Cuellar has the support of Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, but Cisneros has made the fight especially close.
Cisneros is an immigration attorney and has the backing of progressive senators like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Photo illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios.
/ Photos by Alastair Pike/AFP, Jordan Vonderhaar via Getty Images
Between the lines:
Cuellar edged out Cisneros by just two percentage points in March, forcing a runoff election.
Cisneros has focused on abortion rights, urging Democratic leaders to stop backing Cuellar on that issue.
The intrigue
: Latino voters in South Texas were more supportive of Republican candidates in the 2020 election. But they tend to be younger overall, making them more likely to support abortion rights, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
That suggests that if Cisneros prevails, Democratic leaders should rethink what little support they have given to more progressive candidates, according to strategist Chuck Rocha.
But, but, but:
Inflation, employment and the economy in general are the issues that are really motivating voters in the face of November, according to Daniel Garza, founder and president of the group The LIBRE Initiative, an organization that seeks to limit the influence of the government in people's daily lives.
He said people in South Texas "tend more toward centrist politics."
In his own words
: The battle between Cuellar and Cisneros is not only about a dispute between the conservative and progressive sectors of the Democratic Party, according to strategist Rocha.
"It's the party fighting with the people who run the party: so our party will change a lot in the next five years," he said.
2.
Other Latinos
at the polls to follow
Latino candidates from the Southwest to New England are seeking to break down barriers in statewide races and bring seats traditionally held by their rivals into their hands.
Why it matters
: If successful, the most promising candidates could quickly become the faces of their parties and catapult themselves onto the national stage.
Latinos make up approximately 19% of the population, but are deeply underrepresented in institutions.
Who to watch
: Zack Quintero, a Democratic candidate for New Mexico auditor, would be one of the youngest Hispanic elected officials in the country at 31.
He campaigned against corruption.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Monica De La Cruz, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, is part of a group of Republican Latina hopefuls who could paint traditionally blue (Democratic) seats red in South Texas.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, an Afro-Cuban Democrat, hopes to thwart Republican power among Cuban-Americans and win a Florida seat from Orlando.
RaĂşl Labrador, born in Puerto Rico, is a former Republican congressman seeking to become Idaho's attorney general.
The Intrigue
: Sonia Chang-DĂaz, a former teacher and the first person of Latino and Asian descent to serve in the Massachusetts Senate, is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of the state.
Don't forget
: Republicans in New Mexico are attracting a record number of Hispanic candidates in the state Legislature.
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic population.
It is dominated by Democrats, who control the governor's office, the legislature, the Senate and two of the three seats in the House of Representatives.
3. The fight against the lack of interest in registering to vote
Many Hispanics in Colorado who are not yet registered to vote say they probably won't for the November midterm elections.
They cite discontent with the two dominant parties and the economic situation, according to an Emerson College study.
[Plan Your Vote: Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Voice Count at the Polls]
Why It Matters:
This poll shows the challenges Democrats and Republicans face with one of the largest groups of voters.
More details
: 41% of unregistered Latino voters in Colorado believe that going to the polls will not change anything in their day to day life, according to the survey.
39% said nothing is going to persuade them to sign up.
That sentiment is especially pronounced among 18-24-year-olds, suggesting they will be the most difficult group of voters to mobilize come November.
The Big Picture
: Although Colorado Latinos surveyed said they are not strongly for or strongly against either party, they generally expressed more affinity with Democrats on issues such as abortion rights, immigration and the economy.
But they said they were especially frustrated with what they see as unfulfilled Democratic promises, and criticized that social program proposals could be too costly.
The fact:
Latinos make up 18.7% of the population and in 2020 there were already more than 30 million eligible to vote, according to a study by the City University of New York.
4. A change for US Spanish-language newspapers.
Some of the most influential Spanish-language newspapers in the country
have just been bought by a private equity company, which has not given clear indications as to whether and how it will change them.
News Momentum
: My Code announced the purchase of Spanish-language news company Impremedia, owner of La Opinion and El Diario, for an undisclosed amount.
La Opinion, based in Los Angeles, is the leading daily newspaper in Spanish.
El Diario, the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, is based in New York.
My Code also obtained La Raza in Chicago and La Opinion de la BahĂa in San Francisco as part of this operation.
It now owns the most widely read Spanish-language newspapers and digital media in the country.
My Code is an advertising network that targets Black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander consumers.
A man in New York with a copy of El Diario.Nick Potts - PA Images/PA Images / via Getty Images
Overview
: Spanish-language newspapers have been decimated over the last decade by rising printing costs, mergers, and increased news consumption on mobile phones.
Bilingual and Spanish-language newspapers from New Mexico to Chicago have closed despite their strong ties to Latino communities.
In his own words
: “With the growing influence and impact of the Hispanic population, solutions for connecting and serving the community have never been in greater demand,” said Parker Morse, CEO and founder of My Code.
By operating closely with Impremedia's world-class leadership team, we will build a strong, vital and even more sustainable next stage for Hispanic media and marketing."
Parker-Morse
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
Chilean Mapuche women are close to breaking a Guinness World Record:
this weekend they wove the longest hand loom in the world, measuring almost a kilometer.
More than 400 women from 87 communes worked on wixtal weaving using locally sourced wool.
Just need to check your record.
Artisans of the Mapuche ethnic group came together to make a 3,300-foot-long fabric
May 24, 202201:35
The White House is considering inviting a Cuban representative
to the Summit of the Americas, according to news reports.
The proposal would be a nod to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who threatened to boycott the event to be held this June in Los Angeles because Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not on the guest list.
Bolivia and the Caribbean Caricom countries said they would follow Mexico's lead, and Guatemala refused to participate over a disagreement with the US over its attorney general.
It is not clear if Cuba would accept.
Nicaragua has already said that it would not go even if it were invited.
6. Farewell smile: Leading the way to space
A Mexican engineer is about to become the first woman born in Latin America to reach space.
Details
: Katya Echazarreta was chosen from a pool of over 7,000 applicants to participate in one of Blue Origin's private spaceflight missions as a "Citizen Astronaut."
Echazarreta, 26, was born in Guadalajara and emigrated to the United States when she was 7 years old, unable to speak English.
She had to put off college for a few years to help her mother financially, but managed to get an internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory while finishing her bachelor's degree.
She is now working on her master's degree.
In his own words
: "I dedicate all this to my mother, to my country," Echazarreta told Noticias Telemundo.
She will be accompanied on board by another Latino, the Brazilian VĂctor Correa Hespanha, on Blue Origin's fifth manned spaceflight.
It was scheduled to take off last Friday, but was postponed;
no new release date has been set.
The first Mexican to fly into space was told "to look for something else" because she would not make it
May 13, 202201:10
Recount
: Nearly twenty Latinos and Latin American scientists have traveled to space.
Among the most notable figures are Ellen Ochoa, who was also the first Hispanic person to lead NASA's Johnson Space Center;
and Franklin Chang DĂaz, an astronaut born in Costa Rica who holds the record for the most space flights.
In recent years, in addition, several Latinas have been a key part of NASA's Mars exploration program teams.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
Do you want to see any of the previous editions?
The Asian hand in the fight for the civil and labor rights of Latinos
Exonerated and with a 'green card'... until ICE arrived
The road to environmental devastation that passes through the Mayan Train
Why More and More Latinos Buy Guns
State-of-the-art pre-Hispanic technology: this system can rescue us from the drought
