villescas research, media & instruction, llc 

voto latino presents...

august 25: 2012 is the ideal year to launch first run for elected office [link] 

If you are thinking of running for elected office, next year is your year. What the Olympics are for athletes, presidential elections are for candidates, moments when the whole world is attentive and engaged. Emerging Latino candidates, especially those who are under 30 years of age, should capture the moment to make their mark in communities across the country and share their distinct vision of the future.

Back in the 2008 presidential election, I and several of my 20-something peers began our pursuit of elected offices across municipal, state and federal levels of government as well as on regional school boards. Arguably, we were each catalyzed to run by the excitement generated by the national campaigns. In my nonpartisan city council race, there were five candidates and four of us were under 30 years of age. It was an impactful experience. We each learned so much from meeting with constituents, debating issues and competing for support from strategic groups and funders.

Young Latino leaders are imbued with multidimensional capabilities that traditional candidates simply do not possess, including cultural hybridity, access to extensive social networks and an abundance of new ideas. Combine these assets with youthful energy, familial support and sheer will, and we will all soon observe how the impending leadership vacuum stemming from the departure of Latino baby boomers will be resolved by Latinos and Latinas who were born near the end of the 20th century.

If you are under 30 and thinking about serving as a community leader, distinguish yourself apart from 99.9 percent of all Americans and run for office next year. Here are 10 recommendations based on my experience in running for office:

1. Realize that your family and community members as well as your educational and professional development have prepared you to serve your community in this leadership capacity;
2. Look inside yourself and determine both the level of your conviction and the rationale of this political pursuit;
3. Determine how you seek to best serve your neighbors and future generations by improving the quality of life of your community;
4. Define your metrics of success for both your campaign and time in office;
5. Confirm who your core supporters and contributors will be;
6. Calibrate your core messages and communication campaign to the various voting precincts within your community;
7. Register as an official candidate and amplify your campaign launch as well as your distinct vision for the community;
8. Strategically map your neighborhoods and visit as many families as you can between the day you register as a candidate and the final day of voting;
9. When it is all over, ask yourself what you did well and what you could have done differently if you were to do it again;
10. Whether you are elected or not, remain civically engaged and endeavor to grow the next generation of community leaders.

Remember, not every elected official gets in on their first try. For example, one of my fellow candidates who barely lost that race, an extraordinarily talented Latina attorney who had once been a member of my citywide 9th grade debate team, dedicated her energies to usurping a longstanding incumbent in the Texas legislature during the following election cycle.

Candidates under 30 have long political careers ahead, but they all begin with the first step into the political arena. Youth is on your side and the 2012 presidential campaign will amplify voter turnout in a manner that will augment your potential voter pool. Utilize your unique generational, social and cultural advantages to get into office early so that you can translate your vision for the community into a framework for policy that will secure the future.

This opportunity only comes every four years, so seize the moment and respond to the call of leadership.

Joseph P. A. Villescas, Ph.D. is an independent consultant, writer and instructor. He conducts extensive investigations on Latino and other multidimensional populations that explore trends in their educational development, media consumption, internet usage, voting behaviors, racial categorization, organizational capacities and readiness for future leadership roles in community settings. He is the founder and owner of Villescas Research, Media & Instruction, LLC.

august 18: latino students can help shape the 2012 presidential election [link]

Organized Latino groups on college campuses represent one of the most underutilized networks of potential community organizers that if properly cultivated by the major political parties could feasibly double the under 30 Latino vote and mobilize thousands more new Latino voters in their hometowns and regions surrounding their college campuses.

There are approximately 1.7 million Latino students under 30 years of age currently enrolled in undergraduate programs throughout the country. Given their location in key states, cultural sensitivities, bilingualism and, above all, their social connectedness, each political party should recognize that today's Latino undergraduate is valuable both as a new voter and as an ideal community organizer. Promoting their organizational development, regardless of party affiliation, will ultimately yield increased Latino voter turnout because the social capital of one Latino undergraduate student is directly related to a range of potential Latino voters: 

• Eligible adult voters in their family
• Neighborhood friends and families
• High school seniors in their hometown
• Latino students enrolled at their campus
• Latino student organizations, fraternities and sororities on campus and across their region
• National Latino alumni networks
• Their extensive networks of friends on Facebook and other social networking sites

The next academic year provides every Latino student with a chance to take advantage of a unique moment in history and contribute to producing the highest Latino voter turnout in a presidential election by simply activating and applying their social capital. Latino student organizations, fraternities and sororities should prepare their calendars to conduct a series of events that link members of the campus community and local Latino residents with a balance of candidates pursuing elected office, campaign representatives and political activists. If Latino students take advantage of the semesters ahead to enhance their community organizing skills by collaborating with either party during the early phases of the presidential campaign, they will gain a multidimensional foundation of experience that will mutually benefit their student organizations, local political parties and regional enclaves of potential Latino voters.

Political campaign strategists should seek out Latino student organizations and their emerging leadership base throughout this academic year. Two semesters of organizational training, access to party resources, additional funding to carry out Latino-oriented events and inclusion in regional GOTV planning will increase the ability of campaigns to produce a wave of highly educated liaisons who can mobilize Latino high school seniors, their peers on campus, their families back home and even their extensive social networks on-line to register to vote and to vote in next year's election.

Beginning this fall semester with Hispanic Heritage Month, Latino student leaders and their campus organizations can use this time to promote awareness and new understandings of the diversity of issues as well as opportunities that the burgeoning U.S. Latino population will present for the 2012 election. By the Dia de los Muertos, long-standing and newly-formed Latino student organizations can become highly visible entities on campus. And by the holidays, members of these student organizations can carry out events that link high school seniors and families from their hometown to new developments unfolding at their undergraduate institution.

Latino students can also share and consolidate their research on Latino identity, history and contemporary issues of contention with audiences far beyond their immediate classroom environments through their various on-line social networks. Finally, during the spring semester of 2012, Latino student organizations can host debates with current students, faculty members and alumni as well as local candidates and supporters of various campaigns.

Through the expansion of Latino student organizations, fraternities and sororities, this new generation of Latino undergraduate students can establish an organizational infrastructure that can mobilize thousands of Latino voters in the 2012 presidential elections and beyond. Within one academic year, a wave of Latino student leaders can apply their accumulated social capital to inform voters, coordinate voter mobilization and magnify awareness about complex issues that are important to their peers and other local residents.