Churches urged to pursue outreach in Spanish amid ‘record’ Latino political engagement

Three speakers deliver remarks in a panel titled “The Hispanic Community and Its Growing Influence in the U.S.” at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2023, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. The speakers included Alfonso Aguilar, Nilsa Alvarez and Angel Jordan. | The Christian Post/Nicole Alcindor

WASHINGTON — Amid a “record level of Hispanic involvement in politics,” conservative activists contend that churches and other religious and political organizations have an obligation to reach out to the Latino community using Spanish-language media and materials. 

A panel discussion at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit Saturday focused on “The Hispanic Community and Its Growing Influence on the U.S.”

Panelists discussed the policy views of many Hispanics and how they align with the values of faith-based voters, stressing the need for churches and faith-based organizations to reach out to Hispanics to ensure electoral victories for the foreseeable future. 

“There is a strong faith component in the Hispanic community that shares the values that we have, and they are being drawn into a community of like-minded citizens,” FRC President Tony Perkins said as he introduced the panel. “When we look at the future of America, the Hispanic community is going to play a key role in preserving the values that you and I hold dear and that have been historically important in making America a great country.” 

Alfonso Aguilar of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles noted that the Latino community has given an increasing share of the vote to Republican candidates in recent elections, a factor that Perkins brought up at the beginning of the panel.

Perkins highlighted several heavily Latino counties in South Texas that supported Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election after backing Democrat Hillary Clinton four years earlier. 

Aguilar attributed this development to the fact that “they are afraid, literally afraid, of this leftist agenda that seeks to promote gender ideology, critical race theory, question the glorious history of our country.” 

Aguilar identified the 39% share of the Latino vote received by Republican candidates in last year’s midterm elections as “the highest number since 1978.” He said majorities of Latinos voted to re-elect Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio last year. 

Nilsa Alvarez, the Hispanic division director for the Faith & Freedom Coalition, reported a “record level of Hispanics engaging in American politics.” 

“We’ve never seen the amount of Hispanic parents drop what they’re doing and run for school board,” Alvarez said. “It’s something unprecedented yet so natural to the Hispanic community because we are, by the vast majority, conservative.”

Alvarez, who lives in Tennessee, said “a lot of Hispanics” lobbied for a law in her state prohibiting drag shows at venues attended by minors.

“A lot of Hispanic parents reached out to legislators and said, ‘We don’t want to kids exposed to these sexual performances,'” Alvarez said. 

Bishop Angel Nunez, the vice president of the National Hispanic Pastors Alliance, said that most Hispanics are “told that politics is of the devil and that we were just supposed to stay behind closed doors, wait for the rapture and the Lord is coming to take us home and let the world go to [Hell] in a basket and don’t worry about it because God is coming back soon.”

Nunez suggested that recent events have prompted a change of strategy.

“It is quite obvious what’s happening in our schools,” Nunez said. “It is quite obvious the laws that have been changed and the persecution that has come … to the state that we can’t even mention the name of Jesus without having somebody being offended. They offend us, but they don’t want us to offend them.”

Alvarez credited the efforts of the Faith & Freedom Coalition with helping to register more than 6 million voters while stressing the importance of putting out “voter education materials in Spanish.” She delivered a message to “organizations, ministries, charities, churches represented in this event.”

“If you have nothing in Spanish, you’re leaving out the fastest-growing minority in the nation,” Alvarez stressed.

“You need to welcome them with their language,” she added. “Our media is very censored in Spanish. It’s all owned by the left. So, if you want your message to resonate, invest in Hispanic media. [In] every election cycle, I get phone calls from general managers of Spanish media stations saying ‘we need ads from the right’ because the left will have three ads every hour.”

Alvarez concluded that “our absence in this media circuit is allowing our opposition to grow the ranks” as she reiterated her call to “invest in Hispanic media.”

Nunez agreed while calling on ads to only feature people who know how to “write and speak in Spanish,” describing the use of people who do not know how to pronounce Spanish words as “disheartening.” 

Aguilar stated that “the majority of those Hispanic voters who are supporting conservative candidates are English-speaking Hispanics,” before citing polling data showing Republicans are behind by nearly 40% with Spanish-speaking Hispanic voters, which account for one-third of the Hispanic electorate.

“We have to figure out how to develop conservative Spanish language efforts towards Hispanics,” he said. 

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.