On Sep.15 Joe Biden spoke at a live broadcasted Hispanic Heritage Month event in Kissimmee, FL. Highly influential Hispanic artists joined Biden to reach out to the LatinX community for their support to the Democratic presidential party.
Joe Biden was trending on twitter when viewers at home watched as Joe Biden took out his phone and began playing the popular song “Despacito” by Latin artist, Luis Fonsi, and Daddy Yankee. Though some saw it as cringy, it was an attempt of many to connect with all ranges of the Hispanic community.
One thing that most people migrating to the United States has is, “Hope, and in so many ways that’s what makes us American.” as Biden stated. He wanted to connect the matter that everyone can connect to their ancestors, whether American or Hispanic, they’ve intertwined and flourished.
Biden highlighted the importance of the Hispanic people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role they have taken in the working class, “for the first time recognized for what they truly are, essential.” He also mentions it’s not a matter of just thanking these people, but to pay them.
From the grocery store clerks to the nurses, the US is powered by working Hispanic people. Biden quotes his father, “A job is a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity.”
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Hispanic share of the labor force is projected to grow from 17.5% in 2017 to 20.9% by 2028.
Biden goes into exactly how he plans on helping the Hispanic community and how to integrate them better into the country. “We have to change our attitudes,”
Eva Longoria, an American actress of Mexican descent who opened the event, directly calls out President Trump in the racism, inhumanity, and stereotypes that Trump has continuously stated towards Mexican immigrants, “at the border he has ripped kids from the arms of their parents and has locked them in cages.”
On Aug. 3, 2019, Patrick Crusius, a white man, walked into a Walmart in El Paso, TX shooting 22 people dead. Anthony Rivas of ABC News reported, the El Paso Police Department was told by Crusius that he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible. Far-right violence against minorities has been growing in the US since President Trump took office.
Rivas states that although the President denies his effects in any form of violence, “ an ABC News investigation in November 2018 [found] multiple criminal cases involving mostly white men where Trump’s name or rhetoric was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.”
On Aug. 16, 2019, Longoria and fellow American-Hispanic actress, America Ferrera led a group for a letter of solitary to US Latinos. The group was made up of more than 150 artists, including Doreles Huerta, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ricky Martin, and many more.
Longoria tweeted that day, “We will not be broken. We will not be silenced. We will continue to denounce any hateful and inhumane treatment of our community. We will demand dignity and justice.” Along with Ferrera, to ask the Hispanic community to bind together.
Biden wraps the speech up by describing the strength he carried during times of grief (the loss of his wife, son, and daughter), “Faith and family, it seems to me that the same strength that’s always animated the Hispanic community.” Biden encourages viewers that the Hispanic community holds so much power in shaping the future of the US, he encourages everyone to vote.