Spanish or English – Espanol o Ingles?
To reach young Hispanic voters, most politicians and organizations have taken a bilingual approach, to varying degrees.
But most young Hispanics lead English-dominant lives, raising the question of whether the Spanish-language campaign communication still is necessary.
“What both Romney and Obama need to start doing to the Latino community – they need to start talking to them in English,” said Maria Teresa Kumar, the executive director of Voto Latino, a nonpartisan voter-registration organization. “The best way to get their votes is to talk to them in an acculturated tone.”
Voto Latino’s website, Facebook page and Twitter feed are all in English.
But President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, as well as the national Republican and Democratic parties, use varying degrees of Spanish communication.
The Obama campaign launched Latinos for Obama, a predominately English site, but the main website also can be viewed in Spanish. The campaign sends tweets and news releases in both languages.
Campaign officials say they recognize that many young Hispanics speak English, but that doesn’t mean that Spanish isn’t still an important way to reach Hispanic voters.
“Spanish-language news consumption among Hispanic families is huge,” said Gabriela Domenzain, the director of Hispanic media for the Obama campaign. “If it’s not the young Hispanic who is watching, it’s maybe grandparents or the parents.” READ MORE
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