American Latino National Summit: Rebranding U.S. Latinos
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
Latinos get it. There’s a perception problem across the United States, where far too many Americans have the wrong idea about who U.S. Latinos are, what their values are, and what their potential is. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age there is a substantial chunk of the american population that believes that the Latinos in their midst are mostly undocumented, uneducated and don’t speak English.
Recent studies have proven that fact, and part of the blame has been placed on mass media and it’s insistence on portraying Latinos in a negative light. But media isn’t the only problem. There are ingrained prejudices as well, and I use the word in it’s most basic meaning – Latinos are pre-judged by many of their fellow Americans, without even a chance of a sliver of a different perception cracking their mindset.
There are several options to deal with this predicament: get angry, hunker down, or work to change the perception. That last option, the working for change option, is akin to putting together and implementing a massive re-branding of U.S. Latinos; a huge marketing campaign where Latinos design the message and tell the story.
That, in a nutshell, is the purpose behind the First American National Latino Summit, taking place today in Miami. It’s organized by HACR, NALEO, NCLR and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Thbe conference is organized by the New America Alliance (NAA), and it’s chair, former U.S. Securities & Exchange Commissioner Roel C. Campos, explained the summit this way:
“The purpose of the NAA National Summit is twofold; first, we aim to change the tone and tenor of the national discourse concerning American Latinos, from a narrow focus to the broader, more accurate definition of who we are and what our contributions represent to the continued global leadership and prosperity of our nation; and, second, to articulate cohesive recommendations and positions on the major issues of our times as they relate to the American Latino community”.
At NewsTaco we couldn’t agree more. When we first sat to devise what NewsTaco would be about and look like, we knew we had to be part re-branding, and that part of that re-branding had to be organic, authentic and unapologetic. We’re excited at the prospect of what the American Latino National Summit can accomplish, so much so that we’ve traveled to Miami to be part of the conference and to report back on what we learned. But we want to know what you’re thinking as this day unfolds as well. For that, the entire conference will be live streamed.
First, here’s schedule of the day, there will be three sessions, you can go HERE for the official rundown of events.
Then you can watch the conference throughout the day HERE.
