In 2018, I met a 26-year-old Mexican-American father of 2 who was voting for the first time in a midterm. He’d been eligible to vote for 8 years but had NEVER been contacted by a candidate or political party. Texts from @BetoORourke’s campaign were his first contact.

We grew up in the same Dallas neighborhood (Oak Cliff for life) that is home to a huge, heavily Mexican Latino population. He didn’t recall any canvassers coming to his home in previous elections to talk about voting. And he wasn’t alone.

I’ve met lots of other Latinos who say the same. And I’ve heard time and time again from researchers who study Latino voting patterns and attitudes that there’s a lack of outreach. Community organizers also say the same. Outreach isn’t there.

Before you can even start trying to break down the “Latino vote,” you have to understand issues like that. Many of these households haven’t had a culture of voting for generations. How can you expect Latinos to go from apathy to enthusiastically voting from one cycle to the next?

Sure, there’s personal responsibility, but politicians/parties can’t say “Latinos don’t vote” every single election cycle and then not do anything about it. Clearly there’s been an uptick this year, but it’s due in LARGE part to to the grassroots efforts born in the community.

You won’t get to these issues if you don’t let us tell our stories. Journalism has to let us be columnists and storytellers without questioning our abilities to report truthfully on our own communities.

Hollywood, y’all gotta let us have some damn screen time! You’ll never understand our backgrounds if you never give creators from our communities a chance to create.

More can be said. And more will be said. Signed, An Angry Brown Boy.