This week the “Latino Observatory” project completed one year. Throughout this year, we sought to address various aspects of the reality of the United States and its impacts on the Hispanic/Latino population and seek to understand them from the perspective of Brazilian academia. Another contribution that we consider important concerns to the selection of news on politics, economy, culture and society, in addition to highlighting in each weekly update a prominent personality of the Latino community in the country. In this sense, we selected politicians, varied ideological perspectives, scientists, military, artists, writers, journalists, sportsmen, social activists who are a reference for several people, inside and outside the Latino community.

In our analyses, we seek to reflect on the most outstanding themes of the United States' conjuncture, privileging the transversal themes that impact Latinos. However, before we begin to focus on conjunctural themes, our first analysis, published on October 14, 2021, tried to describe the demographic characteristics of the Latino population in the United States. At the time, we emphasized that this population segment represents almost 20% of the US population, reaching more than 62 million people. We draw attention to the fact that this community has the highest growth rate in the country, both due to the higher birth rates and the influx of immigrants, legal or undocumented, who continue to arrive in the country. As we have learned, this is not a homogeneous population, despite the huge presence of Mexicans and their descendants. Nor do they have a common cultural identity that goes beyond the Castilian language (or Portuguese) and different political postures, separating, for example, the political perspective of the majority of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans from that embraced by important portions of Cubans and Venezuelans. Another cultural trait to be highlighted is religion. Roman Catholicism is still the main option, but there is a strong growth of Protestant and Neo-Pentecostal denominations among Latinos, as we discussed in the analysis of March 13, 2022 in which we called attention to the increase in conservatism among this population.

In terms of representation, despite the importance of the American film industry in the world and the growing influence of this population in the most varied segments of the country, we highlight that Latinos represent 1 in 4 potential American TV and film viewers, collaborating with 20% to 30% of the industry revenue, depending on platform, and over 50% of its growth. However, Latinos made up 5.2% of movie leads, 5.1% of cast actors, 3.5% of screenwriters, and 2.6% of directors. So, as we reported on July 31, it's no surprise that three out of four Latinos believe their culture is often stereotyped in the general media, acknowledging that Latinos are often portrayed in derogatory roles as criminals or English-speaking gang members, but with a strong accent.

The issue of representation in the media was observed by groups and organizations for its political potential. We reported on June 14th and August 13th that with a potential target market of more than 500 million Spanish speakers worldwide, multimedia platforms were created with the millionaire investment of these groups seeking to reach both conservative Latino audiences and the “Americano Media”, as well as progressive Latinos, such as the “Latino Media Network”, among other initiatives that operate in the specialization of broadcasting news to the Latin audience.

These issues are not disconnected from themes such as ethnic inequality and prejudice, which have permeated our news in many ways. On November 26, 2021, we released data from an important survey that demonstrates the great potential for discrimination in the country that adult Latinos experience daily. The “skin color” factor highlights the greater difficulty of Latinos in progressing to a better material life, a circumstance that is “mitigated” if they have a lighter skin color. Furthermore, as evidenced in a news article published on January 23, the economic impact of the pandemic has disproportionately affected Latino immigrant families, and this population has faced many difficulties in finding non-precarious jobs in the country. This situation encounters another even more striking variable: the requirement for a residence permit. Regarding health during the pandemic period, the news mentioned also included the lack of adequate access to medical care that was latent in this period, with Latinos experiencing a more serious economic situation, especially in rural areas, among families that do not speak English, women and people without legal immigration status, and who were unable to apply for state economic aid for these reasons.

A recurring theme in our analyzes concerns the functioning of the US political system and the unfolding of the most impactful political events in the period. We started this discussion seeking to understand the redistricting process that occurs every 10 years and the process known as “gerrymandering”, which is the adoption of opportunistic measures organized by the Democratic and Republican parties to obtain electoral advantages by designing the districts in the states according to their own interests. Our analysis was published on October 20, 2021, following the release of the 2020 demographic census, which provided the basis for the start of redistricting. In this regard, Latino communities can be divided into two districts to dilute their political weight according to partisan interests. It is worth noting that several republican-controlled states have also adopted restrictive measures for minority voting, such as limiting voting by mail, banning water distribution to voters waiting in long lines to vote, cutting polling stations in districts with a majority inhabited by non-whites, and, mainly, by the creation of new electoral maps that dilute the demographic weight of minorities.

Also regarding the political framework in the United States, on January 15, 2022 we made an analysis of the radicalization of American society having as a motto the anniversary of the January 6, 2021 invasion of the Capitol, when radical Trumpist groups tried to prevent the confirmation of the Joe Biden's election. We see that the polarization between the two main parties is bringing the country to a standstill and on the verge of a very dangerous conflict, for which there is no short-term solution.

Recently, on September 24, 2022, we analyzed the projections for the midterm elections in the United States, showing that the defensive actions of each party limited the possibilities of significant change in the seats of both houses of Congress. Of the thirteen seats in the House of Representatives that can define control of the house, at least six directly involve Latino candidates.

Another topic that deserved attention in our project was climate change and its impacts on Latino communities. On February 6th, we discussed how extreme weather events are disproportionately harming Latino/Hispanic communities in states such as California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida, whether through extreme droughts, high temperatures, wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The recent passage of Hurricane Ian over Florida, where it has caused heavy destruction and deaths, brought back the issue of climate change, despite the distrust on the subject among Republican voters.

Immigration is another recurring theme among the issues that most impact the Latino community in the United States and that is why it was the topic most addressed by the analysis of the Latino Observatory. We discussed the problem related to the huge flow of migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), whose number exceeds that of Mexicans, traditionally the main group of immigrants. We also address the difficulties that the Joe Biden administration has faced in dealing with the issue of immigration, as Republicans in the Senate have been successful in curbing a deeper change in the rules for granting asylum and immigration.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning the attempts to repeal restrictive measures issued by the Donald Trump administration, such as the application of the law known as “Title 42”, which barred legal immigration requests at the border with Mexico under the argument of containing the pandemic of Covid-19, or the “Remain in Mexico” directive, which forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico to schedule an interview with an American judge. Another point related to immigration concerns the legal limbo in which thousands of young children of undocumented immigrants in the United States find themselves. There was no bipartisan agreement to renew the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA), created by former President Barack Obama in 2012 to protect the children of immigrants who arrived in the United States until 2007. The program has already expired, and thousands of people have not yet obtained the right to citizenship and, in theory, could be expelled from the country, even though the United States is the only country they have known.

Our Latino Observatory also addressed economic issues, such as the inflationary surge in the United States, and its impact on the lives of the poorest populations, particularly Latinos and African-Americans. On August 13, we drew attention in the analysis to the high inflation rates, the highest since the 1980s. Food, housing and fuel had a more severe impact on the poorest segments. The Federal Reserve's measures to contain inflation, notably raising basic interest rates, made life more difficult for borrowers as the price of home mortgages rose sharply. The cost of housing, rent or mortgage, has the greatest weight on families' pockets. Because of this aspect, Joe Biden's disapproval has dropped to very low levels, as has the prestige of the Democratic Party, which is in danger of losing control of the House and Senate.

This first year of Latino Observatory activities was very fruitful. Our analyzes were replicated at the United States Political Observatory (OPEU), the news broadcasting vehicle of the United States Institute of Studies. Through our project, students from the International Relations course at Unesp, campus in Marília, will participate this month in a “Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)” with students from the University of Maryland, campus in Baltimore, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Felipe Filomeno. It is also worth mentioning the procedures for the establishment of a cooperation agreement between Unesp and the “Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte” (CISAN), linked to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), with which we will organize exchanges of researchers, investigations and content.

Before concluding this year's balance, it is important to emphasize the role of our team. Alex Abatti's IT support, designer Gabriel Reis and translation by Juliana Spadoto and Greiciele Ferreira.

Let's go together for many more years!