Latino Voices: Realizing America’s Pluralistic Future

On Sep. 18, 2025, New America hosted a special Hispanic Heritage Month celebration to honor the power, diversity, and leadership of Latino communities shaping the future of American democracy. This event was an opportunity to lift Latino voices, elevate key issues facing Latino communities, and begin mapping a way forward. As Oscar Pocasangre, senior data analyst for the Political Reform program at New America, shared during his opening remarks “any new America that comes in the future will be shaped in part by Latinos,” who make up a growing share of the country’s population.

The event was kicked off by a special screening of the short film And the Stars Are The Same, by Raul O. Paz-Pastrana, a former New America fellow. The film was followed by a panel discussion featuring Clarissa Martinez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, Roxanne Garza, director of higher education policy at EdTrust, and Lorella Praeli, co-president of Community Change. The panel was moderated by Lilian Coral, vice president of New America's Technology & Democracy programs, and focused on three key areas: education, democracy, and the economy. Panelists coalesced around the need to strengthen our education systems, increase civic participation, organize to meet the current moment, and work toward new ideas that will lead to a future that works not only for Latinos, but all Americans.

Garza noted that Latinos are the fastest growing student population in our public schools, growing from 9 percent of all K-12 students in 1984 to nearly 30 percent by 2022. As representation in K-12 has increased, so has enrollment in postsecondary education. However, the college graduation rate for Latinos is just over 50 percent. “Latino students tend to be older, have families, [and] might be working full-time” and the majority are first-generation college students, which means that they require additional support to complete college, said Garza. The rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts will likely impact Latino students who will no longer have access to targeted services and programs on college campuses. Overall, the federal withdrawal of supports, funding, and guidance that schools, colleges, and students have historically relied on could change the educational landscape for the next generation of Latino youth.

The implementation of these policies is playing out more dramatically on the ground. Praeli, from Community Change, shared that in Jackson, Mississippi families are being asked to provide their Social Security number to enroll their children in a public school; which is in direct violation of the law. Many parents kept their children home during the first week of school due to uncertainty around school safety, as news of possible ICE raids in schools spread across the U.S. These actions have negative reverberations throughout Latino communities. But they are also an example of how rhetoric from the current administration is actively influencing actions at the local level.

Martinez de Castro, from UnidosUS, emphasized the ways in which misperceptions of Latinos have driven the ways that politicians have historically engaged with the community. A common myth is that most Latinos are recent immigrants and that most are undocumented, and so politicians often only engage with Latino voters on the issue of immigration. In reality, 8 in 10 Latinos are U.S. citizens who are eligible to register and vote. This number is even higher for Latinos under the age of 18, of whom 9 in 10 are U.S. citizens. Latinos are making up a growing share of the electorate, yet are still viewed as apathetic and as not caring. “If anything, Latinos are not apathetic; they’re unconvinced,” she said, “And they’re unconvinced because…they haven’t seen necessarily the kinds of transformative policy changes…that many of them and their families and communities need.“

And as Praeli emphasized, Latinos are “wildly misunderstood” and taken for granted—less is spent on reaching our communities, less is being done to persuade us, and less is being done to meet us where we are. Latinos have been viewed as a bloc of voters that just need to be mobilized, as opposed to a group that needs to be persuaded. For Latino voters, the economy has always been the top issue, but this issue is experienced in nuanced ways. Latinos have high levels of employment, for example, but face wage discrepancies and job instability. As Martinez de Castro elaborated, these issues then intersect with inflation, the cost of housing, the cost of healthcare, and the cost of food. Yet, politicians do not talk to Latinos about the economy and the issues impacting their daily lives.

Despite the challenges that Latinos are currently facing, people are still feeling connected to where they live and to the communities they are helping to revitalize. And these connections can be leveraged to help rebuild and re-envision what our country can be. That starts with education and making sure all children have access to high-quality education from early learning through postsecondary to advance social and economic mobility, stated Garza.

Martinez de Castro and Praeli both emphasized the need to organize and to take risks to illuminate what is at stake in this moment. Praeli talked about this issue through the lens of the “Three Earths” framework. As she explained, Earth 1 is the world of liberal democracy that we are all familiar with and that no longer exists. Earth 2 is where we are right now, where authoritarian power is being consolidated. And the world yet to come, Earth 3, will take time to build. Praeli has hope that we will get there through the actions of individuals who are showing up for their communities and are willing to take risks. Building this new reality will require us to do things differently. “That future vision should not be a desire to go back to what was, that was failing people and was not working for people,” said Praeli, “If we’re not investing in new ideas, or bold ideas, and ideas that are really informed bottom-up, not top-down, if we don’t find new ways of talking to people in a way that is accessible and credible…then we’re going to miss it.” And by “it,” Praeli means the chance to rebuild and reimagine a democratic society in America.