Citing a Pew Research Center, the DC Examiner’s Michael Barone recently noted that “The longer [Hispanics] have been here the more likely they are to identify with the Democratic party.”
Barone confesses this is “contrary to what I expected.” But not everyone is surprised. That’s because, for years now progressive organizations like La Raza “have worked these community groups — have embedded themselves in concentrations of Hispanics…and they’ve sold them more government grants, government programs, public assistance,” explains Daniel Garza, executive director of The LIBRE Initiative.
“The vast majority [of Hispanics], I think, came here with a conservative intuition or values and principles, and they’ve been corrupted,” Garza told me during a recent interview. “In a sense, I actually fault the conservative movement — because they’ve ceded that territory to the progressive movement.”
Tired of watching the left co-opt Hispanics in America, Garza founded The LIBRE Initiative in 2011 with the goal of creating “a network of Hispanic pro-liberty activists across the United States so that our message reaches every corner of the country.”
Working in conjunction with other conservative organizations, LIBRE conducts events aimed at four disparate groups of Hispanics: Youth, women, entrepreneurs, and the faith community. (“Each one you speak to differently,” he said. And each event requires a different leader, because “the messenger is just as important as the message.”)
Garza supports immigration reform, but isn’t hung up on whether that includes a pathway to citizenship or just legalization. Regardless of the outcome, he says it is vital for conservatives to reach out to the Hispanic community. HIs idea isn’t about watering down conservatism, but instead, about opening a dialogue about conservative ideas. “We are unapologetic about capitalism and about free markets, free enterprise, rule of law, limited government, sound money — all these principles that made America the most sound, most powerful nation in the world,” he said, “But there’s been an absence of this dialogue within the Hispanic community.”