Maybe I gotta have a little more grace towards Futuro Studios. When Episode 1 of Latino USA’s “Hombre” wasn’t followed up on with a second episode for nearly a month I thought the series was dead. Mostly because the first episode suuuuuuucked. The Chuck Rocha one, which you can read about here. But I think they’re just taking their time. So yeah, my bad Latino USA.
Anyway, the last post I closed with my hopes for the series which were the following:
I still have high hopes for the series and hope that the promise of speaking a diverse group of men is actually fulfilled and that the exploration is focused on making Latino Men themselves feel more visible and not scapegoated. I don’t know the statistics of the listenership of the show but making a show about Latino Men for Latino Men to listen to and not be shamed, instead understood and brought to light seems to me very valuable. There’s lots of Latino doofuses out there so it could be difficult and potentially problematic to do so but if the show is truly interested in “doing the work” and in not just being more of the same they’ll show us, warts and all.
With that said I was very encouraged when the second episode featured no professional political operatives but two normal people. Young dudes, from Texas, one who voted for Kamala and one who voted for Trump.
The discussion ranged from why they voted for who they voted for, their history of political activity, their most significant encounter with what they consider Latino manhood (both said their dad), the issues that matter to them, there was significant time devoted to immigration, before moving on to THEIR definition of Latinidad and finally hopes for the future. All in all it was an OK conversation. I’m not going to step through the whole thing but I want to highlight a few things
First of all, this conversation went on to show the malleability of the electorate. Alexis the Trump guy, said he at first didn’t like Trump he considered him a racist, BUT one of his friends was into the guy and because of that he watched a rally of his live on youtube then later on saw coverage of the rally on TV that he considered disingenuous. That plus a background of “hard work” and prices going up on “everything” made him go Trump. Never addressing when/if Trump ever stopped being racist. Simply stating that Trump was a showman. Alejandro, the Kamala guy, said he voted for her simply because he has always voted for Democrats and that Kamala was “the daughter of immigrants”. When pushed for three issues he supported the third one was “Worker support and safety nets” which….yeah how exactly did Kamala Harris promise that?
If these two are any indication it further highlights the insane fumble of the Democratic party. There was no compelling path forward set by the Democrats no legitimate better vision for the future, simply identity and platitudes without plans. The opposition, Trump, simply had to blame them for everything and claim, without a plan, that he will make it all better. That’s enough. Apparently enough to overlook the fact that the man running for president calls you and your family a bunch of rapists and criminals. A competent vision of improving, providing a pathway to a better tomorrow, and not an obsession with saying everything is fine and that there’s “joy” would have done way better.
Secondly, it seems clear to me now that the intended audience of this series is not Latinos. So at the top Maria Hinojosa says that these two men are of very similar socioeconomic backgrounds, however one of them is born and raised in Dallas the other is born and raised and has a long line of family in the RGV. Just based on THAT any latino from Texas could have told you these dudes are not anywhere near the same. Sure the statistics may have them bunched together. The Border and Dallas are so different culturally, especially when one of them openly says him and his family have aimed for full assimilation. Maybe the only thing that would have been shared is a fandom of the Dallas Cowboys but Alexis, the RGV guy, is 21 so he’s probably not a Cowboys fan. There’s a point shared by both that Latinos are not a monolith, which is duh, they even both say it in the conversation in their own flavor. Still, presenting these two men from vastly different places culturally as “similar” seemed a bit more….geared towards the whites.
Anyway, I’ll still keep listening.
Listen to the second episode of Hombre here: https://www.latinousa.org/2025/02/16/hombretwovoters/