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You wouldn’t cover a Wall Street crisis without calling an economist, and you wouldn’t report on a hurricane without speaking to an emergency management expert. In the same way, immigration, public health, labor markets, climate disasters, education policy, and the future of our democracy cannot be responsibly covered without Latino expertise, not because these are “Latino issues,” but because our community is deeply embedded in and shaping each of them.
Our beloved community does not lack experts. What we lack is consistent access to the platforms that shape the national narrative in the United States.
Latinos make up nearly 20 percent of the population. We are building small businesses, serving in the armed forces, leading classrooms, running hospitals, organizing disaster response efforts, driving technological innovation, and sustaining the workforce that powers entire industries. We are not on the margins of this country’s history — we are actively shaping its present and future.
Yet when national conversations unfold, Latino voices are too often treated as subjects of debate rather than as authorities within them. We are discussed, analyzed, and referenced, but too rarely included as experts whose insight informs the framing of the story itself.
We are “talked about,” but rarely “spoken with,” and that distinction matters.
A recent UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute analysis of 13 million news articles published between 2020 and 2023 found that Latinos appeared in only about 2% of daily newspaper coverage, even when our communities were central to the issue being reported. That gap is not symbolic; it has real consequences for how the public understands complex policy debates.
It is impossible to meaningfully explain migration without immigration policy experts who understand the lived realities behind the data. Labor shortages cannot be fully analyzed without recognizing the Latino workforce that sustains agriculture, construction, hospitality, and health care. Climate reporting is incomplete without environmental justice leaders working in frontline Latino communities, where neighborhoods have historically experienced 1.6 times more extreme heat days, where 3.3 million Latinos live within one mile of oil and gas facilities, and where residents suffer double the rate of emergency room visits for asthma compared to non-Latino white communities. Economic inequality cannot be examined honestly without economists who analyze wealth disparities and tax policy with depth and rigor.
In this political moment when immigration is weaponized, when Latino communities are targeted by rhetoric and policy, when misinformation spreads faster than truth, who gets treated as an expert shapes public understanding, and public understanding shapes policy outcomes.
That is why we launched the Aquí Speakers Bureau, which offers a nationally vetted bench of policy and Latino community experts to ensure that credible, bilingual, nationally relevant Latino experts are accessible to newsrooms, producers, conference organizers, and civic institutions.
Latino expertise is not ornamental. It is credentialed, professional, and grounded in decades of work. Our 2026 cohort includes leaders across public health, immigration, economic justice, environmental equity, disaster response, education, workers’ rights, veterans, digital governance, and Latino civic engagement who bring both lived experience and institutional knowledge to the table.
These are not career commentators. They are active practitioners: doctors, economists, emergency managers, education leaders, climate advocates, immigration policy experts, lawyers, and veterans.
If newsrooms are committed to telling the full story of the United States, Latino community expertise cannot remain a seasonal inclusion or an afterthought. It must be integrated into daily coverage, not only when a story is explicitly labeled “Latino,” but whenever an issue affects the broader public.
The Aquí Speakers Bureau exists to ensure editors and producers no longer have to ask, “Do you know a Latino community expert?” because we have built a trusted bench of voices ready to contribute to national conversations across broadcast, print, digital, podcasts, and panels.
Our beloved community is prepared, credentialed, and deeply invested in the future of this country. The knowledge exists. The leadership exists. The expertise exists.
The question is whether newsrooms are ready to reflect that reality.
Sindy Marisol Benavides is a proud Honduran-American immigrant and the Founding Executive Director of Aquí: The Accountability Movement, where she is committed to amplifying the positive narrative of Latinos across the nation, advancing accountability in the fight against hate and discrimination, and driving systemic change that expands opportunity for the largest ethnic community in the U.S.
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What We’re Reading
Closing the Opportunity Gap: From the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (UCLA LPPI), the new State of Latinos in California, 2026 report released Thursday “brings together the latest demographic, economic, and environmental data to provide a clear picture of the conditions shaping Latino communities across the state — and why those conditions matter for California’s future,” a release about the report noted.
“We produced this report in response to our partners across the state who highlighted the need for a credible, comprehensive resource that documents progress and shines a light on the persistent gaps that limit economic security and opportunity,” it added.
Julio Ricardo Varela edited and published this edition of The Latino Newsletter.
The Latino Newsletter welcomes opinion pieces in English and/or Spanish from community voices. Submission guidelines are here. The views expressed by outside opinion contributors do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this outlet or its employees.