Latinos and the 2024 Cycle

I am excited to announce that we did it!

The Latino Newsletter published its first podcast episode this week. Thanks to the initial support from the Latino Community Foundation, we were able to produce what I think is a fun, engaging and fresh show.

There are so many people to thank for making this happen. Over the last couple of months, I was hesitant to get back behind the host mic, but when the initial response to The Latino Newsletter was so organic and positive, creating a new audio companion to our daily posts just made sense.

For this episode, I reached out to Rafael Bernal, staff writer for The Hill. I have known Rafa for years. He was part of the early crew of Latino political reporters filing English-language stories out of D.C., where I was working from 2013 to 2014 and meeting fabulous people who were covering our community. Rafa is a journalist I greatly admire. I was thrilled that he said yes when I asked him to be my debut guest.

Rafa and I had a very free-flowing discussion, all in 23 minutes too. Here was what we talked about:

• The big picture of the 2024 “Latino vote”

• What’s missing in this election cycle

• Why the U.S.-Mexico relationship is perhaps the most important one in the world

Give the episode a listen below, and major props to my homie Joaquin Cotler for producing the show with me. Joaquin is a talent (check out his impressive portfolio here), and also one of the kindest people I know.

If you like what you heard and want to get notified of new episodes (our plan is to drop an episode every Thursday), you can subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or iHeart Radio. If subscribing to another podcast is not your thing, we will share the new episode every Friday to our email subscribers and will post all episodes here at The Latino Newsletter.

Thanks for listening!

What We’re Reading

Pennsylvania’s “Latino Belt” Swing Vote: For those who have been following Latino politics for years, Pennsylvania’s “Latino Belt” has been around for a while. NBC News published a Wednesday story about what these voters are seeking in 2024. (Story here)

The Latest From Venezuela: The Associated Press continues to update the latest news from Venezuela, including reports that a Friday morning raid occurred at the headquarters of opposition candidate María Corina Machado and the United States saying Thursday night that Edmundo González Urrutia won Sunday’s presidential elections and not Maduro. (Story here)

And I know, Venezuela is complicated, and that social media has been pretty intense. I have have always called it a “third rail” of political journalism, but it is a topic and community I have been paying attention to since my early days as a “blogger” 20 years ago.

Here’s to having more complex and informative discussions about the country and its people, many of whom are some of the greatest people I have ever met.

Happy weekend, everyone. We will be back on Monday.

Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder and interim publisher of The Latino Newsletter.