Miami, Apr 27 (EFE).- Reaching Spanish-speaking Latinos in the US with “objective” information and a conservative editorial line is, facing the 2024 elections, the “strategic” purpose of Americano Media, a multimedia group bent on making an impact in what is now a Democratic stronghold.
Alfonso Aguilar, senior vice president and political director of Americano Media, acknowledges in an interview with EFE that Republicans traditionally do not remember Spanish-speakers, who represent a third of the 62 million Hispanics in the US (19% of the total population), up to 3 months before the elections, when they usually publish messages in Spanish-language media asking for their vote.
“The Democrats and the left have been more effective in creating a presence in the communities, particularly in the Spanish-speaking communities,” he says to emphasize that Americano Media has been working for more than a year to fill this conservative “vacuum.”
After having broadcast its radio content through Sirius FM, five months ago Americano Media began operating the Radio Libre station in Miami and had previously launched its television content -today six hours of programming daily- through its own application and the streaming platforms.
The website of the group founded in 2022 by Iván García-Hidalgo, who has worked with large companies such as AT&T and in campaigns for Republican candidates, has received 150,000 unique visits each month with almost no promotion since it launched last January.
Now it wants to make the leap to 50 key “markets” of the Hispanic community in the United States through alliances with other media.
WIN THE BATTLE OF IDEAS
Aguilar stresses that the ultimate goal is to “have a digital television channel with a huge audience nationwide,” in the style of Fox News, but in Spanish.
When asked to define Americano Media, he answers: “it is a network that celebrates free enterprise, our Judeo-Christian principles and values, freedom and democracy, and the founding values of the nation.”
It also emphasizes that it does not want to be “an ultra-conservative medium that promotes conspiracies,” but rather “a medium that follows a conservative editorial line, but that reaches all Hispanics and that competes with other media such as Univision and Telemundo,” of which says that they “tend to follow a more liberal editorial line.”
It also aspires to promote debate, with both Republican and Democratic voices.
Facing the 2024 elections, Aguilar points out that Americano Media is not going to do partisan politics or “endorse” any candidate, but it does want to “win the battle of ideas” against the Democrats, who until now have a “comfortable” influence. to Latinos who speak Spanish.
It is a group to which the Republicans have “arrived late”, says Aguilar, who was head of the US Citizenship Office during the Presidency of George W. Bush (2001-2009).
According to the polls – including “ours”, he says – the Democrats have a 40-point lead among potential voters in that group.
TARGET 2024
Florida has been the gateway for Americano Media, but the goal is to expand the network throughout the nation, starting with California, “where in a few weeks we will be broadcasting in the Bakersfield area, just north of Los Angeles,” says Aguilar. .
“Obviously -says Aguilar- we are also seeing states like New York, Texas -and in Texas there are several markets-, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and others like Georgia and Wisconsin where the Hispanic community is growing and the electorate too -it is already the 7th %- and that they are politically very significant”.
Aguilar stresses that Americano Media is going to overcome the operation of the Latino Media Network, linked to the financier and donor of the Democratic Party George Soros, which bought the Radio Mambí station in Miami, the traditional voice of the Cuban exile, and 17 others throughout the country. in an agreement with TelevisaUnivision for about 60 million dollars.
In Aguilar’s opinion, “there is a clear move by Hispanics to the right,” but it is mostly with English speakers, so it is important to “create a permanent presence” in the Spanish-speaking community with local and national programming.
“At Americano Media we talk about all the issues that affect Hispanics, particularly working-class Hispanics: the economic situation, the crime situation in urban centers, the situation at the border that is totally out of control, those types of issues. , all the themes”.
According to Aguilar, the Democrats in a certain sense have underestimated our Hispanic roots, which is something that in Americano we celebrate, in addition to promoting patriotism as a tool of unity.
“We are all Hispanic, we all come from different countries, but what unites us as Americans is the love for this country.” underlines.
Ana Mengotti
