More About Obama’s Mini-Novelas

I’ve written previously (here and here) about Miguel Orozco’s plan to release three mini-novelas as a means of independently drumming up support for Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy. Well, today, all three videos have been posted to YouTube. San Francisco-based Vote Hope paid for the video production.

According to the group’s press release, “The Hispanic community is a key battleground in California and nationally, and Vote Hope is aiming to increase political participation among this rapidly-growing demographic group. The mini-novelas address the fact that many Latinos are not registered to voter and many who are, do not vote regularly.”

Each of the videos tackle subjects that don’t get much of a hearing, at least within the Latino community. The first episode implicitly criticizes those who are willing to march but unwilling to vote. In the second episode, the impact of deportation on friends and family is discussed. And the last topic is Black-Latino relations.

As with all but the very best of its genre, some of the dialogue in the mini-novelas can seem simplistic or stilted and some of the acting can seem forced. However, taken as a whole the videos can be oddly affecting.

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Obama’s Spanish-language Simulcast

Senator Barack Obama’s Monday appearance as part of the MySpace and MTV Presidential Candidate Dialogue Series will be simulcast in Spanish at LaVibra.com. This is the second such presentation by the ImpreMedia-owned website with the first featuring John Edwards. The simulcast has been extensively promoted in the ImpreMedia stable of newspapers, which include El Diario/La Prensa in New York, La Raza in Chicago and La Opinión in Los Angeles.

Arturo Durán CEO of ImpreMedia LLC said the simulcast was only one of the company’s various efforts to mobilize Hispanic voters

Asked if these efforts had led to any political advertising, Duran responded there had been expressions of interest but nothing definitive yet. That said, there’s been a lot more interest than during the previous presidential elections. And, Duran considers this a hopeful sign that the candidates are taking Hispanic voters more seriously, “There’s a direct relationship between what the candidates spend on advertising to reaching certain targets and the interest they have in those audience segments.”

Hillary Clinton Posts at Latina Lista

Today, Latina Lista features a post from Hillary Clinton who writes:Latinas will have an important role in helping bring about the change America needs. It is estimated that between 2002 and 2012, the number of Latinas in the labor force will grow by 2.8 million, accounting for almost 30 percent of the increase in female workers. As more Latinas enter the workforce, the greater the need becomes for an advocate at the highest level to address their challenges and needs.

…Access to quality, affordable child care is also critical for parents seeking to fulfill their work and family obligations. As First Lady, I remember Patti Solis Doyle – who is now my campaign manager – returning to work at the White House after maternity leave. I could tell that Patti missed her first born, so I told her to bring the baby into the office.”

Hillary Clinton’s campaign continues to do more active outreach to Latino bloggers than any other candidate.
Hillary Clinton

Latino Political Interactive Advertising

Irene Audet and Miguel Orozco are political novices. Yet, their respective online ventures represent the most innovative Latino political marketing efforts in the current election cycle.

Audet is a former schoolteacher who launched MyGrito.com as a website where her six sisters, seven brothers and all of their children could go online to chat, share pictures and upload videos. It was literally a family affair that Audet opened up to the public in March.

By June, she launched a section on her website dedicated to politics and called it Tu Grito 2008. Traffic soared.

That month there were more than 154,000 unique visitors and 2.8 million page views. In July, those numbers were up to 160,000 visitors and over three million page views with the average user staying 15 minutes.

The premise is simple – participants ask questions and the representatives of six presidential candidates (Democrats Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and the Libertarian George Phillies) provide answers.

Netroots efforts are obviously not new, but this is the first time Latino internet users have been targeted as political participants in a mix of English and Spanish.

Audet says she got started because she felt there was no website addressing Latino political viewpoints “and it is in our hands to elect this new president. It is literally in Latino hands.”

Despite the heavy traffic, Audet has been unable to persuade any of the Republican candidates to join the platform. She stresses TuGrito’s role as a nonpartisan platform.

Miguel Orozco, though, is unabashedly partisan. He is providing Senator Obama’s campaign with free marketing at the website AmigosDeObama.com and more importantly through a downloadable and infectious infectious reggaeton tune with the catchy chorus “Como Se Dice/Como Se llama? (OBAMA,OBAMA).” (How do you say it?/What’s his name? Obama, Obama).

Orozco penned the lyrics, hired the musicians and leased a studio to record the song. The educational film producer and president of Nueva Vista Media won’t say how much he spent promoting Obama’s candidacy.

Asked why he forked over money out of his own pocket, he said, “I really didn’t see media campaigns directed at Latinos. I really felt a void.”

The void being the absence of online political marketing designed to reach young and not-quite-so-young Latino voters online in both English and Spanish. Much of the Latino media buy will, of course, be concentrated in Spanish-language television. But MyGrito.com and AmigosDeObama.com demonstrate the internet is also fertile hunting ground for Hispanic votes.