The Agendaless Hispanic Conference at the White House

Sometimes, it's hard to drill into my own community that while immigration is off course, of huge importance, it's not the sole issue that drives us to the polls.
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On July 11 and 12th, the White House convened the first ever Hispanic Policy Conference with approximately 160 Latino leaders from across the nation in attendance.

I found myself amongst that group, wondering outside the hot and humid gates of the Eisenhower Executive Building what exactly the White House had in mind.

My questions were soon answered by Stephanie Valencia, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Juan Sepulveda, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, both of whom addressed the eager and curious crowd.

In addition, despite a heavy schedule, the president addressed the participants on the first day, citing that Latino issues are American issues and that his priorities are to ensure that the Latino-American community is thriving and succeeding.

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[Photo Credit: Joaquin Guerra via Daily Grito]

The two-day conference was crafted to be an agendaless gathering aimed at addressing the concerns of the Latino community -- the fastest growing demographic in the country.

Participants were divided into a series of groups each containing an average of 30 people which were then sent off to various rooms. For those in the main room, the conversation was broadcasted live via www.WhiteHouse.gov/live. The day then became a series of speed-dating style chats with key White House staff on topics like education, the economy, jobs, housing, science, and off course, the elephant in the room: immigration.

From my own observations, it seemed the participants leaned towards the advocacy, activist type and wanted to frame each and every topic around immigration. Sometimes, it's hard to drill into my own community that while immigration is off course, of huge importance, it's not the sole issue that drives us to the polls. At one point, a participant went as far as to say that President Bush did a much better job at using religion and emotion to gain support from Latinos and that Obama, was just well, too much of an intellect, he was "too smart." Literally saying, that we, Latinos, are simply too ignorant to understand practical, logical and concise arguments. I tweeted away and received a response from Iraq War veteran and newly elected Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego via Twitter who said, "those are the same type of Latinos that encourage young Latinos/as to wait your turn."

Exactly. A sentiment echoed by countless young, enthusiastic Latinos all over the country who have been forced to subscribe to the Latino pseudo oligarchy remains of the 60's movement - a group mentality so antiquated, it only hinders any real growth.

Fortunately, the second day's Open Space Process strategy gave participants the opportunity to pitch their own ideas and cultivated a space for innovation that resulted in real relationship building and coast to coast networking. Recently elected Neveda Rep. Lucy Flores gave moving end of session closing remarks on being one of the first Latinas elected to the Nevada state legislature as proof positive that the Latino vote can be pro-active in the political process.

"We don't need to wait to respond to bills like Arizona's SB1070," she said. "We can run for office ourselves and prevent those bills from ever being written."

The two day conference resulted in #atthewh being a trending topic in DC and while many believe that the event only pandered to Latinos, it's difficult to see the logic in complaining that the administration does nothing for Latinos, while at the same time dismissing the time, energy and resources spent on putting on this event.

If this conference proved anything, it is that at its core, the administration is still at heart, community organizing based. In every sense, this conference was a mirror image of meetings and conversations that happen in Latino neighborhood church basements and in community rooms all across the country -- only this time, it happened at the White House.

Author's Note: My trip to the White House Hispanic Policy Conference was made possible by the generous support of California-based HOPE -- Hispanas Organized for Political Equality.

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