Together with Enlace Latino, we proudly announce a series of bilingual, nonpartisan forums with candidates for key positions in this November’s midterm elections.

North Carolina and the country will hold midterm elections on November 8, which will define key positions at the federal, state and local levels. Within this framework, and for the third consecutive year, members of the Latino community will have the opportunity to participate in forums with simultaneous interpretation to learn about the proposals of the most important key candidates of both parties and send them their questions.

The meetings, which will take place between September and October, will be attended by candidates for positions in Congress, the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the mayor of the city of Raleigh, the sheriff of Wake County, among others.

Jointly organized by Enlace Latino NC, El Centro Hispano NC and with the support of Beloved Community Center, Women’s Well and Mia 94.3 F.M., some forums will take place in person at the Raleigh offices of El Centro Hispano, while others will be virtual. However, in both cases they can be followed in Spanish through the Enlace Latino NC Facebook page and in English through the El Centro Hispano Facebook page.

Community involvement

In order to encourage community participation, at each of the meetings, the public will have the opportunity to submit their questions to the candidates.

“Our goal is to get members of our community closer to the candidates and learn about their proposals so they can make informed decisions when voting,” explained Paola Jaramillo, executive director of Enlace Latino NC.

For this reason, Jaramillo affirmed, the participation of the public will be fundamental: “To achieve that connection between the community and the candidates, we thought it is very important to open the questions to the public and let the voters’ own concerns guide the conversation.”

In addition, so that the language barrier does not exclude any interested person, all the forums will have simultaneous interpretation from English into Spanish. Thus, the public will be able to send their questions and follow the meetings in the language of their preference.

“For the more than 257,000 Latino voters in North Carolina, the midterm is not just about casting a ballot, it’s about making our voices heard. There is much at stake in these elections,” said Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, executive director and president of El Centro Hispano NC.

“Our votes represent a better future for our families.” adds Rocha-Goldberg, highlighting that access to electoral information is vital for the community to be able to vote on November 8.