Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2012, Day 3. Latino Voters Reminded to Protect Religious Liberty

Please forward this video to your email lists, and post it on your blogs. It's imperative that all Americans hear this message, especially Latinos who in the near future will move to the center of our nation's economic and cultural life. Verastegui's video, produced and released by Let Freedom Ring, is a reminder to Latinos that looming social issues - and religious freedom - are at stake in the election, now only a few days away.

P>WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Of the many videos that have been released this political season, few are more important than the one released today featuring the Hispanic actor Eduardo Verastegui.

A major TV celebrity in his home country of Mexico, Verastegui became well-known in the United States with the promotion and release of his feature film "Bella" in 2006.

Since then, in addition to ongoing film roles, Verastegui has become a major spokesperson for life and marriage issues among Latinos, Catholic, Orthodox  and Evangelical Protestant.

Few celebrities we have met have the personal charisma and obvious sincerity of Eduardo Verastegui. If only more Latino celebrities and politicians stood with him on the issues so important to the future of our nation.

Latino voters are often called naturally pro-family and socially conservative, but the majority of Latino members of Congress don't reflect those attitudes.

One of the crucial variables of the upcoming election Is the Hispanic vote, approximately 8 percent of the national vote but growing quickly.

In 2004, George W. Bush garnered 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, a historic high for a GOP candidate. Republicans did not merely look the "gift horse in the mouth," they blew the horse sky high with their vituperative immigration protests of 2005.

As a result, in 2008 John McCain received only a little more than half the Latino support given to Bush four years earlier. In 2010, so besmirched five years earlier, the GOP failed to improve its standing with Latino voters.

The question in 2012 is whether or not Latinos will notice that Obama did nothing to address the immigration issues they care so much about, The Dream Act, verbally championed by Obama and the Democrats, stayed on the shelf.

For Latinos, however, it's the ugly memories of 2005 that will be more present to their minds than Obama's failure to act on immigration reform.

Verastegui's video, produced and released by Let Freedom Ring, is a reminder to Latinos that looming social issues - and religious freedom - are at stake in the election, now only a few days away.

Please forward this video to your email lists, and post it on your blogs. It's imperative that all Americans hear this message, especially Latinos who in the near future will move to the center of our nation's economic and cultural life.

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