On this week’s episode, Judy Pino joins She Thinks podcast to help us celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. We consider the nation’s largest minority population and their contributions to the U.S. economy. We also look at the latest polling, which shows a declining perception of Bidenomics among Hispanics and increased concerns about whether or not their children can achieve the American Dream.
Judy Pino is the Spanish-language spokesperson for Independent Women’s Forum. She is an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Judy served in government as Hispanic Media Liaison at the Pentagon for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and as Executive Producer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington DC, where she won an “Aurora” and a “Telly” for two environmental film documentaries that she produced and directed. She is also a recipient of the EPA Gold Medal of Excellence.
TRANSCRIPT
Beverly Hallberg:
And welcome to She Thinks, a podcast where you’re allowed to think for yourself. I’m your host, Beverly Hallberg, and on today’s episode, we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. We’re going to look at the nation’s largest minority population and how they’ve contributed to the US economy. And we’re going to look at the latest polling showing a declining perception of Bidenomics and increased concerns on whether or not their children can achieve the American dream. And joining us to break it all down is my friend Judy Pino. She is the Spanish-language spokesperson for IWF. Within her role, she has done much work as far as being an award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience. And she served in government as Hispanic media liaison at the Pentagon for the DOD and as executive producer at the EPA. Judy, a pleasure to have you on She Thinks today.
Judy Pino:
So good to see you again. Thanks for having me. This is exciting.
Beverly Hallberg:
I thought we would start by just telling a little bit of your backstory. You were born in Cuba, you immigrated with your family to Miami as a child. Just curious how that experience has shaped you.
Judy Pino:
Well, I’ll tell you what, I was very young. I was five years old, but I remember it vividly. I was with my mom by myself, and my dad had claimed us through the Mariel boatlift. For those of you who don’t know, it was a mass Exodus basically of Cubans who traveled from Cuba’s Mariel Harbor’s port to the United States. And this happened in the ’80s, basically April through October of 1980. And I still remember the journey and I also remember the sacrifices that my folks made. Everything they had to give up, but also everything that they gained. They knew that this was the way, this was the way for me to have a better life than I would’ve had in communist Cuba. And here we are.
Beverly Hallberg:
And it’s the American dream lived out. You saw that with your parents. What was it like for them when they first came? How did they find work? I know there are so many other people coming from Cuba as well, so you have some of that support, but what was it like for them to build a life here?
Judy Pino:
Well, we were alone. Most of our family was back in Cuba. My dad was here with his brothers. So that was a sense of family, and I grew up with a sense of family because we only had each other. We only had each other, and it was basically picking yourself up from your bootstraps and working hard. And my mother, who was a nurse in Cuba, she had to revalidate her license, so she had to learn English so she could take her test. And that’s how she made a living. She was a professional woman. My dad was a mechanic, and together they built a life that was better for myself and my brother who was born in this country and born free.
Freedom is something that we value. We love the United States, and I just grew up with a sense of patriotism for the United States and respect for my homeland of Cuba and just trying to really let people know communism is never the way, as sexy as some people might find it. Che is not a hero. So much, so much that I have to say about that, but nothing better than freedom and freedom is never free.
Beverly Hallberg:
I’m just curious, as you’ve talked to your own children about your own experience and what your parents went through. Do you find that you do try to instill a lot of what Cuba was like in communism and really what it is still today and try to instill that with them because we can lose sight of it so quickly, I’m sure. And so is that something that you try to pass on to them?
Judy Pino:
Absolutely. So much so that my daughter, during her Spanish class, the teacher called Fidel Castro, President Castro, and she corrected him and she said, “No, he’s a dictator, he’s a tyrant.” So I think I’m doing some good education in my household because obviously we know that he was not really truly elected in a fair way by the Cuban people who have no freedom of expression or freedom to vote or anything of that nature. So I try to explain to them the importance of freedom and how they must protect it, and just how lucky they are to be in the United States of America.
Beverly Hallberg:
Well, when we look at the Hispanic population, they are the largest minority group in the United States, making up roughly 19% of the country. What do you feel are some of the most important contributions Hispanics have made in this country?
Judy Pino:
Oh my goodness. Hispanics have made tremendous contributions to this country through the culture. We’ve got musicians, small business owners, Latinos are very entrepreneurial. There’s a lot of businesses that are owned by Latinos. We’ve got chefs, we’ve got veterans who serve in our military. We have them on the Supreme Court. We have Latinos on the Supreme Court. But I think the best thing that we’ve given this world is our Latin music.
Beverly Hallberg:
And pretty good food too. So really some really good food. And I want you to settle this for me because I think there is always a question I ask. I’m sure other people do. Is it preferred to say Latino or Hispanic? What would be the proper way to view the different terminology?
Judy Pino:
It’s really where you stand. Latino basically covers all of Latin America, so people lean more that way. And it also covers the Caribbean. Where Hispanics is more Spaniards and things and things like that. But both terms are perfectly fine. I think we all know when we’re talking about Hispanic or Latino, we both know what we’re talking about and it could be used interchangeably.
Beverly Hallberg:
I’m glad you brought up the entrepreneurial spirit. I did some research before our conversation today looking at the United States Small Business Association. And here are two stats that I thought were really interesting and something to be applauded. One is that nearly one in four new businesses is Hispanic owned, and nearly 5 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the US contribute more than 800 billion to the American economy annually. Tell me where this entrepreneurial spirit comes from.
Judy Pino:
Isn’t that something? It’s the art of the hustle. It’s the art of the hustle. I think here, especially in the United States, the Latinos are immigrants, so they need to figure it out. They need to figure out how to provide for their family, and they have that hunger. It wasn’t just given to them on a silver platter. Sometimes when you’re born in the United States, you take freedom for granted and you get a little lazy. But I think for Hispanics, just being an immigrant, you come in hungry because you know that what’s on the other side is just horrific and you never want to go back. So you have to figure it out. And I think just a sense of contribution as well a sense of service to the community and what they can provide in terms of a skillset and a service. And I think that’s part of it. It’s a big part of it.
Beverly Hallberg:
And there is some new polling out by The LIBRE Institute. They paint a pretty dismal picture of how Hispanics view the country currently. I want to start with the topic area of Bidenomics. We’re going to find out sooner rather than later, whether or not that was a good thing to call what Biden is doing with the economy. But for Hispanics, it’s a mere 29% believe the country is headed in the right direction. 71% feel it is on the wrong track. What do you make of these numbers? Especially since we look at minority groups, they often do have a favorable opinion of Democrat candidates. What do you make of this?
Judy Pino:
Whatever they want to call it’s not working. They thought it would be cute to call it Bidenomics because they really wanted to own it. They wanted to own the fantastic things that they’re doing for the country. And it’s not just Hispanics, it’s everybody. I don’t think anybody’s buying it, but especially Hispanics. I mean they’re not buying it. They’re not convinced that the economy is improving or that it will improve. We should not be surprised that inflation is the number one issue for Latinos. Latinos just have less disposable income and savings, and they also spend more. And these price hikes and economic uncertainty that is just looming front and center for them. And unless the economy improves, the status quo will pose a problem for the Democrats, including Biden. This is just not a good topic. Latinos are not impressed and they’re not amused and they want to change.
Beverly Hallberg:
Politico even did an article on this talking about Joe Biden losing support with the Hispanic community. Even had the Washington Post, a writer for the Washington Post come out in the past few days saying that Joe Biden should not be the Democrat contender for this upcoming election. It seems like people are turning on Biden just a little bit. Do you think part of that is because when you look at something like the Hispanic community, Biden isn’t reaching them. He can talk about Bidenomics all he wants, but when you do have this high inflation, it impacts people so personally, there’s nothing one could say.
Judy Pino:
Well, I mean it’s all about promises that were not kept. I think Latinos are holding Biden and the Democrats accountable, and honestly, Latinos are up for grabs. I don’t think Latinos have… There’s a big majority of them, there’s a huge majority that don’t really have any loyalty for one party or the other. They just want to know, “Am I better off?” I don’t want to have to worry about where the next meal’s going to come from, or if I have to compromise my mortgage or my rent versus buying groceries for my children. I mean, it’s actually very serious. And this poll of The LIBRE Institute is 71% Latinos say that the country’s on the wrong track. I think you said that. But they don’t think that their kids are going to have a better future than they have. And that’s terrible. When you think about being an immigrant and you talk about the American dream, coming to the United States to achieve the American dream, and thinking that your children are not going to be better off than you, it’s just horrific.
Beverly Hallberg:
How much of this is solely economics or how much of this could also be some of the social issues going on in the country? I think of Hispanic communities, very strong faith, very family oriented. We have a lot of interesting things going on socially in this country. On this podcast, we focus quite a bit on men being allowed to compete with women in sports. And IWF is pushing against that. Where are Hispanics on thinking and tracking with those issues?
Judy Pino:
I can tell you from numerous touchpoint and engagements that I’ve done with the Hispanic community, with IWF, of course, Hispanics are not amused. I think parents are really, really concerned about what’s going on, not just in sports, but also in our schools as it pertains to this issue. I think parents want a bigger voice, a bigger voice when it comes to the education of their children. And they are extremely upset that children, especially women in this case, when we’re talking about transsexuals, men competing in female sports. It’s one of the issues that we’ve targeted very deeply at IWF. When I have brought up that subject in Hispanic markets, they don’t understand it, they can’t believe that it’s happening. And they are frankly concerned and scared because it’s really a matter of security as well, not just the rights of women to have their own space in sports, which we fought so much for with Title IX and such.
Beverly Hallberg:
So if you were advising any presidential candidates right now, saying if you want to reach the Hispanic voter, many of whom are willing to go to either side of the political aisle, what are some of the things that you think a campaign really needs to focus on this coming election?
Judy Pino:
I think they really need to understand the Latino community. They need to meet the Latino community where they’re at and never assume that it’s in the bag and understand the issues that are important to the Latino community. And that is definitely the economy, education, healthcare, and also immigration. But immigration from the sense of border security, immigration from the sense of how to legally become a US citizen, how to legally come into this country. You’d be surprised, immigrants don’t want what’s happening now in the border. They know that their own nations are not secure, so they don’t want that here. So they do want a sense of security when it comes to border security. And I do hope that there’s a change around the bend and some real conversations going on.
Beverly Hallberg:
I’m glad that you brought that up because I think there’s this large misperception that the Hispanic community must be thankful that we have seemingly open borders these days. And of course, it’s very complex. I mean, even when you look at what’s going on in the border, there are plenty of people coming from different countries, not in Hispanic areas. Coming from Africa, coming from Asia. So it’s not just Latinos coming over the border, but also when you look at the stats, it’s roughly 80% of Hispanics living in the United States are citizens, plenty of them who went through it the right way. I would assume when you see people coming over the border, there of course is that concern about bad actors coming to the country, but there’s probably also that part where you think about how much work you put into doing it legally. It hurts to see other people do it this way.
Judy Pino:
Oh, absolutely. And I think that’s why it’s an issue that won’t go away, except the conversation is so different now. And when you consider that we have over 60 million Hispanics, the largest minority, and so many of them are young and eligible to vote, they really have the power to sway what happens in our country. The diversity of Hispanics, they are not equal in the way they think. Hispanics in Florida don’t think the same way, Hispanics in Texas or Nevada even. So those are things that our lawmakers and us just as a community, as a country, need to understand when we’re thinking about the impact and the influence of the Hispanic community.
Beverly Hallberg:
And just final question for you so as we are celebrating Hispanics for the next month and looking at it. Things that you think we need to change in this country, so immigrants coming here, whether it’s Hispanics or others, or even people who were born and raised in this country for generations, how do we get people feeling comfortable about the American dream again? How do we right this wrong?
Judy Pino:
We need to continue creating opportunities, not just for Latinos, but for everybody. I think everybody in the United States deserves opportunity to grow, opportunity to learn, opportunities to have their own business and prosper and provide for their families. And I think that’s what’s missing right now. I think even Americans have given up on the American dream the way things are going. And so I think policies that are freedom-based policies, policies that are not based on socialist ideals is the solution to what’s going on now in every sense of the word. We need to get back on track for what this country really stands for, and that is freedom and opportunities.
Beverly Hallberg:
Well, Judy, we appreciate all that you do for IWF and speaking to Spanish language media and also just talking about Hispanic voters and Hispanic issues. So thank you for all that and also for joining us on She Thinks today.
Judy Pino:
Thank you, my friend. Glad to be here.
Beverly Hallberg:
And thank you for joining us. Before you go, IWF wants you to know that we rely on the generosity of supporters like you. An investment in IWF fuels our efforts to enhance freedom, opportunity, and wellbeing for all Americans. So please consider making a small donation to IWF by visiting iwf.org/donate. That is iwf.org/donate. Last, if you enjoyed this episode of She Thinks, do leave us a rating or a review, it does help. And we’d love it if you shared this episode so your friends can know where they can find more of She Thinks. From all of us here at IWF, thanks for watching.