Tu Momento offers Latino community comprehension on complex presidential election process

A one-stop shop for political education.

This election year, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network  (HITN) has presented Tu Momento 2016, a TV program and online initiative that inform the Latino community about all aspects of the election process and the complexities it often presents.

“We at HITN started to look at the political arena and as we progressed and saw that the community was growing, we thought, what tools could we give to demystify the electoral process in an election year that is so important?” explained political commentator Gerson Borrero, host of HITN and Tu Momento.

Because HITN viewers are Latinos and predominantly Spanish-speaking, Borrero and company wanted to simplify the complicated election process as much as possible. “It’s a difficult and important learning curve and an important process that you go through,” he said. “So Tu Momento is important because we take it in a visual way and then explain it point by point, from running, eligibility, what do you have to do and we take them all the way through a process from that basic point of which party to go to and what to do during the primary.”

What makes the program different is its accessibility. “It’s taken the entire process, translated it into Spanish and broken it down. We’ve done capsules that are from two to four minutes in length,” he said. “Then we did a full hour special with everything. We wanted to condense it. These are busy and hardworking people that have families that they’ve got to raise, so we wanted to give them snippets and little vignettes. What we think we’ve achieved is to do it in a visually attractive way that is inviting and not intimidating. We simplified the process.”

Post-debate discussions and Electoral College education also play an integral role in Tu Momento.

According to Borrero, the reception has been extremely positive. “The reaction we’re getting is that viewers have learned something,” he said. “It has felt really good. We don’t know if it’s going to translate into actual votes or increase the number of Latino voters. We know we are doing our part and Tu Momento is telling (the audience) this is why it’s important and this is how you can participate.”

He also added the Latino vote has always described as a pivotal one by political pundits. “This isn’t that first time that we’ve heard we’re the sleeping giant, that we’re going to make a difference in this election and that this is the election of our lifetime. We’ve heard all the clichés,” Borrero said. “Our concern is there’s the sleeping giant, but if there are 27.3 million Latinos eligible to vote, not all of them will, so what we do is say, this is why it’s important and counts.”

Tu Momento is also offering a contest whose winner will receive a trip to the presidential inauguration in January 2017. It’s an educational component as well, for, in order to participate, contestants have to listen and learn how process works and then pick and choose which candidate will win each state. The person who gets closest gets an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. Further details will soon follow.

To watch and learn more, visit www.tumomento2016.org.