With the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month this week and the legislative elections approaching, 50 Latino organizations have joined forces to motivate Latinos to register and cast their vote.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) projects that more than 7.8 million Latinos will vote in the upcoming november elections —17.8 percent more than in 2010.

Among the organizations some, like Voto Latino, are focusing in reaching the 50,000 young Latinos that turn 18 every day and thus become eligible to register to vote.

The objective is that participation of Latinos becomes key in the upcoming elections in which the seats of the entire House of Representatives and more than a third of the Senate seats are at stake.

“Today and for the next month, we will show that Latinos stand tall because we have pride in our culture, and we recognize the power of our vote,” said María Teresa Kumar, president of Voto Latino.

The launch of the “Hispanic Heritage Month of Action” and the website www.latinos2014.com took place amid a complex immigration crisis.

On top of the 11 million undocumented immigrants already residing in the United States, more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America have been apprehended at the border in previous months. The lack of action in Congress has now been topped by Obama’s broken promises and his recent announcement that he won’t be taking executive action until after the elections.

Meanwhile, Voto Latino, one of the main promoters of the campaign, was also subject of scrutiny over the weekend.

During a panel discussion in San Antonio, actor and cofounder Rosario Dawson faced some uncomfortable questions from the audience, as reported by Buzzfeed.

Marco Malagon, an activist with United We Dream, asked Dawson why her organization has not included “dreamers” in their conversations about immigration.

Kumar replied that they have included “dreamers” in their campaigns and that although they cannot vote, they can motivate others to do so.