It was exactly 10 years ago when the largest public demonstrations in the country’s history happened in cities across the United States, showing very visibly the Latino community’s collective power for the first time, although the show of force eventually subsided and it is now just a vague memory.

What we remember is that the millions of marchers who momentarily occupied the streets, from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, from New York to Houston, were united by a single cause, transformed into a mighty voice:

“Today we march, tomorrow we will vote,” was one of their mottos.

Millions marched, protesting what has been at that time an attempt by the U.S. Congress to pass one of the most Draconian immigration bills in the history of the country, the infamous Sensenbrenner Bill, which wanted to brand as “felons” anybody who lacked immigration documents and penalized anybody who harbored them.

Ten years have happened since then, and many more millions of Latinos have become of age, and now they are able to vote as U.S. born citizens or after completing the required time as legal residents becoming naturalized citizens.

Today, it is calculated that more than 27 million U.S. citizens of Latino descent are registered to vote. Wielding a collective power that can sway the November 8th elections towards any candidate who dares to ask for their vote.

None of them is actively asking even though they seek the vote of other segments of the US registered voters.

From the AL DÍA platform, we are strongly encouraging this seemingly disenfranchised community to participate, regardless of individual ideological persuasion, and certainly regardless of the indifference shown by the top candidates.

We can’t let others decide our future any more...

“¡Ya es Hora!” (It’s about time!)

High Latino voters turnout, as it naturally happens in places like Puerto Rico, or local communities in Mexico, can change forever the way the Republican Party and the Democratic Party traditionally approach with timid courting of the Latino voters, as they have practiced with the U.S. Latinos for decades

High Latino voter turnout, as it may happen this Nov. 8th —then Latinos may deliver the knockout punch and their promise of “Today We March, Tomorrow We Will Vote” of 2006— it can change, literally, the whole future of the United States.