Hispanics: The Next in Leadership

Huntington was wrong. It seems obvious to repeat it again, but now there are facts that have come to disprove an unstable hypothesis. Far from posing a threat, Hispanics constitute a live force within North American society, whose historically accredited contribution to its prosperity is more apparent than ever.

In this regard, the key can be found in a decisive feature that can be seen when we look behind the 50 million Hispanics recorded in the last census — its youth. At the moment, the new generation of Hispanic “Millennials” is having a positive influence on political, social and artistic life in the U.S., defining their consumption habits and, therefore, conditioning business strategies, the progression of the economy and North American growth.

At a time of profound changes, when the future of Western nations requires an energetic and determined civil society, it is difficult to conceive of a more appropriate group to stimulate progress than that of the Hispanic-American community — a group with more than 2 million students educating themselves in the country’s universities and with a flourishing professional standing. Their access to new technologies is similar to the level of access of the national media, just like its purchasing power, which has given way to the advent of an emerging market. Hispanics also have a great ability to engage in dialogue with the American continent, as is increasingly the case for Asians.

This is where their increasing global influence comes from, thriving on the irradiation that the U.S. projects throughout the world and unquestionable on the cultural front. When it is claimed that Hispanic culture has taken over Hollywood, what inevitably follows is its universal proliferation. This was recently the case for poet Richard Blanco, who intervened in the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and his image and words were repeatedly featured in real time in all the world’s media.

This dispersion of Hispanics is vital for reinforcing Spanish visibility, provided that it is an intelligent approach to an invitation to a shared project. Akin to the “Anglosphere” of the Commonwealth, it is a project that comes from the idea of a “Hispanosphere” that unites our symbolic potential and opens a space in which Hispanics in the U.S. are the vanguard that simultaneously collects its doubly democratic and cultural legacy.

Certainly, there are many aspects that must be introduced, beginning with recognizing the plurality of Hispanic origins. It would be clumsy to underestimate the intimate ties that connect Hispanics to Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries. However, I do not believe that speaking about a “transnational” Hispanic community is anything new — although involuntary and clearly North American. I am not oblivious to the prior condition of the Hispanic community in the U.S. In this way, the only way to underpin our links is through a greater and wider relationship with the U.S., a nation that has a first-class, serious and trustworthy strategic partner in Spain. Thus, the “Hispanosphere” would have nothing to do with English rivalry or with the Anglo-American way of life, which would be absurd. It would be about using the Hispanic momentum to strengthen the future of the common values.

As the epicenter of inter-American trade and the gravitational center of its cultural industries, Miami is a fantastic example of this Hispanic momentum. It is a city whose dynamism — perhaps like nowhere else in the world — captures all of the richness and diversity of Latino music, literature, and visual and performing arts. It is a miniature Hispanic geopolis where almost 70 percent of the population speaks Spanish and, as well as reflecting the Latin-American crucible under the U.S. flag and being an essential stop in launching so many artistic talents into stardom, it has become an extremely important economic hub for Spain.

What better city than this Latin-American capital to host the 5th Convention of U.S. Hispanic Leaders, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of Ponce de León’s discovery of Florida. Driven by the Fundación Carolina, the meeting gauges the opportunities that the Hispanic world has to offer without losing sight of the end goal of renovating the fiber of the West from its own roots — an undoubtedly winning goal.