Maria Teresa Kumar: We Market Democracy Every Single Day

About this episode

Maria Teresa Kumar discusses her journey in civic engagement and the impact of Voto Latino on voter mobilization.

In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with Maria Teresa Kumar, the nationally celebrated social entrepreneur, civic and political operative, journalist, commentator and co-founder and CEO of Voto Latino, the nation's largest Latino voter registration organization. We begin by discussing some of the formative experiences that shaped Kumar's passion for politics and civic engagement, including her childhood in a bicultural family and community in Northern California, where she learned how to navigate and bridge difference, real and perceived, to find common cause. In these years and environment, shaped in part by Prop 187 and anti-immigrant sentiment and policy, Kumar learned first-hand how young people in Latino and other immigrant households were critical to mobilizing their families and communities — to become citizens and voters — and in the process dramatically shift electoral outcomes to better reflect community needs. In 2004, with the recognition that Latinos were the second largest demographic group in the country, Kumar and Rosario Dawson founded Voto Latino, centering voter mobilization efforts on young people, and using technology and other pop culture and media…

People in this episode

Guest: Maria Teresa Kumar

Topics covered

• voter registration
• civic engagement
• Latino voters
• politics
• social entrepreneurship

Keywords

• voter mobilization
• Latino community
• civic engagement
• elections
• social entrepreneur

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Voto Latino, Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change

Places: Northern California

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