Alianza Center’s Salsa to the Polls is an Unstoppable Voters Project – a series of Center for Artistic Activism supported works that protect the freedom to vote with creativity and innovation.
Salsa to the Polls
Alianza Center serves Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities in Greater Orlando and throughout the state of Florida. Its core services provide opportunities in civic engagement, climate and environmental work, arts programming and education.
As part of its education campaign, Alianza hosted a series of caravans throughout Central Florida featuring visual and cultural elements to mobilize Latinx voters to the polls to exercise their right to vote.
Getting out the Latinx Vote
Many Puerto Ricans who migrate to Central Florida from the island do not fully understand the political landscape on the mainland and do not feel comfortable emerging themselves in the electoral process.
Alianza’s action showcased elements native to Puerto Rican culture to highlight the importance of the Puerto Rican vote. Its culturally-relevant campaign allowed Alianza to reach and connect with its community on a deeper level.
Action Highlights
On November 4, 2022, Alianza celebrated canvassers from community organizations, who helped register 60,000 voters. This event featured traditional Puerto Rican food, a DJ, a salsa lesson, and more.
A very special element of this event was a community artwork, which the community painted together about what voting means to them.
Another element the community really embraced was the free salsa lessons, which, long with the music, allowed Alianza to attract the community to its caravans.
What Made Salsa to the Polls Special
“Through this campaign, we were able to invite other organizations that work to empower Latine communities in Central Florida to participate in our campaign, which not only increased our organizing power but allowed us to develop our relationships with these organizations.
This action will become part of our ongoing civic engagement work. It was so well received by our community that we received a very complementary write up in the Orlando Sentinel after we kicked off this campaign on the first day of early voting.”
– Alianza Center
Created by Alianza Center as led by Jerry Millan, Culture, Arts, and Education Coordinator
Alianza led 4 voter caravans and events, reaching 300 people in person, and promoted its work on radio and social, reaching an additional 500,000+ people in the Central Florida Latinx community.
What is Unstoppable Voters?
Through the Center for Artistic Activism’s expansive Unstoppable Voters program, we support creatively risk-taking, strategic, ambitious organizations, people, and projects that address urgent and specific anti-voter attacks. We provide training and community building for individuals and groups who are passionate about protecting the freedom to vote and bringing the needed innovation to that fight. And we provide funding and support to help manifest that innovation and bring real, measurable impact. To date, we’ve helped over 80 organizations and over 900 individual activists, artists, and everyone in between make voting accessible, safe, joyful, powerful, and irresistible.
Learn more about Unstoppable Voters and how creativity and culture are leading the way
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