Barak Obama has more than a growing fan club in Texas; he has a serenade.
The latest Spanish-language ad flooding the Texas airwaves features a sombrero-clad mariachi band walking down the street and reciting, “Viva Obama!” in baritone.
The singer coos about Obama’s dedication to working-class Latinos and keeping families united. He mentions support from the Latino-dominated cities of San Antonio and Corpus Christi as they show up in bright letters on screen. Obama is even pictured wearing a cowboy hat.
So who is behind this ballad of love?
It’s not Obama and it’s not Latinos from Texas. It’s the brainchild of Miguel Orozco, and his Nueva Vista Media company in southern California. Orozco is leading a Latino outreach campaign called Amigos de Obama.
Orozco is not new to the propaganda of political campaigns. He began his career as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Intern and worked on the Hill as a U.S. Senate staffer. Now he’s using his digital media company, which has offices in Chicago and Los Angeles, to coral Latinos across the country into the Obama camp. That, after all, is his job. The company uses broadcast and online media to communicate messages to Latinos.
It’s almost too convenient. But Orozco says he’s the one behind it all and explains his motivation for the publicity campaign on the Amigos de Obama Web site. He says he created the campaign “to fill a void in media outreach to Latinos” and that he’s “helping my neighbor, my brother.”
The effects of the ads remain to be seen. But as Hillary Clinton’s campaign nears eruption, this bellowing sextet can’t be a soothing sound.
