FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2023
Contact: Diana Castaneda
Diana@chcboldpac.com
ICYMI: CHC BOLD PAC Launches BOLD Translate, an Innovative “Digital Field Guide” to Reach Latinos in an Authentic Way
The first two BOLD Translate toolkits, an open access translation tool for Democratic campaigns and activists, focus on the Dos and Don’ts of translating economic and reproductive rights issues.
In Case You Missed It: CHC BOLD PAC – the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – launched BOLD Translate, an innovative digital translation tool to help communicate to Latinos in an authentic way, instead of relying on a machine English-to-Spanish translation.
The first two BOLD Translate toolkits focus on the
economy and
reproductive rights. After the
Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, safe and universal access to abortion became one of the
top issues for Latina voters
in the past electoral cycle. This is why it is critical to communicate in a culturally competent manner so that Latinas not only understand the ongoing attacks on reproductive rights across the country, but also can identify abortion disinformation aimed at them.
BOLD Translate will also provide messaging guidance and key statistics on a variety of topics tailored specifically to the Latino community, allowing us to educate our community about how Democrats are delivering for Latinos.
BOLD Translate is part of BOLD PAC’s “Our Lucha” initiative, a wide-ranging initiative that puts BOLD PAC at the forefront of the fight for every Latino vote in the midterms and beyond. Last cycle, as part of “Our Lucha,” we launched BOLD Mensaje (a bilingual social media toolkit) and
“Ya tu Sabes” (BOLD PAC’s Youtube channel).
Here’s what
observers are saying:
The Hill:
Democrats build a digital field guide for Latino campaigns
By: Rafael Bernal
“The campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is building a digital translation and messaging platform to help Democrats hone their campaign outreach to Hispanic voters.
Bold PAC is releasing the platform periodically, focusing on different topics of interest to Latinos.
The platform, Bold Translate, has launched a limited test with messaging about jobs and went online Friday with a module focused on reproductive rights and abortion in commemoration of the first anniversary of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal right to an abortion.
“The economy and certainly reproductive health care and choice are two incredibly important things. One of the reasons we have rolled this out so early is our intention is to be able to cover lots of incredibly important political topics throughout the cycle,” said Victoria McGroary, the executive director of Bold PAC.
Each online module of Bold Translate includes a glossary of commonly used terms for any one campaign issue and examples of the best Spanish-language translations to use in Democratic messaging.
The section on jobs, for instance, directs campaigns on how best to refer to the terms “jobs,” “wages,” “unemployment,” “decreased,” and “leisure & hospitality.”
Each term has examples of phrasing Bold PAC suggests campaigns should use — and others to avoid. Generally speaking, the suggestions to avoid include commonly used erroneous translations, regional slang terms and jargon.
The goal, according to McGroary, is to avoid the sorts of translations that result from bad use of online tools or bilingual dictionaries.
“When people are translating, often, they try one-to-one, ‘Let’s take this word, and what does it mean?” McGroary said.
“That’s not how we need to do this. And so here we’re just trying to make sure that everyone can understand what is trying to be communicated.”
Because it’s a national toolkit aimed at messaging clarity, Bold Translate is a deviation from Bold PAC’s usual practice of aggressively adopting regionalisms to microtarget bilingual and Spanish-speaking voters of different national origins.
“We wanted to take a little bit more of a wider lens in that respect, but of course, we would always advocate for … microtargeting,” McGroary said.
Beyond the glossary, the toolkit includes topical messaging guidance in English and relevant data points.
The abortion package, for instance, tells campaigns to explain the impact the Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal right to abortion has on Latinas and to “emphasize that Latinas already face several barriers to accessing safe, free abortion and reproductive health care.”
Bold PAC plans to periodically release guidance on other relevant issues, and it has not set a ceiling on how expansive the toolkit could become, according to McGroary.
“The goal here is at the end of this cycle, we will have a series of issues, the sort of top issues that matter to people that affect them in their daily lives,” McGroary said.
“This will be sort of a communication one-on-one and anyone could take these toolkits and know generally what are the issues that matter here, but also, more specifically, then how do we speak with Latinos about those?”
McGroary added she’s not concerned that Republicans will also have access to this publicly available information.
“We aren’t worried about Republicans using the right words to communicate their bad ideas,” she said.
“We are focused on making sure our people can communicate all the good we’re doing.”
La Opinión: What is BOLD Translate and why is it useful for Latinos?
By: Jesús García (original article translated to English)
“As part of its new strategy to reach out to this population, BOLD PAC, the electoral branch of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), launches the “BOLD Translate” tool that seeks to offer more accurate translations of some expressions or concepts in English, but primarily provide key data on the Latino population... Abortion rights were chosen as the first campaign issue to tie in with the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade.
When reaching out to Latino voters, we must recognize that they are not a monolithic population, nor is their approach to reproductive health and abortion. In addition to exposing a better-applied Spanish translation, the initiative also explains court decisions and specific government programs, in addition to presenting concrete data on the different issues that it will address.
CHC BOLD PAC
BOLD PAC is the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and is dedicated to increasing diversity in the House and Senate by getting more Latinos and Latinas elected. In 2022, BOLD PAC elected the largest Democratic CHC in history, bringing nine new Latinos to the House, including four in seats that were picked up by House Democrats. This was the result of over $6 Million in direct investments for Latino candidates, the largest sum in the organization’s history. Additionally, BOLD PAC played an integral role in protecting the Democratic majority in the Senate by helping re-elect Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, the first and only Latina in the Senate.
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CHC BOLD PAC, the campaign arm of the Hispanic Caucus, was founded in 2001 to increase Latino representation in Congress. Since its founding, BOLD PAC has more than doubled the size of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
BOLD PAC
Washington, DC 20003
Contacto de Prensa
press@chcboldpac.com
Last Updated September 2024