With the 2024 election days away, there has been a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle about the Latino vote and how it could be crucial in the presidential race. Since Latino voters come from many places and many backgrounds. Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano went on a road trip traveling around the Southwest, talking to voters and understand their hopes and their fears and their dreams. Arellano talked to host Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.”

Arellano travelled to seven states over seven days to learn about what issues Latino residents care about in the election. He began in Southern California.

“Every place that I went to, I wanted to tell a different story about Latinos in the Southwest. So I had to start at the border, the U.S.-Mexico border,” Arellano said. “I talked to activists there who is saying this idea of an invasion, it’s not happening. You have to take care of these people. The refugees from around the world, just like previous generations of immigrants.”

In Arizona, Arellano spoke to people in the small town of Clifton, which is home to one of the largest copper mines in the world. He then went to New Mexico and Colorado, and talked about what chili farmers had to say. 

“They want it to be easier for them to be able to hire legal workers. And they’re afraid about water because the Rio Grande is drying up. The monsoons that have always nurtured the land of New Mexico, they’re more irregular. So that’s their big issue,” Arellano said.

In El Paso, Texas, Arellano talked to people at the site of a 2019 mass shooting in which the gunman targeted Latinos. 

“El Paso has moved on because life has to move on. But still, I think it’s something that we have to remember, especially when you have a presidential candidate who uses language that seems ripped from the manifesto of this mass shooter, this idea that Latinos, immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country, that they’re a detriment, not an asset, to the United States. It’s something that we need to keep in mind,” Arellano said.

Arellano reflected on his trip and the overarching theme that many Latino voters are focused on local issues rather than partisan friction. 

“You have to take care of the things immediately in front of you. And your neighbors are going to be Republicans and Democrats. And if you don’t unite on those local things, that’s how democracy dies. It’s not who you vote for president, it’s what you’re doing the rest of the year. So coming back, I was so excited and optimistic about the future of Latinos in this country. If we stick to what those people are about, which is taking care of what’s in front of you, caring about national issues, but not letting partisan politics divide you between your neighbors,” he said.

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.

Watch “LA Times Today” at 8 and 11 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.