The Univision Republican Forum -

1- Respecting our laws - All seven candidate, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, Ron Paul, John McCain y Duncan Hunter, agreed that there can not be legal concessions for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. To the question of "what to do with them?” our candidates reiterated the law and pointed out the million of people that are awaiting to legalize their status via the customary and legal process; it will be of no justice or respect to jump the undocumented immigrants on the front of the line to provide some type of amnesty.

2- Republican Party Hispanic lost of support -

Univision asked the candidates if they knew why the Republican Party has lost the support and vote of the Hispanic community. President Bush received 40% of the Hispanic vote but only 30% in 2006.

"I am not sure that the candidates answer this question, what I heard was more on the line of the importance of the Hispanic vote but not why the vote is reduced". Tibi Ellis, Vice President of the Nevada RNHA, said.

Giuliani, for instance said that better leadership will be the solution. While Romney said lack of communication with the Hispanic community is the prevalent reason. Huckabee explained that "we did not do what was adequate. If we want more votes, we need to improve education". Thompson accused the corrupts in Washington and the excess expending he said "we are expending the money of the next generation". Ron Paul criticized the excess expending in the war.

The reporters from Univision also mentioned the PEW report published last Thursday where it states that there are many more registered Democrat Hispanics than Republican (you can read it at http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=83 ). Please note that this report was made based on a survey conducted by telephone from Oct 3 through Nov 9, 2007 among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,003 Hispanics, of whom only 843 are registered voters. Are 843 Hispanic voters a representation of 40 Million Hispanics in the US? This is not statistically relevant or valid. Don't let the press full you.

3- The candidates also discussed Latin American and the volatile relation with Castro and Chavez. While they pointed out the obvious about these regimes there was not firm stand on solving the treat of weakening the Democracies in Latin America and the risk to us in the USA. The candidate also addressed the war in Iraq, Healthcare and Education.

In summary, this forum format was more of a round table discussion where all the candidates had the opportunity to present their positions on the important areas of interest for Hispanics. It was a delight to see them outside of the debate environment and more in a dialogue with Hispanics.

Much was lost in translation and to my disappointment Univision did not allow us to hear the responses in English as it was simultaneously translated in Spanish. We were able to hear though that some of the translated answers did not accurately represent the responses from the candidates, but this also happened to the Democrats. This comes to proof that English should be the official language in politics. Why are they translating in Spanish if this was at the University of Miami? One should expect such of academic audience to understand English. Aren't voters American citizens? Americans whether by birth or naturalization speak English… I am not sure this event convinced any Hispanic voter to vote Republican, one thing is certain it showed the impressive line of capable, experienced and professional leaders we have. They were "Presidential".