A taco truck, music, drag performances and comedy brought more than 100 Clevelanders into Mayan’s Latin Nightclub in the Cudell neighborhood on Saturday evening. 

In between comedy and drag performances, community leaders took the stage to talk about the importance of voting. They urged people to encourage their friends and family to go to the polls this November. They talked about the importance of local elections.

At the entrance, people could register to vote and learn how to check their voter registration status after state officials purged inactive voters from the registration list earlier this year. People also pledged to vote and signed up for election information. 

It was an unlikely setting for a voter engagement event, but the El Chisme Tour, which is set to visit more than 20 states this year, is partnering with local organizations across the country.

The tour is organized by Mijente, an organization for “Latinx and Chicanx communities that builds power and advocates for social justice.” The goal is to encourage political conversations by bringing people together through culture, said Tania Unzueta, the national political director for Mijente. 

Mijente partnered with the Young Latino Network and Avanzamos Unidos (United We Advance) to put on the show. The Young Latino Network launched “Somos Cuyahoga 2024” (we are Cuyahoga) on Saturday, its electoral program promoting civic engagement and informing voters in English and Spanish about elections. 

“We felt that in order to be able to expand the people that are involved in what’s happening in the country at the moment we needed to use different strategies,” Unzueta said. “And that’s the idea even behind the name of chisme, the idea that … politics can look very different ways, including at a nightclub with drag.” 

More and more Latinos are becoming involved in American politics. According to the National Museum of the American Latino, a record number of Latinos – 16.5 million – voted in 2020. That is up from 2016, when 12.7 million eligible Latino voters cast their ballots. The new voters were mostly women and young people.

Gossiping about politics

Chisme is the Spanish word for gossip. Inside the nightclub, two young people dressed up as grandmothers, in nightgowns and curly, gray-haired wigs, and sat side by side at a table gossiping. They each held a book about politics as they talked about Ohio’s Issue 1 to end gerrymandering and the recent lawsuit arguing that the language is biased and deceptive. 

Camila Fox Gonzalez, the communications coordinator for Young Latino Network and Avanzamos Unidos, said Saturday’s event was a safe space to talk about politics among family and friends.

“The best way to fight or to resist is by being happy,” Fox Gonzalez said. “By enjoying ourselves, by partying.”

‘They couldn’t vote … we are here to do it for them’

There was no shortage of joy at the nightclub. The crowd roared with laughter during Aida Rodriguez’s stand-up set. Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican and Dominican comedian, joked about Latin countries’ “beef” with one another.

“El Salvador is the Detroit of Latin America,” she said. “They got beef with everybody.”  

She talked about colorism, racism, mixed Latine races, and Latinos’ pride for their countries. 

“I have an uncle who wears everything Puerto Rican from head to toe. Has a Puerto Rican flag tattooed on his arm, he has one on his neck. He wears Puerto Rican sweatsuits … with the Puerto Rican socks that come up to right here,” she said as the crowd laughed. “He ain’t never been to Puerto Rico. Not one time. But he’s proud to be Puerto Rican.”  

Rodriguez also told people to make sure their families vote. 

“Tatarabuela [great-great-grandmother] didn’t know how to read. They didn’t vote, they couldn’t vote. They didn’t know,” Rodriguez said. “And we are here to do it for them.” 

🗳️For more on this year’s November election, visit our Election Signals 2024 page.

‘Latinos, it’s always a party with us’

Klarissa Zeno took the stage wearing a black t-shirt with the names of the Exonerated Five, the young men from New York who were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1989.

With her father incarcerated most of her life, Zeno was raised by a mother who was adamant about the importance of voting, she said. 

“If I wasn’t at Cedar Point on my birthday, she’d have sat me down to register that day,” Zeno said. “We did it the next day.” 

Zeno is a mental health counselor at the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center. She said she often tells the young men she works with who are 17 and older that it’s important to vote. 

“It’s important to use your voice,” she said she tells them. “Because they took your freedom away. They took your money, your clothes, all these things. But they can’t take your voice.” 

Zeno said the food, comedy, music and drag was a great way to bring people together.

“Latinos, it’s always a party with us,” she told Signal Cleveland. “We love to eat, we love to sing, we love to dance. We’re loud, we’re proud, we’re all of those things.” 

She said she enjoyed Saturday’s event because it included the LGBTQ+ community, mental health advocates, Black Lives Matter representatives and Palestinian voices. 

“We’re important. We’re worthy, and we deserve the right to make decisions for ourselves, decisions for our community, decisions for our family,” she said. “And we can only do that if we utilize that right to vote.”