Celebrating Latino Heritage, Power and Values
By: Samuel Aguilar
When I began my career in politics, I didn’t truly recognize the privilege and responsibility that comes with being part of this trailblazing generation. Somewhere between the migrant fields of Kern County and the marble halls of Atlanta, I learned that power could be translated—if you listened hard enough, if you spoke in both tongues, and if you remembered the names that came before you.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of politics. But I did grow up watching how policy shaped the lives of my friends and neighbors, sometimes brutally. In 2015, one of my closest friends—brilliant, undocumented, and raised in Georgia—was forced to pay out-of-state tuition at the only home he’d ever known. When I spoke with a Republican lawmaker about what we’d later call “tuition equity,” I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew it mattered. That moment set me on a path to translate suffering into systems, grief into goals, and hope into deliverables.
Since then, I have worked on some of the most difficult issues in Georgia politics. By 2017, I was at Governor Deal’s table. By 2018, I was briefing major stakeholders. By 2020, I was managing statewide immigration policy in one of the most hostile climates in the country. Along the way, I lobbied Congress, helped draft bills, and built coalitions across partisan divides. Some of those battles broke me, but they also shaped me. They taught me that conviction alone isn’t enough—lasting impact requires strategy, networks, and values that our communities can lead with confidently.
Those values guide my work today:
• Mentorship and Access. We must prepare the next generation to advance further than those who came before by decreasing gatekeeping and increasing access to influence networks.
• Bipartisan Consensus. Latinos are not a monolith, and neither are our politics. Securing incremental policy gains requires engaging both sides of the aisle in constructive, good-faith dialogue.
• Elevating Voices. True leadership means stepping aside to let directly impacted Georgians tell their stories on immigration, healthcare, and education. That is how we influence hearts and minds.
• Entrepreneurship and Capital. Latino-owned businesses must be woven into Georgia’s economic development engine, with expanded access to capital and mainstream markets.
• Tailored Political Strategy. Outreach cannot be copy-and-pasted. Georgia’s Latino electorate is as diverse as our countries of origin, and it deserves research-driven, culturally fluent messaging.
• Workforce Pipelines. By investing in technical training, higher education, and bilingual talent, we can launch Georgia’s Latino workforce into high-paying, high-demand jobs.
These are not abstract principles. I’ve written policy points for the Latino Community Fund, crafted messaging for GALEO, and worked hand-in-hand with lawmakers—sometimes persuading them in Spanish, sometimes in English, always in service of the communities who trusted me to be their voice.
I am part of a generation that is no longer content with being spoken to. We now lead the conversation. We bring our communities into rooms of power. And we do so with both pride in our heritage and confidence in our professional expertise.
The Movement made me. It almost unmade me. But I am still here—fluent, listening, and translating. Writing is the space I never gave myself to remember, to mourn, and to reimagine. Strategy is the way I turn those lessons into impact. And leadership is how I ensure the next generation doesn’t just inherit our struggles, but our strength.
