When Donald Trump announced last month his decision to run for president, his speech was laced with controversial comments about Mexican immigrants, who he described as "people with a lot of problems." "They're bringing drugs," he said. "They're bringing crime. They're rapists."
Trump's comments have since been pilloried in the broader media, and are considered to be a misstep on behalf of the Republican party, which has long strived and failed to gain an edge with the Latino community.
Mitu, the technology-driven media brand, led by its co-founder Beatriz Acevedo, created the hashtag campaign #ImNotACriminal for Latinos to share their reactions to Trump's comments.
"We rallied our community of over 3,000 Latino social influencers and content creators, to voice their reaction to his idiotic, unfounded statements, and within a few hours, we had over 28 million impressions from our passionate social community, ranging from everyday people to social celebs who joined us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook," writes Acevedo.
I'm graduating early from college and going to law school. Proud daughter of legal immigrants. Mexico doesn't send its best?#imnotacriminal
- Ofelia Itzel (@ofelia_busta) June 26, 2015
My family & friends are NOT any of these, trying to find a better life doesn't make you a criminal #imnotacriminal https://t.co/qnbMIzolyx
- andrea (@5sosandy) June 20, 2015
Mitu is the largest Latino social media organization in the nation. Its YouTube channel gets nearly 700 million views a month. In addition, a recent Pew Research Study showed that Latino voters have the highest engagement with Facebook than other races. With the fast-growing Latino community considered a coveted demographic in the upcoming presidential race, the most successful candidate might be the one who leverages these channels successfully.
Watch Mitu's video, here, of millennial-aged voters reacting to Trump's comments.
Donald Trump - ReactionsDonald Trump may be running for president, but before you even consider voting for him, listen to what he has to say. Thoughts?
Posted by Somos mitú on Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Photo courtesy: "Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 3" by Gage Skidmore. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg#/media/File:Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg