Opinion: Outreach to Latino communities must start before you even speak

A Free Our Future march from Chicano Park to downtown San Diego in File photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego There was a time early in my career when I thought messaging was mostly about words What we say how clearly we say it and the content we deliver That idea didn t survive long Spend enough time engaging with Latino communities across Los Angeles knocking on doors attending church hall meetings sitting with abuelas who ve lived in the same house for fifty years and you learn fleetly communication is rarely about the words It s about how you show up Latino communities especially in urban immigrant neighborhoods are what communication experts describe as high-context cultures That s a fancy way of saying this we read meaning in gestures facial expressions tone pace and body language Words come second This matters more than people realize especially in moments of tension confusion or emotional vulnerability When someone from the city or county shows up at your door with a flyer about water usage tenant protections or vaccines the household isn t evaluating your talking points They re watching the way you stand The look on your face The warmth or lack of it in your tone And by the time you speak the tone has already been set Let me give you a real-world example Imagine someone knocks on your door You peek through the blinds You re unsure Now imagine that person is standing a little too close No smile Clipboard tight against their chest Posture stiff You open the door because you re polite but your guard is up And when they start speaking it doesn t really matter what they say as you re already in self-protection mode Now picture a different knock The person moves back respectfully They smile just enough to acknowledge your presence not perform for it Their posture is open their face attentive They say Good morning like they mean it That person hasn t earned your trust But they haven t lost it either And that makes all the difference Here s what research tells us people resist messages when they feel manipulated or disrespected A article by Marieke Fransen and others shows that when people feel their autonomy is threatened even subtly they either tune out push back or reinterpret what you re saying to fit their own narrative This dynamic is magnified in communities that have been historically marginalized For Latinos particularly in Los Angeles County there s a long memory of being overlooked or over-policed So when someone shows up with information especially from the executive the question isn t just What are you telling me It s Do you see me In my work thousands of hours in the field I ve seen this play out time and again Sometimes a conversation begins not with a fact sheet but with a question about the family photo hanging in the hallway Sometimes the largest part meaningful exchange happens because someone paused not to respond but to listen really listen And when that happens something shifts People start talking But more importantly they start sharing about problems in their neighborhood frustrations with the city and worries they ve carried for years with no one to tell Particular have offered me bottled water from their fridges homemade lunch from their kitchens and on more than one occasion a hug at the doorway In those moments you realize this isn t outreach This is relationship Latinos don t just want to be heard They want to know that what they say matters to the person listening That their story is worth the time it takes to tell That their concerns aren t being tallied they re being felt This isn t just good outreach It s human decency And yet far too often institutions default to efficiency over empathy We rush We read from scripts We check boxes And then we wonder why the message didn t land But the message did land Just not the one we meant to send There s no training manual that teaches the exact angle of eye contact or the precise weight of a nod But there is a mindset that guides this kind of communication thoughtful facial expressions warm tone culturally grounded gestures and real listening These aren t soft skills They re essential especially in Latino communities where trust isn t given to institutions it s earned by people who show up with presence and respect People deserve to feel understood before they re sought to understand So if your message isn t landing maybe the question isn t What went wrong with them Maybe it s What was missing from me Lead with humanity and everything else protocol programs records has a far better chance of being received Because at the end of the day we re not just offering information We re offering connection And in communities that have spent decades feeling unseen connection is the message Raul A Riesgo is vice president of The Merino Group a leading inhabitants affairs and communications firm in Los Angeles