Got ritmos? Central Valley Latin act brings the beat to 2020 census

May 7, 2020 /

Organizations across California have incorporated a number of new outreach methods to help ensure a complete count by encouraging and reminding residents to fill out their questionnaire.

From recruiting the talents of graphic designers who’ve created colorful eye-catching works with messaging to match, music has also proven to be a seriously cool and effective engagement tool – everybody loves music!

Check out these three spicy tunes written and recorded by Latin alternative quintet ¿Qiensave? from Salinas, CA for the census that will have you shaking over to your mailbox, phone, or computer to fill out your census questionnaire.

Members of ¿Qiensave? were census workers in 2010.

“During the last census, I remember a lot of people would hide from census workers, making our work difficult,” recalled vocalist Carlos L. “Qien” Cortez of his job as a 2010 census counter during a recent appearance on Fresno public radio station Radio Bilingue, who co-produced the project with help from the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund.

“When the people don’t recognize you, they get scared or they close the door. In some cases the residents are undocumented, they don’t understand what’s happening, or they have some form of insecurity.”

Your information is private: By law, the Census Bureau cannot release any identifiable information about you, your home, or your business, even to law enforcement agencies. That’s protected under Title 13 of the U.S. Code.

The San Joaquin Valley Health Fund regularly partners with other non-profit organizations such as Radio Bilingue and the 2020 census who work towards the advancement of underserved communities. Through collective funding, the SJVH supports organizations to advocate for better racial and health equity, policy change and increase community involvement through education.

As Spanish-language programming continues to be among the more popular format in terrestrial radio boasting a strong daily farm working community listenership, the combination of Latin music and messaging with groups such as ¿Qiensave? will help reach Spanish-speaking residents while helping boost census participation in the central valley.



The adjusted deadline for households to fill out the census is October 31st, 2020.

TO LISTEN: Click play below, or right click on song to save on your computer.

“Todos Contamos” (Latin ska)

Letra / lyrics:

Yo cuento, tu cuentas, por que todos contamos
Hazlo por tu barrio, tus hermanas y hermanos
No vivas en la sombra, todo esta asegurado
Todos en la pueblo contamos

Yo cuento, tu cuentas, por que todos contamos
No somos invisibles, somos mas Americanos
Hazle por la gente, presente en tu vecindario
Con el censo 2020 contamos

“El Censo” (cumbia)

Letra / lyrics:

Amigos y amigas esto es algo muy importante,
Informacion para toda la gente, por favor comparte,
Y al vecino, a tus jefitos, y al tu gente,
Que se cuentan todos, ya llego el censo de 2020,
Dile a tu primo (dile a tu prima),  
Dile al vecino (y a la vecina),
Los trabajadores (los que no trabajan),
Las que venden flores (los que venden naranjas),
Dile a toda la gente que llego el censo de 2020

“Dale Forme a Tu Futuro” (cumbia salsa)

Letra / lyrics:

Dale forme a tu futuro,
No dejes que se escapen los recursos,  
Para la comunidad que tanto queremos,
Tu familia y tus compañeros,
Es muy fácil para llenar lo, es minutitos puedes gastarlo,
y les  preguntes en el cuestionario,
cuenta con migo y levante las manos,

Coro:

Hay, que el censo 2020 ya llego,
llenate en casa llena lo,
Hazlo por tu barrio…
(inspiración)

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Matt Munoz

Matt Munoz is Project Coordinator and Reporter at Kern Sol News. He may be reached at matt@southkernsol.org.