Viva la Familia! Event will Launch Unprecedented National Coalition of Catholic and Evangelical Leaders
Contact: Bob Adams, Alliance for Marriage Foundation, 202-669-0940
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- National Catholic and Evangelical leaders from Colorado, California, and Arizona will stand together to honor marriage and family in Denver this weekend.
The Alliance for Marriage Foundation (AFM), the national group who drafted the Marriage Protection Amendment in Congress, is organizing the non-partisan celebration called Viva la Familia!, which will feature prominent Latino leaders and entertainers in celebration of marriage and family.
"Marriage and family are central to Hispanic Americans," said Rev. Sam Rodriguez, Jr., an AFM Advisory Board Member and President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who will be speaking at the event. "It is the driving engine of our growth and success as a community."
The celebration, being held at the Ninth Street Park at the University of Colorado Denver on Sunday afternoon will break new ground by launching an unprecedented national coalition of Catholic and Evangelical Latino leaders in support of marriage and family.
Featured speakers include Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Jr., President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Alejandro Bermudez, Director of the Catholic News Agency and the Catholic Information Agency ACI-Prensa, the most read Spanish Catholic web site in the world, Rev. Eve Nunez, President of the Arizona Latino Commission, and Luis Soto, Executive Director of the Denver-based Centro San Juan Diego, Archdiocese of Denver.
"Viva la Familia! Event, wants to remind us all that the most important social institution is the family," said Luis Soto, Executive Director of Centro San Juan Diego, Archdiocese of Denver. "The family formed when a man and woman marry for their common good and for the procreation and education of their children. It is this spirit of celebrating and growing as Hispanic families that we will gather."
Mexican actor, Eduardo Verástegui will also deliver an important message on marriage and family to attendees at the Viva la Familia! Event via remote from Mexico City.
Entertainment will be provided by the renowned Mexican clown Cepillín, who was for many years a great TV star in more than 18 countries. The event will also feature the Catholic recording artist Ge'La.
The emerging importance of the Latino community to America's political landscape has long been documented by demographic experts. In fact, the population of Latinos in America "will triple in size" in the next four decades, according to the Pew Research Center.
In light of this, political operatives in both parties are working harder than ever to cultivate Latino voters. But while Latinos do have the political power to determine elections, many in American politics have ignored the deep attachment to marriage and family that is woven into the very fabric of the Latino community nationwide.
The Alliance for Marriage is a multicultural coalition whose Board of Advisors includes Rev. Walter Fauntroy – the D.C. Coordinator of the March on Washington for Martin Luther King Jr. – as well as other civil rights and religious leaders, and national legal experts.
www.afmusa.org
