Latino Rancheros Ride to Support Joe Biden in Nevada

Hundreds of Latino cowboys took a ride through east side Las Vegas to back Joe Biden and Nevada Assemblyman Edgar Flores. 

When Edgar Flores was a child, he remembers his mother saying that she wanted a horse. “‘One day I’m going to buy a horse,'” he recalls her saying in Spanish. 

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“We grew up around [cowboys and horses], but we could never afford anything like that,” the Nevada Assemblyman and Chair of the Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus, said in an interview with The Americano. “It was very far beyond our reach. It’s something I was always fascinated with and loved.”  

On Sept. 26, Flores, who is running once again to represent District 28 in east side Las Vegas, made his childhood dream come true when he organized a brigade of rancheros to ride around his town to advocate for his election, and that of presidential candidate Joe Biden. 

He estimates that more than 200 people showed up. Video of the Latino cowboys made its rounds on social media and immediately went viral. It has now been viewed over a million times. For Flores, this acknowledgment and celebration of Latinos in Nevada means a lot. 

“It’s a very frustrating reality that humans go so unseen even when their presence is so big, and that’s so frustrating to me,” Flores said. “Humans are so often overlooked, which is why we’re doing this in the first place.”

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Flores adds, “I think our community has been one of the most disenfranchised, most impacted consistently throughout the pandemic, through the economic collapse. Yet these frontline workers, these folks are the people that wake up every day and keep the lights on in our casinos, construction workers out there, Latinos making sure that we get food on our tables. Then when we talk about the resources that were put out there, they’re the ones that had the least access to them. That was the objective of this march, to really bring a face to these humans.” 

Flores also feels that the Latino voter turnout in Nevada will be much bigger than it was in 2016. Back then, the statewide figure was 77% voter turnout, which was a considerable drop from the 2012 election, when it was 81%. 

“I think people are feeling energized this year,” Flores said.