At 4 a.m. local time, César Martínez was leaving the Reagan Center in Washington, exhausted. He arrived at the finish line after having fought "vote by vote" and won for his boss, George W. Bush, the White House. With barely four hours of sleep, and after the polite congratulations, he said he was satisfied "and the most interesting thing about it is that we got 42 percent of the Latino vote when the most optimistic predictions were 40 percent. Dick Morrison, who was an adviser to Bill Clinton, has just acknowledged that one of the big factors in the change with respect to his forecasts was precisely the very high Hispanic vote that went to the president, going from 37 percent last time to this 42 percent, and that represents 7 points more that you get and that you take away from the opponent. That's where the big difference in the whole nation lies. On the 18th, Martinez will come to Spain to participate in the III International Seminar on Political Communication organized in Madrid by George Washington University and MAS Consulting Group.

In the end, the American dream that Bush promised in his ads when he made him say "in this land we find opportunity" won out again.

The Democratic Party's advertising often portrays Latinos as a minority in need, in need of government assistance, and poor people who need help with social programs. However, the messages we put out are ones of optimism. "You are the one who is helping to grow this country, you are the one who is helping to move the nation forward. That makes a difference, it makes the voter say, "You're recognizing that I'm working for America, that I came here looking for an opportunity and I'm making it. It's very different to be treated as a depressed minority than it is to be treated as heroes who are helping to make all this happen. That's a fundamental difference. Also, when I was looking this morning at what moved Latinos to vote one way or the other, I saw that it was family values first, then the economy, and then, far behind, other issues. Bush has won the five key states for Hispanics. How do you feel the strength of this minority in the U.S. today?

With their high turnout, Hispanics have shown their strength. Today, the African-American vote is 9 to 1 in favor of the Democrats, but the Latino vote is one out of two and that's why it can tip the balance. Hispanics are already in the decision-making power of this country. Nine percent of the total electorate was Latino, and that speaks of a growing force. One out of every five children born in this country is Latino. There are 188 votes in the states where there are more Latinos and it takes 260 to win, so it is evident the weight of the Hispanic, which is growing, and the Democrats have to realize that because you are Hispanic and a minority you don't vote Democrat, but they need to make a conscientious effort.

Republican Mel Martinez has also won the hotly contested Florida Senate seat, making him the first Cuban-American to reach the upper chamber. They're on a roll.

Ken Salazar also won in Colorado, and even though he's a Democrat, he's Latino. It's evidence of how much Hispanic strength is growing. There are more Hispanics in the U.S. than Canadians in Canada, their purchasing power is among the three highest in the Hispanic world if it were a nation. This movement no longer stops, the dream of Simon Bolivar, the Ibero-American unification, is happening in this country. The engine that helps this country grow is the Latino force, in all aspects, even in baseball! Watching the World Series you would hear "Pedro Martínez pitcher", "José Cortés"... the best baseball players are Ibero-American.

You told me two months ago that the reason people turn to Bush and not Kerry is because they know Bush and don't know Kerry. Does this attitude respond to the adage that the devil you know is better than the devil you know?

Latinos are more about talking about family first and how we're doing, and then talking about business. We like to get to know the people we're going to deal with, and that's something Bush has seen very well. Before, the Republican party was anti-immigrant, tougher, all in English, and Bush turned the tables. I remember when Governor Pit Willson's proposition 187 in California wanted to take away the rights of immigrants and then Governor Bush said, "If someone is suffering, going through misery and risking his life to feed his family, he deserves all our respect". And as you say, the best time to plant an olive tree is 25 years ago. It's not much use three little words now in Spanish from Kerry, but what Bush has been doing for the last ten years.

We have just seen, for the second time, that the widespread assumption that Bush is a simple man does not matter to Americans.

In the end, people decide which of the proposals will suit them best in their day-to-day lives. Of course they are worried about foreign policy, about terrorism... But they are also worried about what taxes are going to be, where family values are placed. Women voted a lot, and married women, according to statistics, voted more in favour of the president, while some more single women voted for the senator. That will have to be analyzed.