Our Latino predictions for 2026
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¡Feliz año nuevo!
It’s the start of a new year, which means it’s prognostication time. Here are 5 predictions for 2026 involving Latinos.
Latinos will help Democrats flip the U.S. House of Representatives.
This last November, Latino voters dispelled the notion that they had permanently shifted to the right. Though Donald Trump did make headway in the 2024 presidential election with this electorate — he won 48% of the Latino vote — those gains all but evaporated.
In California, Latino voters helped pass Proposition 50, allowing Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map in their favor, a move meant to counter a successful effort by Texas Republicans to do the same.
And though the Supreme Court upheld the new gerrymandered map in the Lone Star state, the move may backfire on them — one race to watch is Texas’ 15th Congressional District, which will pit incumbent Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) against recently retired Tejano singer Bobby Pulido, who is running as a moderate.
Should this prediction become true, it won’t be because of the Trump administration’s heavy-handed approach to immigration (though that certainly hasn’t helped). For the last few election cycles, the most pressing issue for Latino voters has been affordability and the rising cost of living. That’s bad news for Trump and Republicans — the president’s approval rating when it comes to the economy is at 39%.
Bad Bunny will win a Grammy in a major category.
Ever since the nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards were announced in November, there’s been an ongoing debate among De Los staffers on whether Bad Bunny will win in one of the “Big Four” categories; the Puerto Rican singer has six total noms, including album of the year (“Debí Tirar Más Fotos”), record of the year (“DTMF”) and song of the year (“DTMF”).
I have been solidly in the “no” camp, though not because I believe Benito is undeserving. It’s because the Recording Academy’s track record isn’t the best. Beyoncé losing to Adele in 2017, Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange” losing album of the year to Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” in 2013 and Macklemore beating out Kendrick Lamar in 2014 for rap album all come to mind. And while Latin Recording Academy members were invited to vote for the upcoming Grammy Awards, it’s not like they’re any better — they just gave Alejandro Sanz record of the year over Bad Bunny.
But it’s the start of a new year and I’m feeling foolishly optimistic. Who knows? Perhaps 2026 is when history gets made and a Spanish-language artist wins big at the Grammys. If anyone can do it, it’s el Conejo Malo.
Hollywood will continue to ignore us.
This one’s a gimme: Latinos will continue to be severely underrepresented in Hollywood in 2026.
If you do an online search for the phrase “Latino representation,” you’ll get countless articles and academic reports about what a terrible job television and film studios have done at reflecting that Latinos exist. Here are a few headlines from The Times published over the last few years: “Latino representation in Hollywood movies is abysmal. Here’s the proof” (2019); “Hollywood’s treatment of Latinos is an open wound. Healing it requires a reckoning” (2021); “TV is failing Latinos. The latest study of Hollywood diversity shows how badly” (2021); “In searing ‘indictment’ of Hollywood diversity, USC film study shows 16 years of stasis” (2023); “Latinos continue to be underrepresented in streaming shows, new UCLA report finds” (2025).
You get the picture. As contributing columnist John Paul Brammer succinctly put it in 2023, “When a group of people makes up such a sizable chunk of a society but is not shown to exist in that society’s mainstream art, that’s not negligence. It’s intentional exclusion.”
Unfortunately, 2026 will be no different, given studios are spinelessly acquiescing to the Trump administration’s demand that they shutter diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or face retribution.
A Latino will win the college football national championship and be the first overall pick of the 2026 draft.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza will cap off his stellar season by leading the historically bad Hoosiers to the program’s first-ever national championship Jan. 19. Even better, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner will do it in his hometown— the game will be played at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
In April, the Las Vegas Raiders will use the No. 1 pick of the NFL Draft to select the Cuban American player, making Mendoza the first Latino to be drafted first overall since Jim Plunkett. In doing so, he will become part of the Raiders’ legacy of having a Latino under center — in addition to Plunkett, Mexican American quarterbacks Tom Flores and Jeff Garcia also played for the Raiders.
El Tri will win the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Mexico is one of the three co-hosts of the upcoming men’s World Cup (alongside the United States and Canada), which means that El Tri automatically qualified for the tournament. Sure, the quality of the squad hasn’t improved since its embarrassing early exit in 2022 — oddmakers give Mexico a 1.23% chance of winning it all — and there are now 48 teams competing instead of 32, but a man can dream, right?
Besides, in Gilbertito Mora we trust.
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Stories we read this week that we think you should read
Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.
Politics and immigration
- Immigration raids linked to significant California job losses, analysis finds.
- Officer video raises questions about ICE shooting of TikTok streamer.
- Gunman dies after being shot by off-duty ICE agent; LAPD investigating.
- California rolls out sweeping new laws for 2026, from cellphone limits in schools to a ban on cat declawing.
- Column: Trump regime’s lies against immigrants in 2025 even did Frank Sinatra dirty.
- Grim evidence of Trump’s airstrikes washes ashore on a Colombian peninsula [New York Times]
Arts and culture
- Meet Cliqua, the Mexican American director duo that caught the eye of Bad Bunny and the Weeknd.
- Los Tigres del Norte travel to Springfield in latest “Simpsons” episode.
- In memoriam: The prominent Latinos we lost in 2025.
Food
- A new California law requires tortillas to include an extra ingredient starting Jan. 1.
