she the is a political reporter for the san francisco chronicle, marisa lagos and founder and ceo ofblo food market. juvenal chavez and finally professor alex saragoza. >> thank you for being here. >> let's talk about the importance of the latino vote in the presidential election u.s. more important today than ever before? >> absolutely. as we just heard the latino population around the nation has been growing as well as minorities in general. here in california we have more than half of our population is quote, unquote, minority. both the republicans and democrats are trying to appeal to this population. it's a population that those parties are trying to appeal to. it's an interesting one because we talk about it, but i think we're going to see as time goes on more. in that you have traditionally more religious catholics belief systems and younger generation that was born here. maybe not as much of that. it's a shift in population and one that candidates are trying to chase. >> reporter: so the numbers suggest that mitt romney needs 40% of the hispanic vote. i don't like to bet, but