SEMILLERO DE VOCEROS
Growing the leadership our communities deserve.
Our communities have never lacked leaders.
They are the people organizing their neighborhoods, defending their families, teaching our youth, caring for relatives, building movements, solving problems, feeding people, speaking at meetings, protecting workers and showing up when their communities need them.
What we have lacked are enough pathways for those people to enter the places where laws, budgets and policies are decided.
Semillero de Voceros is PUDE’s political leadership and candidate development program for ordinary people who are ready to explore public office.
You do not need to come from politics.
You do not need wealthy donors.
You do not need to know how to run a campaign.
You need roots, responsibility to your community, and the willingness to learn.
We can build the rest together.
Why a Semillero?
A semillero is a place where seeds are cared for until they are ready to grow.
We chose that name intentionally.
PUDE does not believe leadership begins when someone decides to run for office. Leadership already exists throughout our barrios.
Our responsibility is to recognize it, cultivate it and give it the tools to grow.
Semillero de Voceros prepares community-rooted people to become candidates, public servants and eventually Voceros capable of carrying community power into government without abandoning the people who helped them get there.
You Might Already Be a Leader
Maybe you have never imagined your name on a ballot.
But maybe you’re the person your neighbors call when something happens.
Maybe you’re a parent fighting for your child’s school.
A worker organizing your workplace.
A student organizing other young people.
A small-business owner who knows what families in your neighborhood are experiencing.
An artist shaping how your community understands itself.
An organizer fighting deportations, surveillance, displacement or criminalization.
A teacher, nurse, construction worker, gardener, street vendor, advocate or community elder.
Maybe you have spent years watching politicians make decisions about communities they barely know.
Political experience is not the only form of experience that prepares someone to govern.
Lived experience matters.
Community trust matters.
Organizing matters.
Knowing what government decisions actually do to people’s lives matters.
From Community Leadership to Public Power
Semillero de Voceros helps participants understand how to move from community leadership into public office.
Participants learn how government actually works and how different positions exercise power.
We explore city councils, county government, school boards, commissions, the Arizona Legislature, statewide offices, Congress and other places where community decisions are made.
Then we ask:
Where could your experience make a difference?
Not everyone needs to run for Congress.
Sometimes enormous change begins with a city council seat, a school board, a commission or another position most people have never been taught to think about.
The goal is not to create politicians.
The goal is to prepare community leaders to govern.
What We Learn
Semillero combines political education with practical preparation.
Participants learn the foundations of:
Government and Political Power
Understanding offices, jurisdictions, budgets, agencies and where decisions are actually made.
Community Agenda Development
Learning to begin with the needs of the people rather than building politics around what is electorally convenient.
Policy and Governing
Understanding how an idea becomes policy and how budgets, ordinances, legislation and administrative decisions affect communities.
Campaign Strategy
Building a path from deciding to run through Election Day.
Field Organizing
Building relationships, volunteers, neighborhood organization, canvassing and voter mobilization.
Fundraising
Learning how campaigns raise resources without allowing money to determine the candidate’s political responsibility.
Communications and Media
Public speaking, interviews, debates, storytelling, digital communications and communicating under pressure.
Political Research
Understanding opponents, institutions, political relationships, donors and organized interests.
Coalition Building
Learning how to build power across communities without abandoning principles.
Ethics and Accountability
Preparing not only to win office, but to remain accountable once power has been obtained.
Learning to Govern Differently
Winning an election is not the final lesson.
It may be the beginning of the hardest one.
Political institutions can teach people that leadership means having authority over others.
Our communities carry older teachings.
Leadership creates responsibility.
Semillero participants explore governance through responsibility to relationships: to community, to Mother Earth, to future generations and to the people who will carry the consequences of political decisions.
We ask:
Who is affected by this decision?
Were they part of making it?
Who benefits?
Who carries the cost?
Does this solve harm or criminalize it?
Does this decision strengthen community power or institutional power?
What responsibility will this decision leave for the next generation?
Entering government should not mean leaving the barrio behind.
The Five Pillars of Harmony
Participants develop their political direction through the same framework PUDE uses to evaluate political power:
Harmony with Our Mother
Environmental justice.
Harmony with Our People
Human dignity and liberation.
Harmony with Our Communities
Freedom from criminalization.
Harmony with Our Families
Economic and material justice.
Harmony with Our Future
Democracy and community power.
These pillars help participants answer a fundamental question before ever asking people for their vote:
What will I actually use political power to do?
Build the Campaign Before You Become the Candidate
Semillero is not about teaching someone to announce a campaign tomorrow.
We want participants to understand their community, identify the right office, build relationships, develop an agenda and understand the political terrain before asking anyone for their vote.
That can mean determining:
What office fits your experience?
What does that office actually control?
Who lives in the district?
What problems are people experiencing?
Who currently holds power?
What organized interests influence that government?
What would victory require?
What community base needs to exist before launching?
Sometimes the strongest political decision is to run now.
Sometimes it is to organize for another two years first.
The goal is not simply candidacy. The goal is building power capable of governing.
Two Paths to Becoming a Vocero
PUDE has two electoral pathways.
VOCEROS is for people already running for office or currently serving in government who want to seek PUDE’s endorsement and enter our process of political formation and community accountability.
SEMILLERO DE VOCEROS is for people rooted in community who want to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue public office themselves.
Different starting points.
The same responsibility to the people.
Completing Semillero does not automatically guarantee a PUDE endorsement. When a participant becomes a candidate, they enter the Voceros endorsement process like other candidates.
Because community leadership should be cultivated.
Endorsement should still be earned.
Who Should Apply?
You do not need to already know what office you want.
You do not need previous campaign experience.
You do not need a political science degree.
You do not need permission from a political party.
Semillero is for people who can say:
I care deeply about my community.
I am willing to learn.
I am willing to be accountable.
I believe our people should have real power over the decisions affecting our lives.
And maybe:
I could be one of the people who carries that responsibility.
Plant Yourself in the Future You Want to See
For generations, communities have been told to wait for someone better to run.
Wait for someone to represent us.
Wait for someone to understand.
Wait for someone to listen.
We can stop waiting.
The organizers are already here.
The parents are already here.
The workers are already here.
The youth are already here.
The knowledge is already here.
The leadership is already here.
We cultivate what already grows in our communities.
FROM THE BARRIO TO THE BALLOT.
Interested in running for office, even if you don’t know where to begin?
The community guides the microphone and the pen.
Solo el Pueblo salva al Pueblo.
