AUSTIN (AP) — Ashley Landis is an Associated Press staff photographer, based in Houston. She has been with AP since May 2020.
Here’s what Landis had to say about this extraordinary photo:
On election night, I was assigned to cover gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa’s watch party. I knew it might be a long shot for her to win, since she’s a Hispanic Democratic woman — things that haven’t traditionally made for a successful campaign for governor of Texas.
When the polls closed, early voting results showed Hinojosa ahead, so I began looking around the room for photos that would illustrate a potential win. Supporters slowly made their way into the party, cautiously watching the polling numbers on big screens.
Before too long, I spotted Birdie Canales near the stage. She was watching the results from the front row alongside other Hispanic women. The moment came when James Talarico won his race for senator, and everyone cheered. A few minutes later, Hinojosa secured her win. That’s when I captured this photo. Canales and the people around her erupted with emotion. It was a moment of joyful disbelief.
The room had become very crowded before the results were announced, but I knew the women in the front row would have an intense reaction when Hinojosa was officially named the next governor of Texas.
I overheard Canales say she didn’t think she would ever see a Latina governor of Texas. When the announcement was made, I turned to Canales first, and this photo shows how she celebrated.
The latter part of the evening reminded me of 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president for the first time. The Latinas at the Hinojosa party had never seen someone like them in a position of power at that level.
I am a Texan, and I can say that watching that moment and the moments that followed felt historic. This photo captures the emotion behind such a massive shift.
See more extraordinary AP photography.
Birdie Canales, center, Maggie Hermes, center rear, and other attendees cheer at an election night event for Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV visited a home for people with disabilities Monday and told them their lives were a blessing, not a burden, as he pressed his call for Argentina to care for its most vulnerable in a symbolic rebuke of President Javier Milei’s austerity measures.
Before drawing an estimated 2.5 million people to his first Mass in Argentina, Leo made a pilgrimage to the Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, south of Buenos Aires. Founded by an Italian priest in 1935, the institution houses more than 400 people with disabilities on its 123-acre (50-hectare) grounds.
The center, known as the “city of charity,” has been hit hard by Milei’s austerity measures, which have severely affected healthcare and social services. Milei has taken his signature chain saw to specialized therapy programs that for decades have been a lifeline for many of Argentina’s estimated 5 million people with disabilities, freezing payments and dismantling a vital safety net.
Some residents and employees wept as Leo arrived Monday and embraced people in wheelchairs. He told them their lives were a blessing, not a burden on society.
“You can help us to remember the foundation of the dignity of every human being and what is truly important in life,” Leo said in the center’s chapel.
“A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs,” he said.
Argentina’s Congress overrode Milei’s veto last year to pass a law increasing funding for disability care. But his administration has resisted implementation, citing concerns that it would undermine his hard-won fiscal balance. Care homes such as Cottolengo are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Leo’s visit comes days before the Senate is due to consider legislation that would set aside money for disability benefits in next year’s budget. Milei opposes the measure.
Given the circumstances, it was deeply significant that Leo chose to start his visit to Argentina by meeting with the Cottolengo guests, said Kuyen Rolon Rey, a volunteer at the home.
“The people here deserve this grace,” Rolon Rey said. “Choosing such a small place, but big if measured with love, makes us very happy.”
The visit kicked off a busy day for Leo in which the American pope, fulfilling the unfinished legacy of Argentine Pope Francis, is emphasizing Catholic social teaching that calls for putting the weakest and most vulnerable at the center of economic policy.
For many Argentines, though, the day’s highlight was Leo’s late-morning Mass at the Monumento a los Españoles, which the Vatican said drew 2.5 million people, Leo's biggest liturgical turnout to date. The same site hosted the last papal Mass in Argentina, celebrated by St. John Paul II nearly 40 years ago.
Thousands arrived at midnight to secure a good spot for Leo’s first Mass in Argentina. It got underway under blue skies on a day declared as a national holiday to allow people to attend and relieve normal commuting traffic around the central site.
Among those in the VIP seats were Milei and his sister, Karina Milei, the secretary-general of the presidency.
In his homily, Leo said Argentine families are facing situations of joblessness, violence and addictions, but are still the bedrock of society.
“Do not give in to those who dismiss the Christian family as outdated. On the contrary, today more than ever, it remains a pillar amid the many insecurities of our time,” he said.
Isabel Martín, 73, came with her parish group from San Andrés Avelino. She said she was praying for Leo to “touch the heart” of Milei, whose spending cuts have also hit pensioners hard.
“The pope was very specific in his message yesterday,” she said, referring to Leo’s inaugural speech to Milei. “The weakest cannot be the ones carrying the burden of the adjustment, especially poor retirees. If anyone can make him reconsider, it’s the pope.”
Argentina’s minimum pension is approximately $300, about a quarter of what an older adult needs to cover medicine, housing and food.
Leo’s message was also resonating with younger Argentines, who have shown the sharpest decline in Catholic practice of any age group. Margarita Lanús celebrated her 16th birthday Monday while waiting for Leo’s Mass, sharing a cake on the sidewalk with her large family.
“I really like that he says things as they are; he goes straight to the point,” she said.
Upon his arrival Sunday and with Milei at his side, Leo cited Francis’ frequent refrain that money must serve and not rule: “The economy must serve the person, not the person the economy,” Leo said in his first speech in Argentina.
It’s a message Leo is expected to repeat later Monday when he meets with business leaders, union representatives and leaders of popular movements at the Catholic University of Argentina.
Among those invited are domestic manufacturers battered by cheap imports since Milei scrapped long-standing trade barriers, and members of Argentina’s largest labor confederation, who took their worries over job losses and shrinking wages to the Vatican in September.
Since Milei took office in late 2023, his austerity agenda has made him an icon of the global conservative backlash against the liberal establishment. Much like its counterparts in the Trump administration, Milei's government has portrayed the cuts to disability programs as part of a reform process aimed at eliminating fraud and waste in the federal bureaucracy.
Milei’s administration brushed off any suggestion of a rebuke in Leo’s comments. When asked whether the pope had criticized the government, Cabinet chief Diego Santilli said, “No, it’s everything we’ve been working on.”
Opposition leaders heard a pope taking Milei to task, though some were careful not to turn it into a political fight.
“I don’t want to frame it as discord or dispute,” said Buenos Aires province Gov. Axel Kicillof, the most powerful elected official in the left-leaning Peronist opposition, who welcomed the pope to the Cottolengo on Monday. “Let them listen to him, those who had their ears closed.”
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AP reporter Isabel DeBre contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
President Javier Milei attends a mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass at Monumento de los EspaÒoles in Buenos Aires, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV greets Norma Liliano Donato during his meeting with the staff and residents of the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, Argentina, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV, greets Marta Torres during his meeting with the staff and residents of the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione in Claypole, Argentina, on the fourth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV, left, meets with President Javier Milei at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (Tiziana Fabi/Pool Photo via AP)
An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of the pontiff's arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
An image of Pope Leo XIV is projected onto the Obelisk on the day of his arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Worshippers sleep while awaiting a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Leo XIV at the Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026.. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with Argentina's President Javier Milei as he meets authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps at Palacio Libertad in Buenos Aires, on the third day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
