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Sunday, October 16, 2005

Equality for Latinos Making Slow Progress

By David Roybal
For the Journal
    National Hispano Heritage month has just concluded. For multiple reasons I hadn't planned on writing a word about it until I turned on the TV a few days ago to watch the final innings of the American League Championship Series opener between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels.
    White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, trying to get the most from his starting pitcher, stood on the mound talking in Spanish with ace Jose Contreras as catcher A.J. Pierzynski looked on.
    This was America's pastime; Big Time competition unfolding on national television for a role in the World Series. And two of the men most influential in determining how the game would end were strategizing in a language that their catcher, as well as a substantial majority of the millions watching, couldn't fully understand.
    Welcome to the changing profile of our country. It's occurring whether people like it or not— and many don't. With last week's major league game in mind, I recalled the Little League umpire back east who just a few months ago interrupted a game to forbid players from communicating in Spanish.
    One in seven people in the United States today is Latino. It's projected to be one in four within 50 years. Spanish is going to be spoken a lot more in this country no matter how many Little League umpires think it's unnecessary or un-American.
    But Latinos shouldn't be content merely to see their numbers grow. If we're going constitute a quarter of the nation's population in 50 years, then it's incumbent that we work to be a quarter of the doctors, the scientists, the college professors, the college presidents; a quarter of the judges, the members of congress, the newspaper editors, the corporate leaders.
    We have a way to go. Major league baseball might be loaded with Latinos but nationally we're lacking in so many other areas, unless you count the unemployed, the medically uninsured, the high school dropout pools, the nation's prison rolls.
    If National Hispano Heritage Month is intended for Americans to take note of who we are and what we have, then it should go well beyond mariachi concerts and the specially produced boxes of Kellogg's cereal that feature photos of César Chávez and Celia Cruz. We need to recognize that the building echo of spoken Spanish in our communities alone won't ensure progress.
    New Mexico education Secretary Veronica Garcia last week told a panel at Highlands University that one of her biggest challenges remains closing the achievement gap that shows Latinos and most other minorities so far behind others. "We have a serious problem that has to be addressed. Low expectations seem to be a driver," she said.
    If New Mexico helps supply evidence of Latino needs, it also serves as an example of extraordinary achievements. The group Garcia addressed last week included a former congressman and a former governor— both Latinos. While this accomplished Latina spoke, the state Legislature was meeting in Santa Fe. Its 112 members included at least 40 Latinos. No other state legislature comes close to such a percentage.
    The Legislature worked on an agenda shaped largely by Gov. Bill Richardson, son of a Mexican mother and one of three Latino governors in New Mexico who have served in 11 of the past 30 years.
    Latinos have served with distinction and in fair numbers in our state's other elected executive offices as well as in its highest courts.
    Don't look for Latinos in our five-member congressional delegation, though. New Mexico was the first state to send a Latino to the U.S. Senate but New Mexicans haven't elected a Latino senator since 1970.
    Nationally, Latinos struggle for a notable presence. President George W. Bush has made high-level appointments, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. (Gutierrez, by the way, was chairman of the board and CEO at the Kellogg Company and his tenure there likely meant the special production of boxes with images of Latino notables was more than just a marketing gimmick.)
    Still, there are struggles and we shouldn't need a specially designated month to remind us of it. Of nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, not one is Latino. Bush strongly suggested he would change that but he has yet to nominate a Latino even though he has had two rare chances to do so.
    One might encourage patience. Women, after all, are about half of the U.S. population but the Supreme Court never has included more than two women at once.
    As anyone who takes equal opportunity seriously knows, however, it's hard to pitch a strikeout or hit a home run if you're rarely given the chance. Getting a fair chance at anything goes a long way in raising expectations which, we're regularly reminded, is important if more people are to make it into the big game that has almost nothing to do with sports.
   
David Roybal is a longtime journalist who now owns a public relations business. His column appears Sundays in the Journal Santa Fe and Journal North; Tuesdays in the Albuquerque Journal.