[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 139 (Thursday, October 14, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12626-S12628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH 1999

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, as I attend dinners and events to 
celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I have been impressed with the 
energy that the Latino people are adding to our nation. They are having 
an impact in the work place, the market place, in politics and in our 
culture. Hispanics will surpass blacks as our nation's largest minority 
by the year 2005.
  For my colleagues who do not understand my own link to the Hispanic 
people, I would like to remind you, I grew up in an immigrant 
household. My father spoke and wrote Italian. He was fluent in Spanish 
and English, but did not write English. His customers and employees 
were Hispanics, mainly in the Albuquerque area. He spoke Spanish at 
home and at work.
  In the downtown area of Albuquerque, where I grew up, my Hispanic 
friends spent hours at our family home, and I spent hours in their 
homes. Personally I understand more Spanish than I speak, despite all 
the credit I get for being Spanish-speaking. My wife and I are 
enchanted by the Spanish masses in New Mexico. The guitars and singing 
add a beautiful and clearly Hispanic dimension to a worship service.
  In my twenty-six years as a Senator from New Mexico, I have only 
grown in my appreciation for the Spanish influence in my home state. 
Although New Mexico is surpassed in absolute numbers of Hispanics by 
states like California, Texas, Illinois, New York, and Florida, no 
other state has a higher percentage of Hispanic people than New Mexico. 
Forty percent, or about 680,000 New Mexicans are of Hispanic origin.
  Because of our unique history, Hispanics in New Mexico are 
influential in all areas of life. There are well educated Hispanics in 
our national laboratories, our universities, in the legal and medical 
professions, and in virtually every business, including ranching and 
farming. Spanish architecture and culture add a significant depth to 
life in New Mexico.
  It is clear to me that Hispanics in every state, not just New Mexico, 
want to be part of the American mainstream. They want to get ahead and 
succeed. Hispanics want to own businesses and buy their own homes, and 
they want their children to get a good education. Recent national 
surveys confirm that Hispanics want what most Americans want. They want 
the American Dream. They want to earn good money, buy their own homes, 
drive nice cars, send their children to safe schools, provide for a 
college education for their children, and invest in the future.
  The great majority of Hispanics are working class Americans who work 
hard. For most Hispanics, the American dream is a reality or 
approaching reality. About one in four Hispanics remains in poverty, 
twice the national poverty rate. Recent studies show slight declines in 
the Latino poverty rates. This is good news, but it could be better, as 
I will discuss soon.
  Latinos are forming their own businesses at the highest rates in the 
nation. The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) reports 
that the 1.4 million Latino businesses in 1997 represent a 232 percent 
increase over 1987.
  Two years later, in 1999, there are more than 1.5 million Latino 
businesses in the United States, with projections for reaching 3 
million businesses by the year 2010. Hispanics were a major force in 
the California economic recovery, where it is now estimated that 
400,000 Latino businesses are established and growing. The most common 
name of home buyers in Los Angeles is Garcia, followed by Gonzales, 
Rodriguez, Hernandez, Lopez, and more Spanish names. Los Angeles has 6 
million Latinos, more than the total population of most states.
  In 1997, national Hispanic business receipts were estimated at $184 
billion or 417 percent higher than 1987, and employment in these 
businesses was up 464 percent over 1987.
  The first Hispanic business in America exceeded one billion dollars 
in annual revenues this year. This important milestone was accomplished 
by MasTec Inc of Miami, a large construction firm headed by Jorge Mas 
Jr. whose father was a Cuban exile leader.

[[Page S12627]]

  As a Time magazine article about Hispanics concluded a few years ago, 
``Hispanics are coming and they come bearing gifts.'' In July, of this 
year Adweek observed in a paraphrase of the Time comment, ``Hispanics 
are here and they come bearing profits.''
  Besides becoming home owners as fast as they can and starting 
businesses faster than any other ethnic group, Hispanic consumers are 
also a growing market force.
  The impact of Latinos in our domestic and international markets is 
huge. Alert executives have welcomed these new markets and profits by 
serving the needs of Latino consumers right here in the United States. 
Adweek recently made this observation about this growing market force, 
``Many of the top American companies are already courting the market 
intelligently and aggressively. Procter & Gamble, Sears & Roebuck, 
Western Union, Colgate-Palmolive, McDonalds, Allstate and many more are 
already profiting from the Hispanic market. It's because Hispanics are 
smart consumers who are loyal to the brands that serve them best and to 
manufacturers who ask for the order.''
  Recent headlines report the impact of Latino activities on the 
mainstream culture. Major magazines this year have has such headlines 
such as: ``Young Hispanics Are Changing America'' and ``Latino Power 
Brokers are Making America Sizzle.''
  This month, the Albuquerque Tribune had a story with the headline, 
``Hispanic Influence, Power on the Rise.'' Sammy Sosa's home runs are 
featured in sports headlines, and Ricky Martin and ``La Vida Loca'' win 
Grammy awards while Latin music is a $12.2 billion industry.
  There are other major indicators of the growing Hispanic or 
``Latino'' influence in our markets, our labor force, and in our 
schools. Some of these indicators are:

       --31 million Hispanics now live in America. This is nine 
     million more than the 22.2 million Hispanics reported in the 
     1990 census.
       --Latinos account for over 11% of our national population--
     one in nine Americans is Latino. It is predicted that one in 
     four Americans will be Latino by the year 2050.
       --Hispanic buying power in America has increased 65% since 
     1990 to almost $350 billion today, more than the entire GNP 
     of Mexico.
       --4.3 million Hispanics voted in 1996 and 5.5 million are 
     expected to vote in the year 2000 elections. Over 12 million 
     Latinos are eligible to vote.
       --Spanish-speaking America is already the world's fifth 
     largest Hispanic nation. In ten years, only Mexico will have 
     a larger Hispanic population.
       --Spanish-speaking America is already the world's fifth 
     largest Hispanic nation. There are 400 million Hispanics in 
     the western hemisphere.
       --There are proportionally more Medal of Honor winners 
     among Hispanics than any other ethnic group in America.

  It is no wonder that George W. Bush and Al Gore are speaking their 
best Spanish to Latino audiences. Some are even asking, ``Who is 
assimilating whom?
  Some say we need ``English Only'' as a protection from the growing 
numbers of Spanish speakers. I say we need to apply ``English Plus'' 
other languages like Spanish. Our nation will be better prepared for 
the future by adding Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and other 
languages to our national strengths. I will oppose movements like 
``English Only'' that are so brazenly aimed at Hispanics and Hispanic 
culture. ``English Plus'' is a much more healthy approach to our 
economic and cultural future.
  Hispanics are proud to remind us that they are represented among 
Medal of Honor winners more than any other ethnic group in our country. 
Names like Lopez, Jimenez, Martinez, Rodriguez, Valdez, Gonzales, and 
Gomez are among the recipients of our nation's highest military honor. 
Many are New Mexico Hispanics who were over-represented in the infamous 
Bataan Death March of World War II.
  Having surveyed the major indicators of Hispanic growth and economic 
potential over the past decade and the important prospects for further 
growth and influence, I must now stress to my colleagues that Hispanic 
people in America today still face two major obstacles that I see.
  First, capital is the key to growing business in our great country, 
and Hispanics do not have sufficient access to capital that their 
numbers and ideas might indicate. Second, and even more important for 
our future, the drop-out rate of Hispanics is unacceptably high. Let me 
elaborate.
  As Hector D. Cantu observed in his Hispanic Business Column (July 1, 
1999) for Knight Ridder News, ``Put Latino entrepreneurs in any room 
and they soon start talking about capital. Or rather, the lack of it. 
So many business plans, they might say, and so few banks willing to 
lend them money.''
  The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in a June 22, 1999, study of 
small business finance in two Chicago minority neighborhoods, found 
that ``Black and Hispanic owners start their businesses with less 
funding than owners in the other ethnic groups. Black and Hispanic 
owners also depend on personal savings for a higher proportion of their 
start-up funding and are more likely to use personal savings as their 
only source of start-up funding.''
  This study also noted that with the following baseline 
characteristics: ``eating/drinking place, high school education, 
proficient in English, no previous experience as an owner, aged 37 
years, male, and business started 12 years ago,'' ``A White owner . . . 
starts with 167 percent more funding ($54,564) than a comparable 
Hispanic ($20,414); and Asian owner starts with 32 percent more 
($26,921); and an owner in the Other category starts with 49 percent 
more ($30,479).'' A Black owner in this study started with ``an 
estimated 46 percent smaller pool of funds ($11,104) than a comparable 
Hispanic.''
  To help remedy situations like this all around the country, the U.S. 
Small Business Administration (SBA) gave us some good news last month 
about business loans to Hispanics throughout the nation. They reported 
that SBA-backed loans (bank loans guaranteed by SBA) have more than 
doubled from $286 million in FY 1992 to about $635 million in FY 1999. 
This represents more than 21,000 loans worth about $3.7 billion in 
loans to Hispanic-owned businesses in this seven year period.
  Even with these impressive improvements in SBA participation and 
growth rates of 232% in Hispanic-owned businesses in the last decade, 
Hispanics still own only about 5 percent of the businesses in the 
United States.
  As Hispanic influence is felt in our markets, I will encourage 
continued SBA support for improving bank lending. I would like to note 
for my colleagues that, on the private sector side of the ledger, 
Merrill Lynch is reportedly seeking more Hispanic mortgage lending, 
economic empowerment initiatives, and small business lending.
  Merrill Lynch has launched a $77 million pilot called the Southern 
California Partnership for Economic Achievement. In his article about 
this on April 8, 1999, Hector D. Cantu (Knight Ridder) noted that a 
vice president of Merrill Lynch in California made this observation 
about his company: ``The history of Merrill Lynch has been a company 
that has prided itself on being one step ahead of the competition and 
positioning itself where great wealth is being created.'' He noted that 
after World War II, ``We saw great wealth being created in the suburbs. 
In the 1980s, we saw worldwide economic explosions. We went to Japan 
and Europe to be positioned globally as we saw capitalism breaking 
out.''
  ``To this list, Merrill Lynch is now adding the U.S. Hispanic 
market.'' ``It's not a trend that started last year. It's something 
that has been decades in the making. We see it reaching critical mass 
in very specific ways. In small business creation. In home ownership. 
In pure demographics.''
  With this kind of economic future and solid demographics to back the 
Hispanic markets, there is still a disturbing weakness in the 
underbelly of these numbers and hopes.
  As many have noted during Hispanic Heritage Month, education is key 
to Hispanic success in America. I feel that the break-down in our 
public education system affects minorities and Hispanics more than 
others.
  Federal programs that reach our public schools and universities 
account for about 7 percent of all their resources. A disproportionate 
share of these federal resources reaches minority students in such 
programs as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
(ESEA). Yet, the effectiveness of this federal investment is still 
questionable for many reasons, mainly significant and continuing lags 
in educational attainment and drop outs. Clearly, these are related.

[[Page S12628]]

  Bilingual education is most often funded with federal support, even 
though two-thirds of Spanish-speaking Latinos in our country are 
educated in English only classrooms. The federally funded TRIO programs 
help to identify and tutor minority students bound for college, and 
federally subsidized student loans help to keep students in college.
  In an era when we face competition from countries all around the 
world like Mexico and China, we need to do all we can to keep our 
national competitive advantage, especially in the scientific and 
technical fields. There is no question that the required formal 
education is now higher for these fields, and it is disheartening to 
see so many Latinos dropping out of high school.
  I will personally be looking more closely at successful programs like 
``Cada Cabeza Es Un Mundo'' ("Each Mind Is A World") in California and 
Aspectos Culturales (Cultural Aspects) of Santa Fe, New Mexico. As we 
debate ESEA reauthorization, I will encourage more locally based 
efforts to include parents and other role models to participate in 
improving the educational environment for all students, especially 
those most likely to drop out.
  Dropout rates among newer Latino immigrants are the highest among all 
ethnic groups with the exception of American Indians, who make up less 
than one percent of our population. Current reports by the 
Congressional Research Service (CRS) place the drop-out rate for 
Hispanics who are born outside the U.S. at 38.6%.
  For first generation Hispanics the drop-out rate is 15.4%. For 
Hispanics beyond the first generation in America, the drop-out rate is 
slightly higher at 17.7%. Overall, including foreign born Latinos, the 
Hispanic drop-out rate is 25.3% compared to 7.6% for whites and 13.4% 
for blacks.
  We cannot tolerate drop-out rates like these.
  As our economy demands higher education, and jobs are not being 
filled for lack of education or experience, the critical value of 
achievement in education becomes an issue for all of us in the Congress 
to note. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) 
released an important report documenting the strong link between 
education and employment for Hispanics. It is entitled, 
``Education=Success: Empowering Hispanic Youth and Adults.''
  We have federal programs that address virtually every aspect of 
education, from Headstart to advanced degrees in science. Yet too many 
Latinos are being left behind at a time when we pride ourselves in an 
economy that is surging ahead. We need to make our great American 
advancements in mathematics, science, and engineering more available to 
all striving students, especially Latino students who drop out more 
often than most students.
  Bill Gates recognized this problem. He recently announced his recent 
billion dollar donation to minority education, much of which will go to 
Latino children. He saw the importance of reaching and inspiring 
Latinos, Blacks, and other minorities to attain higher degrees in 
science and mathematics. He put his foundation money behind this idea.
  It is time to refocus and re-energize our federal efforts to help 
Latinos and others in need of educational assistance. This is not a 
time to see more and more Latinos falling behind in school just when 
more formal education is essential to job market participation.
  When we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month in the year 2000, 
I hope to be able to report more progress in private lending to 
Hispanic businesses and better federal support for Hispanic education. 
Now that Hispanic Americans have become a new economic, cultural, and 
political force among us, we need to recommit our efforts to see that 
our financial institutions treat them fairly and that Hispanics are 
suitably educated for a future we will all live and prosper in 
together.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to the Hispanic 
community. As we commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to 
recognize the contributions made by millions of Latinos in our nation. 
California is truly a multi-cultural state and I am honored to help 
represent this community in the United States Senate.
  This month we celebrate a community that shares the common goals of 
other Americans of freedom, opportunity and a chance to build a better 
life. In pursuing these aspirations, they have made important 
contributions to life in the United States in the fields of business, 
politics, science, culture, sports, and entertainment. Latinos have 
served in the armed services with bravery and courage and many have 
made the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives for the common good 
of our country.
  Today, I honor these brave Americans and their families. I also honor 
Latino heroes and heroines like the late Julia de Burgos, Arturo 
Alphonso Schomburg, Roberto Clemente, and Cesar Chavez. These teachers, 
advocates, athletes, and activists have brought pride to their 
community, enriched our country, and provided role models for all of us 
to emulate.
  Indeed, Latinos are changing the way America looks at itself. Today 
there are 31 million Hispanics in the U.S. By 2050, the population is 
projected to hit 96 million--an increase of more than 200 percent. 
Latinos are making their mark, Sammy Sosa leading the great American 
home-run derby. Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Carlos Santana 
topping the pop music charts. Salma Hayek, Jimmy Smits, Andy Garcia, 
Edward James Olmos, and Rita Moreno are making great contributions to 
the entertainment industry.
  I commend the Latino community for its courage and persistence and 
want to warmly acknowledge the contributions and vitality this 
community brings to our nation. I thank the leaders of this community 
for leading by example and for promoting a national policy agenda which 
highlights basic human necessities that should be the right of every 
American.
  Between 1984 and 1998, Latino voting jumped nationwide in midterm 
elections by 27 percent, even as overall voter turnout declined by 13 
percent. In my own state of California, Latinos are participating and 
contributing to civic life. For the first time in the California State 
Legislature's history, two of its three highest offices are occupied by 
Latinos, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante and Speaker of the Assembly 
Antonio Villaraigosa.
  A democratic and prosperous society should not step back from a 
national commitment to provide assistance to those who strive to 
achieve the American dream, despite the odds. In particular, I want to 
emphasize the importance of a quality education for the success of 
Latino children. Our Latino young people are a great source of strength 
and hope for the future of this nation and they should be able to 
participate fully in the American experience.
  I am proud to honor California's Hispanic community and to have the 
opportunity to ensure that Latino contributions and sacrifices do not 
go unnoticed.

                          ____________________