[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 22, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         OP-ED ABOUT CONGRESSMAN EDWARD R. ROYBAL AND FRED ROSS

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 22, 2016

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my 
colleagues a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Gabriel Thompson, which 
describes how my father, the late Congressman Edward R. Roybal, worked 
with the legendary community organizer Fred Ross to form the Community 
Service Organization in Boyle Heights. In this op-ed, and in his new 
book, ``America's Social Arsonist,'' Mr. Thompson describes how 
residents in and around Boyle Heights mobilized to register local 
voters so that these voters could make their voices heard in 
government. There is no right more fundamental, vital, and powerful in 
our society than the right to vote. The work that my father and Mr. 
Ross did together helped so many Angelenos exercise that right.
  I would like to submit the following op-ed:

              [From the Los Angeles Times, Apr. 18, 2016]

                     How To Register Latino Voters

                         (By Gabriel Thompson)

       The Spanish-language channel Univision hopes to register 3 
     million new Latino voters before the November election. The 
     organization Voto Latino is sending volunteers to Mana and 
     Los Tigres del Norte concerts with an app that scans driver's 
     licenses and quickly registers new voters. The National 
     Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American 
     Citizens are once again staffing their long-running 
     registration campaigns.
       It's no secret why: ``The rule is no one can make it to the 
     White House without the Hispanic vote,'' said Univision 
     anchor Jorge Ramos.
       In the 1992 presidential election, Latinos cast 4.2 million 
     votes. By 2012, that number had nearly tripled, to 11.2 
     million. Now the Pew Research Center estimates that between 
     2012 and November 2016, 3.2 million U.S.-born Latino citizens 
     will turn 18 and be eligible to vote; another 1.2 million 
     Latino immigrants will become naturalized citizens.
       These numbers, however, obscure another trend: Since 1992, 
     voter registration rates among Latinos have remained stuck at 
     around 58%. By comparison, about three-quarters of whites and 
     blacks are registered voters. This is crucial, because once 
     Latinos register, they vote. About 82% of registered Latino 
     voters went to the polls in 2012, just five points below the 
     turnout of white registered voters.
       ``The principal problem is not voter turnout,'' concluded a 
     January report published by CNN en Espanol and the Center for 
     Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at City 
     University of New York. The report's author, Laird Bergad, 
     didn't see signs the registration rate would improve: ``There 
     is no reason to believe that this will change substantially 
     by 2016, despite many announced voter registration drives.''
       Of course, that was before Donald Trump emerged as the 
     Republican front-runner. His candidacy alone may increase 
     Latino voter registration this year. But to seal Trump's 
     fate, and to change the trajectory Bergad documented, 
     Univision, Voto Latino and the other groups should look 
     closely at history. One of the most successful voter 
     registration drives among Latinos occurred in East Los 
     Angeles nearly 70 years ago.
       In 1947, a Mexican American social worker named Edward 
     Roybal ran for Los Angeles City Council seeking to represent 
     the 9th District, which included Boyle Heights and downtown. 
     About a third of the district's residents were Latino, 
     Roybal's natural base. They were eligible to vote, but few 
     were registered. Roybal finished third in a field of five, 
     winning less than half the votes of incumbent Parley 
     Christensen.
       After the election, Roybal crossed paths with a community 
     organizer, Fred Ross, who worked for Saul Alinksy. Roybal and 
     Ross formed the Community Service Organization in Boyle 
     Heights, tackling neighborhood issues such as police 
     brutality and evictions. Voter registration was at the center 
     of their work.
       By the time Roybal ran for City Council again in 1949, the 
     CSO had turned Latinos into a powerful political force. 
     Roybal trounced Christensen in the 9th District, winning more 
     votes in Boyle Heights alone (12,684) than his opponent did 
     in the entire district (11,948). Roybal's final tally--20,562 
     votes--was a sixfold increase from two years earlier. He 
     became the first Spanish speaker on the City Council since 
     1881.
       The key to the CSO's success was a bottom up, face to face, 
     community-based campaign. Ross recruited volunteers who spent 
     night after night knocking on doors. They hosted organizing 
     meetings in their living rooms, where newcomers were signed 
     up to host the next meeting, inviting more friends and family 
     members. ``We can . . . we will . . . we must vote!'' read 
     one CSO flyer.
       Ross kept a 3x5 index card for each registered voter with a 
     Spanish surname. The collection grew to more than 10,000. He 
     tallied who was bringing in the most voters, male or female 
     volunteers. The local newspaper, El Pueblo, reported the 
     results: Three women registered more than 500 voters apiece, 
     but no one could touch Matt ``Cyclone'' Arguijos: 2,286 
     registered voters.
       The success in 1949 proved to be repeatable. In 1968, Ross 
     worked with volunteers from the United Farm Workers on 
     another East L.A. registration drive. They signed up 11,000 
     voters in 20 days in support of Robert F. Kennedy's 
     presidential campaign. One of those UFW volunteers was 
     Marshall Ganz, who would later help develop Barack Obama's 
     2008 field campaign.
       ``That was my school,'' Ganz says of Ross' East L.A. 
     efforts. ``That has always been my basic point of reference 
     for how you do grass-roots political work.'' It's not the 
     number of paid canvassers that matters most, Ganz adds, but 
     ``recruiting people from the community to do the work.''
       Canvassing Mana fans at the Forum, and recruiting 
     celebrities for PSAs, can't hurt in 2016. But Roybal and 
     Ross' success in Boyle Heights lends credence to common 
     sense: To empower Latinos, the community is key. It's great 
     to be able to tap a screen to register to vote. It's even 
     better to mobilize a neighborhood to knock on doors, app in 
     hand, until someone answers.

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