[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNIZING MR. ANTONIO GONZALEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOAQUIN CASTRO

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 20, 2018

  Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. 
Antonio Gonzalez, who passed away on November 11, 2018. Mr. Gonzalez 
hailed from my hometown of San Antonio, and shared his life with his 
wife of 26 years, Alma Martinez, and their two daughters Ysabel and 
Sara. He will be greatly missed.
  Mr. Gonzalez was born in Norwalk, California on December 17, 1956, 
and put great emphasis on his education. Mr. Gonzalez completed 
undergraduate coursework at the University of California San Diego from 
1975 to 1977, completed graduate coursework in Latin American History 
at the University of California Berkeley from 1981 to 1982, and 
graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio where her studied 
American history.
  Mr. Gonzalez has been a longstanding advocate for the 
underrepresented and the less fortunate.
  Throughout his career, he was a champion of voter and minority 
rights, building relationships with Latino communities throughout 
Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, El Salvador, and Haiti.
  In 1994, Mr. Gonzalez also assumed the presidency of the William C. 
Velasquez Institute (WCVI), a nonpartisan national Latino public policy 
and research nonprofit organization, and the Southwest Voter 
Registration Education Project (SVREP), the oldest non-partisan Latino 
voter participation organization in the U.S. During his tenure, Mr. 
Gonzalez conducted extensive survey research on Latino voter behavior, 
Latino voter mobilization, and helped triple Latino voter registration 
from 5.4 million in 1994 to 15.3 million in 2016. With the help of 
WCVI, Mr. Gonzalez founded the National Latino Congreso in 2006 where 
thousands of Latino Organizations meet annually.
  Mr. Gonzalez was also a fierce advocate for equal representation 
under the law. Mr. Gonzalez led SVREP in protecting Latino voting 
against suppressive ``Voter ID'' laws in Texas and Arizona. From 2015 
to 2017, Mr. Gonzalez led a successful campaign which resulted in more 
than 50 California school boards and cities to replace their outdated 
election systems with ``single member'' district election systems.
  From 2004 to 2016, Mr. Gonzalez hosted a weekly radio show on 
Pacifica's KPFK in Los Angeles called ``Strategy Session with Antonio 
Gonzalez,'' and steered a nonpartisan coalition of 55 organizations 
during the Los Angeles City Mayoral election that resulted in the first 
Latino Mayor in America's 2nd largest city.
  With the passing of Mr. Antonio Gonzalez, we have truly lost a pillar 
in the Latino community and a beacon of home in our nation. Mr. 
Gonzalez's legacy will leave a lasting impact for many years to come, 
and his lifelong dedication changed the lives of San Antonioans, 
Texans, and people around the world.

                          ____________________