[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book II)]
[September 15, 2004]
[Pages 2061-2064]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Hispanic Heritage Month Reception
September 15, 2004

    Thank you all for coming. Bienvenidos a la Casa Blanca. [Laughter] 
Thanks for coming. Laura and I are thrilled to have you here. We welcome 
you to the--to observe Hispanic Heritage Month. What a performance. 
Thank you all very much. It was spectacular.
    This is the month we celebrate great contributions of Latinos to our 
country. It's a special month. It really echoes our diversity and the 
strength of our great democracy. I spend a lot of time talking about the 
transformational power of liberty, reminding people that liberty has got 
an incredible way of taking diverse people and uniting them into one 
common purpose--pais, a great land. That's why we believe democracy has 
a place in our own neighborhood. We believe that liberty is important in 
countries throughout our hemisphere. We believe in human dignity and 
human rights, the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity. And that's 
best achieved through liberty.
    That's why we're working to advance liberty in the greater Middle 
East. We believe all people desire to be free. We believe that 
inherently in the soul of men and women is this desire to live in free 
societies. It's worked here in America. It can work everywhere. Think 
about our country. We're such a diverse land with different cultures all 
bound together in this great country because of freedom.
    You know, recently I talked to President Putin of Russia. I told him this country mourns the loss 
of life as a result of the terrorist attacks, the terrorist attack on 
the school. I told him we stand shoulder to shoulder with them in 
fighting terror, that we abhor men who kill innocent children to try to 
achieve a dark vision. I'm also concerned about the decisions that are 
being made in Russia that could undermine democracy in Russia, that 
great countries, great democracies have a balance of power between 
central government and local governments, a balance of power within 
central governments between the executive branch and the legislative 
branch and the judicial branch. As governments fight the enemies of 
democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy.
    I also want to say something, as we gather, about Hurricane Ivan. I 
talked to the Governors of Mississippi and 
Alabama and Louisiana, tambien mi hermano, el Gobernador de Florida. I 
told him the people of this country--I told all 
four Governors the people of this country are praying for their safety. 
We pray that the storm passes as quickly as possible without any loss of 
life or loss of property, and that--I told them that the Government is 
ready to help.
    I appreciate Hector. I want to 
thank you for your service. I appreciate Secretary Evans and Secretary Chao, members of 
my Cabinet who have joined us today. I'm proud of your work.
    We've got Ambassadors here. This is an important month, by the way, 
and we're tracking a lot of big shots. [Laughter] Hans Hertell is with us. Hans, thanks for coming. He's the 
Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, mi amigo.
    Gaddi Vasquez, who's the Director of 
the Peace Corps. Roger Noriega is Assistant 
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Eduardo 
Aguirre is the Director of the U.S. 
Citizenship and Immigration Services. Al Gonzales is my lawyer. [Laughter] He is the White House Counsel to 
the President. Ruben Barrales is the Director 
of Intergovernmental Affairs. I'm naming people that work in my 
administration. I think it's important to promote a diverse 
administration, to welcome all cultures, and we're better for it here in 
Washington. And I want to thank them for their service.

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    I want to thank the Embajador 
de Colombia y tambien de Mexico y el nuevo Embajador de Espana. 
Welcome today to the White House 
for the credentialing ceremony. I want to thank the three Ambassadors 
for coming. Welcome. Bienvenidos.
    I want to thank the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee for 
the United States Senate, Chairman Lugar--great man--Senator 
Lugar from the great State of Indiana. I 
also appreciate Congressmen Weller, Diaz-Balart 
de Florida, y tambien Steve Pearce from New 
Mexico. Thank you all for coming. Proud you're here.
    Brian Sandoval, donde esta? Anyway, he's 
here somewhere. He got a lousy seat--[laughter]--or no seat at all. 
[Laughter]
    Marcos, thanks for your prayer. It was 
beautiful. Welcome. Tell everybody at home hello. That would be Houston, 
is where he lives. And Laura and I are Tejanos.
    I want to thank Joaquin. Thank you very 
much. It was a spectacular performance. What a great athlete and an 
artist. Thank you guys. Your buddies brought out the best in you. It was 
really great. Thanks. Myrka--thanks for coming, Myrka. Gracias.
    I want to thank Emilio. Appreciate you 
coming. El amigo de mi familia, Gustavo Cisneros. Esta aqui. Gracias, Gustavo, welcome. Jimmy, thanks for coming--Jimmy Smits, proud you're here. 
Elizabeth Vargas is with us. I'm proud she 
is here. I want to thank Alex Wallau from ABC 
Television for coming with us.
    Eliseo--we've got some soccer stars? Where are they? Donde esta los 
soccer stars? Well, they're somewhere. Oh, there they are, yes. The 
three stars, Eliseo, Marco, y Amado. Thank you for 
coming. So how is the team this year, pretty good? Yes? No hablas 
Ingles. [Laughter] Eliseo is from El Salvador. Marco, que pais? Bolivia. 
Amado is from Honduras. Bienvenidos. Good luck in the season.
    I want to thank members of the Hispanic Organization who are here 
today.
    I do want to make special mention of the fact that Judge Reynaldo 
Garza of Brownsville, Texas, passed away this week. He was 89 years old. 
In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Judge Garza to the district court 
in Texas. Judge Garza was one of the first 
Hispanic Federal judges in America. He's a great Texan. Those of us who 
are from Texas were proud to say, ``We're both Texans.'' He was the son 
of Mexican immigrants. He was a shining example of the American Dream. 
He was a good man, and he made this country a better place, and we honor 
his memory today.
    People often talk about the Latino culture. Here's how I'd like to 
describe it: faith in God, commitment to family, and love of country. In 
this moment in our history, America is defending--depending on the 
unselfish dedication of patriots. Today, there are almost 200,000 
Hispanic Americans serving in the Armed Forces. Eight of these 
incredibly brave men and women are with us today. I want to thank you 
all for coming. Thank you for wearing the uniform.
    Latinos have contributed to the defense of freedom abroad and to the 
advance of freedom inside our own country. This afternoon, Laura and I were honored to meet members of an Hispanic 
American family who struggled against discrimination and won a victory 
for all in this country. We welcome Sylvia and 
Gonzalo and Jerome 
and Sandra Mendez with us. Bienvenidos. Let me 
tell you their story. I think you'll find it so incredibly American and 
so uplifting.
    Sixty years ago, their parents, Gonzalo y Felicitas Mendez, tried to 
enroll their children as students in a mostly white elementary school 
closest to their house in Westminister, California. That was 60 years 
ago. Unfortunately, in those days, America had a--our vision wasn't as 
clear as it should be. They were turned away from that school, and they 
went to an older barrio school. I'm told it was a rickety,

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wooden building bordered by an electric cattle fence. The mom and dad 
didn't like it. They didn't like their children being treated that way. 
They loved their children. And so they--and so the dad saved his money, 
1945, and he went into a Federal court to sue with four other families 
for equality and fairness. That's 1945.
    He said, ``I'm just doing this for my children.'' What he really 
meant to say was, ``I'm just doing this for every child.'' He was 
fighting so that everyone in this country has a chance to realize the 
American Dream.
    A lawyer named Thurgood Marshall filed a friend of the court brief 
in the lawsuit, and the Mendez family won their case. Their effects 
reached far beyond a single neighborhood school. Inspired by the Mendez 
decision, Governor Earl Warren signed an order desegregating all the 
schools of California. Five years later, Thurgood Marshall would use the 
same arguments against segregation when he argued Brown versus Board of 
Education. And Earl Warren, who had become Chief Justice, would write 
the Supreme Court opinion that ended segregation in schools across 
America.
    Today we honor your family and your mom and dad.
    When Laura and I were taking our picture, one 
of the beautiful girls said--women said the No Child Left Behind Act is 
great. It's in the spirit of the Mendez family that the No Child Left 
Behind Act is flourishing, because we're fighting against another kind 
of discrimination in that act. It's called the soft bigotry of low 
expectations. We should never allow a system to exist in where they walk 
into a classroom and say, ``This child can't read because of the color 
of their skin.'' You can't condemn somebody to failure because their 
parents don't speak English as a first language. That's not what we 
stand for here in America.
    And so the laws we passed with Republican and Democrat help are 
challenging that soft bigotry of low expectation. We believe every child 
can learn. We want to know if every child can read and write and add and 
subtract early, before it's too late. We're going to stop this business 
about just shuffling children through the school, year after year, 
without learning the basics. We'll correct problems now. We're raising 
the bar. No dejamos a ningun nino atras. No child will be left behind in 
America.
    Recently, I talked about a school in Georgia, northeast Georgia, 
called Gainesville Elementary School. It's mostly Hispanic, mostly poor. 
It's the kind of school where people just say, ``Well, gosh, these kids 
can't learn. Give up. Move them through.'' This year, 90 percent of the 
students passed the State tests in reading and math. That's a fantastic 
statistic, isn't it?
    We wouldn't know if we didn't measure. We wouldn't know if we didn't 
ask the questions about whether a child can read and write and add and 
subtract. We wouldn't know if we didn't correct problems early, before 
they're too late. And fortunately, the school has got a 
principal that has challenged the soft 
bigotry of low expectations. Here's what he said: ``We don't focus on 
what we can't do at this school. We focus on what we can do. We do 
whatever it takes to get the kids across the finish line.''
    That's what we're going to do here in this country. As we celebrate 
this important month, our mission, our goal, our deepest desire is for 
every child--every child--including those whose parents don't speak 
English as a first language, to be able to realize the promise of this 
country by making sure the public schools have high standards in 
excellence in every classroom. And that's what we're going to do.
    As we celebrate this important month, we also need to celebrate 
ownership, because that's part of the American experience. We want more 
people owning their own home. I think there's nothing better than people 
opening up the door where they live and saying, ``Welcome to my

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home.'' ``Bienvenidos a mi casa.'' [Laughter] ``Thanks for coming to my 
piece of property.'' And we must be dedicated to the proposition that 
ownership ought to extend to every neighborhood and every group.
    I set a goal to have 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end 
of this decade. And we're on track to meet the goal--1.6 million new 
minority homeowners bought homes in the last 2 years. It's a fantastic 
statistic, I think. I think it's part of helping bring hope into 
people's families.
    Also I'd like to talk about entrepreneurship. I mean, the Latino 
community is entrepreneurial. I mean, you talk about small-business 
owners who have got vision and drive and desire, sit down with Latino 
businessowners. They have a great sense of business and balance sheet 
and, as importantly, a great desire to own their own business. And one 
of the most hopeful aspects of our society today is the number of 
Hispanic-owned businesses that thrive throughout America. I love it when 
I meet an Hispanic entrepreneur, particularly somebody who came up with 
an idea at their kitchen table and said, ``I want to own something. I 
want to own my business.'' And now they're employing people. Seventy 
percent of new jobs in America are created by small businesses. Think 
about that. And the role of Government is to encourage the expansion of 
small-business opportunity and entrepreneurship through every society, 
every part of our society. And we're doing just that in America, and our 
country is better for it.
    Listen, we're a diverse nation, but there are things that bind us, 
our love of freedom, our belief in God, our understanding of the 
importance of family, our desire to realize dreams, the deep desire for 
people to live in a free society. I'm proud of your heritage. I'm proud 
of the ancestry. I'm proud to call Latinos Americans, and I'm proud to 
be your President.
    God bless, and welcome to the White House.

Note: The President spoke at 3:37 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Vladimir Putin of 
Russia; Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi; Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama; 
Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana; Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; 
Hector V. Barreto, Administrator, Small Business Administration; Luis 
Alberto Moreno Mejia, Colombia's Ambassador to the United States; Carlos 
Alberto De Icaza, Mexico's Ambassador to the United States; Carlos 
Westendorp y Cabeza, Spain's Ambassador to the United States; Nevada 
State Attorney General Brian Sandoval; entertainers Marcos Witt, Joaquin 
Cortes, and Emilio Estefan; actor Jimmy Smits; television personality 
Myrka Dellanos; Elizabeth Vargas, reporter, and Alex Wallau, president, 
ABC Television Network; professional soccer players Eliseo Quintanilla, 
Marco Etcheverry, and Amado Guevara; and Shawn McCollough, principal, 
Gainesville Elementary School. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks. The National 
Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation of September 17 is listed in 
Appendix D at the end of this volume.