Time for Latinos to Help Latinos, Vasquez Says

While government can help, the Latino community must look to itself to solve the serious problems facing Latino youth, Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez told a congressional panel Monday.

“There is a great desire in the Hispanic community to succeed. . . . But we must awaken and nurture that desire and we must start today,” Vasquez, 34, told members of the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families during a Capitol Hill hearing on problems facing Latino youngsters and their parents.

“I am convinced that we cannot solve the problems of the Hispanic community through government support alone,” said the conservative Republican supervisor, who won national attention last summer when he addressed the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

“At some point, citizens have to step forward. I would like to propose that it is time for Hispanics to help other Hispanics,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez was among 10 witnesses who discussed poverty, illiteracy, poor health care and other challenges facing Latino children, who were identified by the committee as “the fastest-growing single population group in the country.”

Of the 42,000 babies born last year in Orange County, 23% were Latino, Vasquez noted. A third of all Orange County schoolchildren are of Latino origin, he added. “The demographics of Orange County are changing,” Vasquez said in an interview after his testimony. “Whether some people like it or not, they are changing.”

Vasquez and several others who testified cited a 35% national dropout rate among Latino students as the single most serious problem facing Latino parents and youth. In a report released last week, U.S. Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos referred to the figure as “a national tragedy,” and added that of those who dropped out of school, one-third had completed no more than six years of education.

“I am deeply distressed by the high Hispanic dropout rate and concerned that a lack of interest in education will inevitably shackle Hispanics to low-paying jobs and lower standards of living,” Vasquez testified.

Chaired by California Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the committee is considering ways to combat problems that Miller said “endanger these children’s chances of filling important jobs which are essential for the economic growth and prosperity of this nation.”

Among the committee members is Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), whose district includes southern Orange County. Packard introduced Vasquez to his colleagues, referring to his fellow Republican as “one of the stars for us” in Orange County.

“What I am suggesting,” Vasquez told the committee, “is a concerted effort to foster and promote positive role models to Hispanic youth. . . . Successful Hispanic men and women can give our youth the tools to break the bonds of poverty and the courage to achieve their personal vision of the American dream.”

Latinos in Orange County already have taken that initiative, Vasquez told the committee. Among the efforts he cited are:

* A “campus mentor” program in which 145 Orange County judges, lawyers, health care professionals and others work with students in classrooms to persuade them to stay in school and forsake gangs and drugs. Under the leadership of Superior Court Judge Manuel A. Ramirez and former Dallas Cowboys place-kicker Efren Herrera, the group in the past two years has raised $82,000 to provide scholarships to 40 students, Vasquez said.

* The Santa Ana-Fullerton Elementary Mathematics Project, a federally funded partnership between the Santa Ana Unified School District, where the enrollment is 78% Latino, and Cal State Fullerton. As part of the project, the school district has created a “family math” program in which parents are encouraged to come to elementary schools in the evenings to learn more about their children’s education.

* The Latino American Commitment to Education Resources Foundation, created two years ago in Texas and New Mexico by officials of the McDonald’s fast-food chain and their franchise owners. Recently, a new branch of the foundation was formed in Southern California to benefit talented Latino students.

Government, Vasquez said, should concentrate its efforts on recognizing and encouraging those private groups and citizens who have proven themselves and their programs in the fight to keep Latino youth in school.

Vasquez said he will meet today with Lee Atwater, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Jack Kemp, secretary of housing and urban development, before returning to Orange County. The supervisor said he will discuss housing issues with Kemp but turned aside questions about the agenda for his meeting with Atwater.