Interest Groups
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus was organized in 1976 by five (5) Hispanic Congressmen: Herman Badillo (NY), Baltasar Corrada (PR), E. “Kika” de la Garza (TX), Henry B. Gonzalez (TX), and Edward Roybal (CA), to monitor legislative and other government activity that affects Hispanics.
The Caucus was originally formed to serve as a legislative organization through which legislative action, as well as executive and judicial actions, could be monitored to ensure that the needs of Hispanics were being met. The founders’ goal was to work in conjunction with other groups, both inside and outside Congress, to strengthen the Federal commitment to Hispanic citizens and heighten the Hispanic community’s awareness of the operation and function of the American political system.
It was the intention of these five (5) congressmen to develop educational programs and other activities that would increase the opportunities for Hispanics to participate in and contribute to the American political system. To carry out such programs, the Members of Congress established a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization. In 1978, the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHS) established a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to serve as an educational institute whose programs would serve the national Hispanic community.
The mission of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is to develop the nest generation of Latino leaders. Their vision is an educated and civically active Latino community who participates at the local, state, and federal policy decision-making levels. CHCI seeks to accomplish its mission by offering educational and leadership development programs, services, and activities that promote the growth of participants as effective professionals and strong leaders. In the spirit of building coalitions, CHCI seeks to establish partnerships with other Latino and non-Latino organizations.
Today the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc. has developed into an organization whose programs are designed to increase the participation of young Hispanics in both public and private sectors and to foster a network of young Hispanic leaders in government-related areas through the CHCI Alumni Association.
The first movement in history for the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States was during and after World War II. It launched the entire movement of Hispanic Civil Rights. It carried on from the 1940’s to present time. The movement started in west coast states like California, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to east coast states like Florida and New York. Many Latinos saw this as an opportunity to push for equal rights. They paid their taxes, blended into society, and volunteered or drafted in to the army. They felt they deserve equal votes, not to be discriminated, and hate crimes should be stopped. The movement pushed for a much fairer immigration reform, labor rights, and housing. They knew to fix this issue; they had to be involved
The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America is a book written by Mario T. Garcia. This book tells the individual life stories of individual Latino Americans all attending the same class at University of California, Santa Barbra. The book discloses stories and events told by 13 students each who narrate from first person and give us a brief description of their life. The book is composed of 13 sections with an additional introduction and conclusion (Garcia, Kindle). Within this reflection I will describe the key points within this book and compare the stories within this book not only to each other, but also to additional stories of Latino Americans and how Garcia’s book rids the general public of misconception of Latinos.
The La Raza Unida Party began in the 1960’s as a social movement in the small South Texas town of Crystal City. Although Mexican Americans made up the majority of the population at 85% they had very little clout within the political landscape, which was dominated by Anglos. The Mexican Americans experienced no political representation and many were denied the right to vote because they didn’t speak or read English and many could not afford the poll taxes. The discrimination experienced by the Mexican Americans in this small town was comparable to the discrimination of African Americans in the Deep South, yet the brave Mexican’s in Crystal City, Texas chose to band together to generate change, awareness, and hope in creating new perspectives with respect to politics.
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
Immigration Battle helped me comprehend the importance of immigration reform and how it substantially “died”. As a Mexican-American, I can fully grasp the frustration undocumented and advocates of immigration claim towards Congress. Passing an immigration bill is influential to us all to establish a common ground within humanity. With every year that proceeds, Latinos expand in numbers, influencing the electoral vote. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez might have given up on the legislation to modulate immigration; however, he has not given up on establishing a pathway for undocumented foreigners to become citizens of the Unites States of
Latinos In Action is an organization supported by the White House Initiative that focuses on empowering Latino youth to become leaders and conducting community service projects. This program originated in Utah, but was introduced to my high school at the end of my sophomore year, when a representative came to speak about the program. I was immediately engulfed and infatuated with everything that Latinos
These new immigrants brought new traditions, a foreign language to the United States, but also ideological diversity. People like Jose Marti fought for Cuban independence from U.S. shores, Luisa Capetillo and later Luisa Moreno fought for labor and women’s rights, and organizations like the League of United States Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and El Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española (the Spanish-Speaking People’s Congress) organized Spanish-speaking people to try to harness their political power more effectively, giving Spanish speaking communities a vo...
It is in the solving of social problems in which Hispanics can be of tremendous service to the country. One of the greatest attributes of hispanics is the willingness to mix, and by doing so, have created cultural forms, new human relationships, and life styles. Because this, Hispanics can help look for solutions to barriers, prejudices, and stereotypes that have divided us as a
In this installment of Harvest of Empire, we reach the third and final chapter named La Cosecha which shows the impact of Latinos in politics. Though, the two previous sections were interesting due to learning history and the history of Gonzalez himself, in this section we learn of the triumphs and downfalls of communities that were aren’t made aware of in modern textbooks or in classrooms. In Chapter 10, we are knowledgeable that the Latino vote has not only increased by sky-rocketed from the years 1976 to 2008. The revolution has been in the works since post World War II although it’s not commonly known as other legacies throughout the United States. As the years later progressed, the United States saw the rise of major radical groups such
Delgado, Richard and Stefancic Jean. “The Shape of the Latino Group: Who Are We and What
The people of Latino ethnicity influence education, communications, media and history in America. It is an essential contribution given by the population in many areas that affect every American in some way shape or form. “This emerging generation tends to be bilingual and bicultural. By 2050, about one third of the U.S. population is expected to be Latino. With those rising numbers comes more influence. Fernand Amandi is a principal with Bendixen & Amandi, a research and communications firm specializing in the U.S. Hispanic market (Morning Edition 1).” In society, there has been many Latinos from the world of entertainment, politics, and society to make historically influences. Such influences have come from people like Pope Francis, Carlos Slim, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Sonia Sotomayor. These are prime example of well recognized Hispanics who have changed
Kanellos, Nicolás, Felix M- Padilla, and Claudio Esteva Fabregat, eds. Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: Sociology. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1994. Print.
...ife, giving spiritual meaning to the Hispanic culture. I feel that is one of the Hispanic’s group strong point is the balance of spiritually and how it important to the family way of life.
The Latino and Hispanic culture has many differences that truly make it unique. This culture is compiled of people living in the United States but have lineage from Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and El Salvador, and other Latin American countries (Sue & Sue, 2007). The terms Hispanic and Latino tend to be used interchangeably in the United States for people with origins in Spanish-speaking or Portuguese-speaking countries, like Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Contrary to many beliefs, Hispanic is not a race, but an ethnicity. Hispanic is a term created by the U.S. federal government in the early 1970s in an attempt to provide a common denominator to a large, but diverse, population with connection to the Spanish language or culture from a Spanish-speaking country ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). It is imperative to be mindful of the distinctive differences that exist within the sub-groups and between the different groups. Similarly, to the African American culture it is important to know the history of the culture.
...ocal nonprofit organizations have the potential to amplify their outreach to colleges, and young people in general, through matching passions with skills. You as organizations need to purposefully identify for us why promoting service and civic engagement is not only important, but necessary if we want to improve our lives, the lives of others, and the dilemmas and misfortunes our world faces every day.