# **FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani**

# **Remarks**

**At Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Latino Vote '99**

**San Antonio, TX**

**May 21, 1999**

***(as prepared for delivery)***

Good evening. Buenas noches. I am delighted and honored to join you in
celebrating Southwest Voter Registration Education Project's 25^th^
Anniversary and Latino Vote '99 Conference. I'm particularly delighted
because being here in San Antonio I am a little bit closer to my home
state of New Mexico.

I believe it is very fitting that we celebrate SVREP's accomplishments -
registering over 2,000,000 Latinos to vote; training organizers, young
leaders and candidates to run for political office; successfully
litigating voting right law suits; organizing getting out the vote
drives throughout the Southwest---you all know the history better than
I. And all these accomplishments the product of the vision of Willy
Velazquez who recognized early on that Latinos in this country can only
become empowered if they exercise their fundamental right to vote. SU
VOTO ES SU VOZ.

Y QUE VOZ PODEROSA. Indeed, it is truly remarkable that because of the
phenomenal growth in Latino voter registration, particularly in states
with large electoral blocks like California and Texas, the political
pundits and the two main political parties have recognized that the
Latino vote may determine who wins the year 2000 presidential election.
As Tim Chavez, in a Tennessee newspaper put it, "Hispanics are hotter
than the green salsa at the neighborhood Mexican restaurant." Imagine,
we Latinos deciding whom the President for the new millennium will be.
QUE VOZ PODEROSA.

We need to be reminded, however, that this is not the first time that
the presidential campaigns have taken notice of the power of the
Hispanic vote. Some of you may remember the Viva Kennedy campaign in the
Southwest. I was very young at the time, but I remember it because of my
grandfather, the late U.S. Senator Dennis Chavez, who represented New
Mexico for over 32 years in the Congress until his death in 1962. My
grandfather was co-chairman, together with Henry B. Gonzalez of the Viva
Kennedy Clubs. He campaigned tirelessly through the valley here in Texas
and in Southern California.

I am told he started in San Antonio and ended up in El Paso at a huge
rally for Kennedy and Johnson. My grandfather, accompanied by his wife
Imelda, attended many rallies and events. I am also told he campaigned
just like he did in Northern New Mexico, taking time to visit with
families at their homes and share some chile, beans and menudo. And I've
read that the Viva Kennedy Club's get out the vote effort proved
critical to Kennedy's victory in Texas. Some precincts in El Paso went
100% for Kennedy. So, Latinos here in Texas already have left a huge
mark in presidential elections. And you are to be celebrated for your
continued efforts in empowering Latinos through their right to vote.

While we are on the subject of voting, getting out the vote and
registering voters, I'd like to briefly touch on the promise that the
Internet holds in this area from my perspective as a Federal
Communications Commissioner. Many jurisdictions are already
experimenting with both the concept of registering voters over the
Internet, and actually casting votes on-line. The efforts are still very
embryonic because of many obstacles and concerns. In most jurisdictions,
voter registration requires a signature. In many instances, electronic
signatures are not sufficiently developed to satisfy the statutory
signature requirements or statutes would have to be changed to permit
electronic signatures. As regards voting on-line, there are many
concerns including developing appropriate verification procedures and
the potential for voter fraud.

Despite the concerns, I can report that the Department of Defense is
experimenting with five counties in seven states so that some military
personnel stationed oversees can cast their votes electronically in the
next presidential election. I can also report that in 1997 Astronaut
David Wolf, while whirling through space at 18,000 mph in the Russian
space station Mir, was the first American to cast his vote over the
Internet by laptop computer. Now that's real absentee voting!

Despite the obstacles, I am confident that on-line voting may become a
reality in my lifetime. Indeed, 43% of the respondents in a recent poll
believe it is likely they would be voting electronically from their
homes or offices within 20 years. I also believe the Internet is a vital
new outlet for our democratic process. It is a forum for promoting
discussion of issues and campaigns. And the Internet is also
facilitating gathering information for candidates.

I'd like to shift from the fundamental right to vote to another
fundamental right. A right that we Latinos recognize as critical to the
future of our familias and our children -- the right to an education.
SVREP 's exit polls in California and Texas in the 1998 election showed
that Latinos identified education as key for determining their vote for
governor. And just as I learned about the importance of the vote from my
grandfather, I learned from him the importance of education.

Dennis Chavez was a wonderful person and he continues to be a great
inspiration to me and many others. You may not know that my grandfather
had to leave school after the 7^th^ grade to go to work to help his
family. He didn't go to high school or college, but educated himself by
reading at the public library in Albuquerque. He did go to law school
later in his life by passing a special examination. But because he
lacked formal schooling, he placed a special value on education and
books. That's why he helped many New Mexicans go to law school in
Washington, D.C. (that's when New Mexico had no law school) by finding
them jobs so they could afford to go to school. My favorite story that
I've heard from some of those students is that my grandfather required
them to show him their report cards on a regular basis!

So I learned from my grandfather to value education, but I was also
extremely fortunate to have excellent educational opportunities. And it
was those opportunities that paved the way for my success as a woman and
Latina in the political and governmental world. I could not be where I
am today without an excellent education.

But not everyone is so fortunate. Not everyone, as we know much too
well, has access to libraries or to excellent schools. Not everyone has
opportunities. And our Latino community and our Latino children, despite
notable progress, still lag too far behind in enjoying opportunities to
excellence in education. Latinos are still too far behind in access to
this fundamental civil right. The notion that education is a fundamental
right is at least as old as our country. Adam Smith described education
in 1776 as a basic civil right, suggesting in [The Wealth of
Nations]{.underline} *that a person "without the proper use of the
intellectual faculties" was stunted in their human development.*

Today, our Latino youth is lagging behind in having access to the new
and modern world of information provided through the Internet. Latino
families at most income levels are behind in ownership of computers and
Internet access as compared to non-Latino white families. According to
Department of Commerce figures, the percentage of Latino households with
computers is 19.4%, as compared to 40.8% for white non-Latino
households. The percentage of Latino households on-line is 8.7%,
compared to 21.2% for white non-Latino households.

That is why I am so proud of the work we have done at the Federal
Communications Commission to close the gap for Latinos by connecting our
schools and libraries, but particularly our neediest schools, to the
information superhighway. The FCC's schools and libraries program,
better known as the e-rate, was designed to get all classrooms in
America hooked up to the Internet. In an ideal world, we would have
funded all schools, but for political reasons we had to scale back the
size of our program. We then decided we had to fund the neediest schools
first. Because most of our Hispanic youth are enrolled in the neediest
schools, our Hispanic youth will soon reap the benefits of the schools
and libraries program. I am happy to report that schools in states with
significant numbers of Hispanic youth -- such as Arizona, California,
Illinois, Florida, New Mexico, New York, Texas, and Puerto Rico --
received a total of nearly \$729 million dollars in e-rate funding. And
here in Texas, you received close to \$129,000,000 million dollars in
e-rate funding.

But why is access to the Internet so important? I am not an educator,
but I can tell you that I see the Internet as many things. It is the
modern town plaza \-- a place to do business; a place to communicate
with family and friends. It is this ever vast and limitless library. As
I've mentioned, it is a forum for the democratic process. It is the
modern tool for knowledge and communications. All of our children,
including our Latino children, must have equal access to this new world
of information technology and information services so that they can
succeed and be productive in the 21^st^ century. They cannot be denied
this fundamental right.

That's why I want to ask your help as the FCC sets the e-rate funding
levels for the next school year. Next week, I will be voting for funding
the e-rate at its cap of \$2.25 billion dollars so that the more than
32,000 school districts, schools and libraries that have applied can
continue to reap the benefits. While many in the Congress strongly back
the e-rate, there are some who would significantly scale back or do away
with the program altogether. If you believe it is good for all of our
children, including our Latino children, to better prepare them for the
next millennium, please make your voices heard with your elected
representatives. SU VOTO ES SU VOZ.

On a final note, with the expansion of the Internet and its greater
reach to our Latino children, we need to recognize the perils of the
Internet. As parents and as community leaders we need to ensure that our
children are safe from criminals and predators on-line. I was recently
appointed Chair of the FCC's V-Chip Task Force. The V-Chip is the term
we use for the computer technology that parents can use to block
television programs they feel are unsuitable for their children. On July
1, half of all new TV sets will have the V-Chip and January 1, 2000 all
TV sets will have V-Chips. I encourage you to become acquainted with the
V-Chip technology that will help us safeguard all of our children.

Thank you for inviting me to be with you tonight. Muchisimas gracias.