From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen)
Subject: Puerto Ricans Will Use Presidential Transition as 'Window of Opportunity'
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 07:15:17 GMT

Here is a press release from the National Puerto Rican Coalition.

 Puerto Ricans Will Use Presidential Transition as 'Window of
Opportunity' to Improve Treatment by Federal Government
 To: National Desk
 Contact: Edward Segal of Edward Segal Communications,
          202-333-7966

    /EDITORS: Puerto Ricans represent a significant portion
    of the population of 28 cities in eight Midwest and Northeast
    states, including New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania,
    New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Florida./

   WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 -- The National Puerto Rican Coalition 
said today the presidential transition during the next
four months is a rare "window of opportunity" to improve how
millions of Puerto Ricans will be treated by the federal government
for the next four years.
   Coalition President Louis Nunez said he expects Puerto Ricans,
"will have more allies to help fight for their best interests than
ever before," because Puerto Rican representation more than doubled
on the federal level after the last election.
   Nunez told a Washington news conference that Puerto Rican
leaders will use the presidential transition, "to chart and
implement a new course for the future of the Puerto Rican community
in the United States.  This transition is also an opportunity to
strengthen our continuing efforts for better education, health
care, and community economic development for the nearly 3 million
Puerto Ricans who live on the U.S. mainland."
   Nunez said he expects the new Clinton White House "will offer
millions of Puerto Ricans the first ray of hope for a better way of
life than they've had in more than a decade.  Now that the election
is over, perhaps Clinton will turn his attention to the plight of
the poor in our society."
   "Puerto Ricans are the most highly urbanized ethnic group in the
United States, and while American cities are not working for large
numbers of people, they have failed Puerto Ricans in a major way.
Now is the time during this presidential transition to focus
national attention on the problems facing Puerto Ricans, and to
encourage a national debate on what can be done to help our
people," he said.
   The Coalition also released today a preliminary report about
trends in the election of Puerto Rican officials to federal, state,
and local offices and a demographic profile of Puerto Ricans living
in the United States.
   Major findings of the election study include the following:
   -- There was a net increase of 16 percent (20 officials)
in the number of Puerto Ricans who were elected to federal,
state, and local offices in 1992.  The increase brings the total
number of elected Puerto Rican officials to 143.
   -- The five states that elected additional Puerto Rican
officials in November included New York (17 officials), Ohio (3),
California (2), Connecticut (1), and Illinois (1).
   Puerto Rican representation more than doubled on the federal
level.  Counting the resident commissioner, Puerto Ricans now
constitute 24 percent of the Hispanics in the House of
Representatives.  Island and mainland Puerto Ricans represent 24
percent of Hispanics in the United States.
   The demographic profile found, among other things, that:
   -- The number of Hispanics has increased five-fold since
1960, and will probably pass the black population to become
the largest minority population by the year 2010; and
   -- As the presence and influence of the Hispanic populations
continues to increase, so will that of the Puerto Rican population.
   Nunez said this influence is needed because, according to the
Census Bureau:
   -- Puerto Ricans, as an ethnic group, had a 39.4 percent poverty
rate in 1991, the highest for individuals in the nation;
   -- Puerto Ricans had the highest percentage of families living
under the poverty line in the nation in 1991 at 39.7 percent; and
   -- Puerto Ricans  had the highest percentage of children in
families living in poverty in 1991, at 57.7 percent.
   The news conference preceded the start tomorrow of a two-day
conference of 600 Puerto Rican leaders in Washington who will
discuss the anticipated impact of a Clinton White House on the
Puerto Rican community.,
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