This is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating Latino communities across the Southwest about the democratic process, the importance of voter registration, and voter participation. The core of its mission is to politically empower Latinos by increasing civic engagement in the American electoral system. The number of Latino elected officials has also increased from 1,500 to 5,000 nationwide. The goal of the Latino Vote 2000 campaign is to raise Latino civic participation in this election to 8 million registered voters with 6 million votes cast. This dinner brought together more than 300 Latino leaders from throughout the San Diego area to discuss upcoming activities and plans to register Latino voters.
Civic participation is essential to a full-functioning democracy.
Throughout my life, I have always supported civic participation and have worked to end disenfranchisement of all minority groups in our country. Long before my days on the San Diego School Board, the City Council and the United States House of Representatives, I participated in the civil rights movement. In 1961, I rode through Mississippi as a Freedom Rider-working to end the racial segregation that was dividing our nation. I urge the Latino community to take this historic opportunity afforded by the importance of upcoming elections to secure its place in our democratic process. In the words of civil rights hero Cesar Chavez, the day will come when the politicians do the right thing by our people out of political necessity and not out of charity or idealism.