Columbia Professor Probes Impact of Latino Vote w he N aM er iCa Ns Ca st their ballots each Election Day, Rodolfo de la Garza always pays particular attention to the results for the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population: Latinos. As the Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science at Columbia University, Garza spoke on Analysis and Overview of the Latino Vote at Manhattan College during the run-up to the election this past September. “When we think about all the propaganda out there that Latinos are going to be influential [in the election], you have to put this into the equation: they register less and they vote less,” Garza said. Such trends apply to Latinos of all ages and levels of education. Garza dispelled such myths about the strength of the Latino vote with data from the 2004 election and a closer look at states with high numbers of this group, most notably New Mexico, where Latinos have the greatest concentrated voting presence. In the 2004 election, the Republicans won New Mexico, despite the Democrats’ appeal to immigrant groups. To make his point, he said, “If you double the Latino turnout in New Mexico using 2004 data, the Republicans still win.”
Christian Brother Reveals Work of Lasallians in the East t h e 17t h l a sallia N Convocation took the College community on a metaphoric trip to the Middle East. Brother Austin David Carroll, undersecretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, drew from his experience to provide listeners with an understanding of how Lasallian education impacts some of the most embattled parts of the globe. He began his lecture, La Salle in the East: Educating for Justice and Peace, by describing the challenges faced by Catholic educators in hostile parts of the world, where Christian populations are dwindling. “You don’t have peace if you don’t have justice,” he said. Br. Carroll described the work of Lasallian educators throughout the East as “evangelization,” by which he meant a longer-term investment in the people and communities that model justice and peace. For their part, the
Brothers are working to not only maintain a Christian presence but also to evangelize through schools, alleviate human suffering and provide for the economic survival of the poor. Pointing to Bethlehem University as the “exemplar of evangelization,” Br. Carroll described the difficulties posed by the university’s location in the birthplace of Christ in Palestinian territory. Students have difficulties just getting to class through Israeli checkpoints, and administrators are restrained from raising tuition, currently around $410 a year, by Palestinian National Authority policy. One-third of the institution’s students are Christian, and two-thirds are Muslim. “Education has two sides. Do you teach people to hate or do you develop the whole person?” he said. “As Lasallians, we try to make them the best person they can be.”
Times Reporter Talks About Community Issues a s t h e eyes a ND ear s of the city, New York Times reporter David Gonzalez does what he considers to be his civic duty: spark discussion of issues that are important to local residents. A keynote speaker for Hispanic Heritage Month in October at Manhattan College, Gonzalez talked about how his upbringing in a working class section of the Bronx has influenced his work. “When you talk about the Bronx, you have to talk about its Latino population,” said Gonzalez, whose Puerto Rican parents worked multiple jobs to send him to Catholic school.
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For Gonzalez, a typical week on the job is rarely dull. He might go to Bushwick in Brooklyn to find out how the influx of hipsters has caused prices to go up, or visit after-school programs to investigate budget cuts. “People are gorging on trifles like Paris or Britney and not paying attention to what’s going on in their communities,” Gonzalez said. “I spend my time writing about the people, places and issues that make up New York City.”
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4/30/09 9:16:52 AM