An Interview With Congressman Charles Gonzalez On The Voting Rights Act
When the Voting Rights Act was still on track to be re-authorized by Memorial Day, I asked Congressman Charles “Charlie” Gonzalez (D-San Antonio), who represents Texas’ 20th Congressional District, if he’d take part in a Q&A Interview on the VRA, in particular because I thought it would be interesting to hear from a Hispanic member of Congress from Texas on this issue.
Rep. Gonzalez was only too happy to participate and below is the Q&A I did with him via email (with scheduling help from the Michael Kans on the Congressman’s staff).
This may look a bit lengthy, but it’s more my long-winded questions. Rep. Gonzalez’s answers are very interesting, especially for younger blog readers who may not understand the Latino voting experience in South Texas. I learned some things in doing this from Rep. Gonzalez including about White v. Regester, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down old “single member” districts in the Texas House.
I truly hope you all enjoy this interview. Because it is long, it jumps, so click on the “more” link.
CAPITOL ANNEX: Rep. Gonzalez, thank you for taking the time to do a Q&A for Capitol Annex. I wanted to discuss with you the Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, which is an issue that is on a lot of peoples’ minds right now. In the press release of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Civil Rights Task Force, which you Chair, sent out last week, you are quoted as saying: “The protections granted by the VRA have been recognized, valued and renewed by leaders from both parties for decades. I look forward to continuing the bi-partisan commitment to civil rights that has driven the renewal of the VRA over the last four decades.” This week, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee failed to strip some of the language from the VRA that requires or facilitates the printing of bilingual ballots. What are your thoughts on this issue and the attempt by some to strip this out of the Act?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: It was disappointing to see elements of the far right try to undermine a bill that enjoys broad bi-partisan support. When was the last time you saw Speaker Hastert, House Minority Leader Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Frist and Senate Minority Leader Reid coming together to introduce a piece of legislation? I fully expect that the coalition that crafted this legislation will carry the day and the VRA will be strengthened and safeguarded for another 25 years.
And, just to be clear, Section 203 does not actually mandate printing bilingual ballots. Rather, it requires bilingual voting assistance in areas with a significant population of people who have limited English proficiency. These are citizens who have trouble reading the ballot or understanding voting procedures. When this was first enacted, Congress conducted extensive hearings into the ways minorities were disenfranchised and found that unequal educational opportunities impaired one’s ability to vote. If you cannot understand or read the ballot, then how can you fully exercise the right to vote? So, to balance out educational inequities, Section 203 was added to the VRA so that all Americans regardless of fluency in English or the level of their education could exercise this most fundamental right.
CAPITOL ANNEX: You hear many people say very derogatory things about Hispanics and Latinos, and other groups like Koreans and Vietnamese, in regard to language in the context of this discussion, things like, “if they live here, they should learn English.” I read in the LA Daily News, for example, that Rep. Elton Gallegy, a Republican from Thousand Oaks, California, went so far as to say, “If you are going to vote in a U.S. election, you should be able to comprehend, read and speak the English language.” First of all, being a Hispanic, would you address why it is important for the ballot to be printed in Spanish (or in other languages, like Vietnamese in California)? On a side note to that, is part of this issue not that some older Hispanics and Latinos who have been in the United States a long time read and speak English just fine but that, because Spanish was their first or native language, sometimes reading comprehension of their native language is a little better, and that allowing them to comprehend the ballot better simply breaks down another barrier for them, or is that not correct?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: Absolutely. Section 203 simply helps American citizens vote. As it stands, English is not the official language of the United States nor are people required to know English to gain citizenship. Moreover, it is very common for first generation immigrants to either not learn English or become only marginally proficient. Let’s not forget that there is a difference between able to comprehend English at the most basic level and comprehending a ballot.
However, learning English benefits new citizens and an immigrant’s success is linked directly to his fluency in English.
CAPITOL ANNEX: When you hear one of your colleagues say things like “if they live here, they should learn English,” especially when it is directed in kind of a derogatory way, are you offended by that? Are some of your colleagues like Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: Am I offended? Not particularly. You won’t last long in politics if you let things like that bother you. I try to not take things personally especially rhetoric used to inflame people.
Yet, make no mistake, learning English benefits immigrants tremendously. I encourage everyone who comes to America legally to learn English. Limited English proficiency limits success.
As for Congresswoman Sanchez, we haven’t discussed comments like that so you would have to ask her what she thinks.
CAPITOL ANNEX: When most people think of the Voting Rights Act, they think of Lyndon Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King, and that this Act was, when first signed into law, it was primarily directed toward African Americans and helped end a century or more of disenfranchisement of blacks. Unless someone lives in a predominantly Hispanic or Latino area like the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, parts of San Antonio, etcetera, they may not realize that the VRA has been of tremendous help to Hispanics as well. As a native of San Antonio and Hispanic Congressman from Texas, can you talk a little about the effect this Act has had on our state?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: When Americans think of the Voting Rights Act era, they think of African Americans in the Deep South, and they don’t think about Latinos or Asian-Americans who also fought for the right to vote. In a way, that’s entirely understandable since the nation’s attention was riveted on Dr. King and the Freedom Riders who broke the grip on the ballot box segregationists had throughout the South.
Yet, the VRA was a watershed moment for Texas and Latinos because it changed the political calculus not only for the major parties but also for we Latinos obviously. No longer would the poll tax or literacy tests stop Latino-Americans from voting.
Unfortunately, people forget that President Johnson’s experiences growing up poor in the Hill country of Texas formed his values and drive to extend the most basic rights to all Americans. He worked closely with Dr. Hector Garcia, founder of the American GI Forum, a Latino organization founded to secure the same benefits and rights Anglo veterans received under the GI Bill. And, President Johnson never forgot his year teaching Latino students in Cotulla, Texas and the institutional barriers they would have to surmount to pursue the American dream.
For many years in San Antonio, Latinos were effectively disenfranchised through manipulation of voting districts and at-large seats designed to ensure a majority Anglo city council. Only at brief moments before the VRA were Latinos able to assert themselves, most notably when Maury Maverick ran against the machine that dictated San Antonio politics and served San Antonio for two terms in the mid-30’s. Rep. Maverick assembled a coalition that included Latinos. Yet, instances like this were few and far between.
As for the VRA’s impact on Texas, I think the fact that today both parties are courting the Latino votes says it all. Because of the protections provided by the VRA, Latinos are becoming a political force, and without that legislation, that wouldn’t have been possible.
CAPITOL ANNEX: You may be too young to have experienced attempts at disenfranchisement at polling places like older Hispanics may have in central and South Texas but, if you will, can you tell us what it may have been like for Latinos who tried to vote or participate in the Democratic process before the VRA?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: The two predominant methods of disenfranchising Latinos were the poll tax and the literacy test. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Texas enacted a poll tax that required voters to pay $1.75, which effectively barred Latinos from voting because very few could afford that exorbitant sum. Obviously, literacy tests that typically required minority voters to read and explain complex passages of the Constitution prevented many Latinos from voting.
By the time I started voting, the VRA had cleared away most of the outright obstacles to voting, but there were plenty of other stratagems available. In 1973, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, White v. Regester, struck down voting districts for the Texas House of Representatives. The Court held the districting plan as unconstitutional because of ‘multimember’ districts that were used to dilute the voting strength of Latinos and African Americans in Texas. Dallas and Bexar counties were ‘multimember’ districts, which were nearly 9,000 voters larger than other ‘single-member’ districts and were blatantly designed to negate the voting strength of these two communities.
That was a little over 35 years ago, so discriminatory voting practices are not that far in the past. In fact, in June we expect a Supreme Court ruling on the Texas redistricting case, which may hinge on the constitutionality of certain Texas districts drawn to protect Republican incumbents and harm Democratic incumbents. The Department of Justice’s professional staff found that the mid-cycle redistricting plan violated the VRA, yet Bush administration political appointees overruled them and approved the plan. I think this illustrates why we still need to renew the expiring provisions of the VRA.
CAPITOL ANNEX: A lot of our blog readers (and myself included) are young, in their 20s and 30s, and have never witnessed any kind of racial disenfranchisement at the polling place first hand, and may only be familiar with anecdotal information or the historical record as it relates to African Americans, so could you share with us any kind of a historical perspective on his Hispanic disenfranchisement in Texas? Did you, growing up, or when you taught school or were a judge, ever hear stories about things that happened or Hispanic leaders who made a particular difference in this area in our state?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: Now that the overt forms of racism have been eradicated, it is, as you have observed, harder for young Americans to appreciate the obstacles that previous generations had to overcome so they could vote. The further we get from the fight for the VRA, the less Americans understand and appreciate protecting the right to vote and the ways minorities were systematically disenfranchised. The VRA is not a relic from another era. No, it is a crucial part of the structure of civil rights enforcement enacted during the Johnson administration.
As for stories of disenfranchisement, it was a part of the Latino experience throughout the Southwest. The same methods used elsewhere were employed to intimidate or stop Latino voters. As I mentioned before, the poll tax, literacy tests, coercion and outright force were used to deter Latino voters.
The leaders such as Cesar Chavez, Willie Velasquez, Dr. Hector P. Garcia and a host of others fought so we could vote. My father, Henry B. Gonzalez, was instrumental in fighting for and securing voting rights for Latinos in Texas.
CAPITOL ANNEX: Congressman, thank you very much for your time. I’d like to thank you for taking part in this and hope you will continue to keep us informed about the progress of the Voting Rights Act as it progresses through to reauthorization. I will ask if you have anything else you would like to add, to please feel free to do so.
CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ: Thank you for inviting me to discuss this landmark piece of legislation. And, I look forward to the reauthorization of an intact VRA passing both Houses of Congress this year.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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