THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for coming. Bienvenidos a la Casa
Blanca. (Laughter.) Thanks for coming. Laura and I are thrilled to
have you here. We welcome you to the -- to observe Hispanic Heritage
Month. What a performance. Thank you all very much. It was
spectacular. (Applause.)
This is the month we celebrate great contributions of Latinos to
our country. It's a special month. It really echoes our diversity and
the strength of our great democracy. I spend a lot of time talking
about the transformational power of liberty, reminding people that
liberty has got an incredible way of taking diverse people and uniting
them into one common purpose -- pais, a great land. That's why we
believe democracy has a place in our own neighborhood. We believe that
liberty is important in countries throughout our hemisphere. We
believe in human dignity and human rights, the non-negotiable demands
of human dignity. And that's achieved through liberty.
That's why we're working to advance liberty in the greater Middle
East. We believe all people desire to be free. We believe that
inherently in the soul of men and women is this desire to live in free
societies. It's worked here in America; it can work everywhere. Think
about our country. We're such a diverse land, with different cultures
all bound together in this great country because of freedom.
You know, recently I talked to President Putin of Russia. I told
him this country mourns the loss of life as a result of the terrorist
attacks, the terrorist attack on the school. I told him we stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with them in fighting terror, that we abhor men
who kill innocent children to try to achieve a dark vision. I'm also
concerned about the decisions that are being made in Russia that could
undermine democracy in Russia; that great countries, great democracies
have a balance of power between central government and local
governments, a balance of power within central governments between the
executive branch and the legislative branch and the judicial branch.
As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the
principles of democracy.
I also want to say something as we gather about Hurricane Ivan. I
talked to the governors of Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana,
tambien mi hermano, el gobernador de Florida. I told him the people of
this country -- I told all four governors the people of this country
are praying for their safety. We pray that the storm passes as quickly
as possible, without any loss of life or loss of property, and that, I
told them, that the government is ready to help.
I appreciate Hector. I want to thank you for your service. I
appreciate Secretary Evans and Secretary Chao, members of my Cabinet
who have joined us today. I'm proud of your work. Have we got
ambassadors here? This is an important month, by the way, and we're
tracking a lot of big shots. (Laughter.) Hans Hertell is with us.
Hans, thanks for coming. He's the ambassador to the Dominican
Republic, mi amigo. Gaddi Vasquez, the Director of the Peace Corps;
Roger Noriega Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs. Eduardo Aguirre is the Director of the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services. Al Gonzales is my lawyer. (Laughter.) He is
the White House Counsel to the President. Ruben Barrales is the
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. I'm naming people that work in
my administration. I think it's important to promote a diverse
administration, to welcome all cultures. And we're better for it here
in Washington. And I want to thank them for their service.
I want to thank Embajador de Colombia, tambien de Mexico, y el
nuevo Embajador de Espana. Welcome today to the White House for the
credentialing ceremony. I want to thank the three ambassadors for
coming. Welcome. Bienvenidos. I want to thank the Chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee for the United States Senate, Chairman
Lugar. Great man. Senator Lugar from the great state of Indiana. I
also appreciate Congressmen Weller, Diaz-Balart de Florida, y tambien
Steve Pearce from New Mexico. Thank you all for coming. Proud you're
here.
Brian Sandoval, donde esta? Anyway, he's here somewhere. He got a
lousy seat. (Laughter.) Or no seat at all. (Laughter.) Marcos,
thanks for your prayers. Beautiful. Welcome. Tell everybody at home
hello. That would be Houston, is where he lives. And Laura and I are
Texanos.
I want to thank -- Joaquin, thank you very much. It was a
spectacular performance. What a great athlete, and an artist.
(Applause.) Thank you guys. Your buddies brought out the best in you.
It was really great. Thanks. Myrka, thanks for coming. Gracias.
I want to thank Israel. Appreciate you coming. El amigo de
familia, Gustavo Cisneros. Gracias, Gustovo, welcome. Jimmy, thanks
for coming. Jimmy Smits. Proud you're here. Elizabeth Vargas is with
us. I'm proud she is here. I want to thank Alex Wallau from ABC
Television, for coming with us. Eliseo -- we got some soccer stars?
Where are they? Donde esta los soccer stars? They're somewhere. Oh,
there they are, yes. The three stars. (Applause.) Eliseo, Marco, y
Amado. Thank you for coming. (Applause.) So how is the team this
year, pretty good? Yes? No hablas Ingles. (Laughter.) Eliseo is
from El Salvador. Marco, que pais? Bolivia. Amado is from Honduras.
Bienvenidos. Good luck in the season.
I want to thank members of the Hispanic Organization who are here
today.
I do want to make special mention of the fact that Judge Reynaldo
Garza, Brownsville, Texas, passed away this week. He's 89 years old.
In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Judge Garza to the district court
in Texas. Judge Garza was one of the first Hispanic federal judges in
America. He's a great Texan. Those of us who are from Texas were
proud to say we're both Texans. He was the son of Mexican immigrants.
He was a shining example of the American Dream. He was a good man and
he made this country a better place. And we honor his memory today.
People often talk about the Latino culture. Here's how I like to
describe it: faith in God, commitment to family, and love of country.
In this moment in our history, America is defending -- depending on the
unselfish dedication of patriots. Today there are almost 200,000
Hispanic Americans serving in the Armed Forces. Eight of these
incredibly brave men and women are with us today. I want to thank you
all for coming. Thank you for wearing the uniform. (Applause.)
Latinos have contributed to defense of freedom abroad and to the
advance of freedom inside our own country. This afternoon, Laura and I
were honored to meet members of an Hispanic-American family who
struggled against discrimination and won a victory for all in this
country. We welcome Sylvia and Gonzalo and Jerome and Sandra Mendez
with us. Bienvenidos. Let me tell you their story. I think you'll
find it so incredibly American and so uplifting.
Sixty years ago, their parents, Gonzalo y Felicitas Mendez, tried
to enroll their children as students in a mostly white elementary
school closest to their house in Westminister, California. That was 60
years ago. Unfortunately, in those days, America had a -- our vision
wasn't as clear as it should be. They were turned away from that
school and they went to an older barrio school. I'm told it was a
rickety, wooden building bordered by an electric cattle fence. The mom
and dad didn't like it, they didn't like their children being treated
that way. They love their children. And so they -- and so the dad
saved his money, 1945, and he went into a federal court to sue with
four other families for equality and fairness. That's 1945.
He said, "I'm just doing this for my children." What he really
meant to say was, I'm just doing this for every child. He was fighting
so that everyone in this country has a chance to realize the American
Dream.
A lawyer named Thurgood Marshall filed a friend of the court brief
in the lawsuit, and the Mendez family won their case. Their effects
reached far beyond a single neighborhood school. Inspired by the
Mendez decision, Governor Earl Warren signed an order desegregating all
the schools of California. Five years later, Thurgood Marshall would
use the same arguments against segregation when he argued Brown versus
Board of Education. And Earl Warren, who had become Chief Justice,
would write the Supreme Court opinion that ended segregation in schools
across America.
Today we honor your family, and your mom and dad. (Applause.)
When Laura and I were taking our picture, one of the beautiful
girls said -- women said -- the No Child Left Behind Act is great.
It's in the spirit of the Mendez family that the No Child Left Behind
Act is flourishing, because we're fighting against another kind of
discrimination in that act. It's called the soft bigotry of low
expectations. We should never allow a system to exist in where they
walk into a classroom and say, this child can't read because of the
color of their skin. You can't condemn somebody to failure because
their parents don't speak English as a first language. That's not what
we stand for her in America.
And so the laws we passed with Republican and Democrat help are
challenging that soft bigotry of low expectation. We believe every
child can learn. We want to know if every child can read and write and
add and subtract, early before it's too late. We're going to stop this
business about just shuffling children through the school year after
year without learning the basics. We'll correct problems now. We're
raising the bar. No dejamos a ninguno nino atras. No child will be
left behind in America. (Applause.)
Recently I talked about a school in Georgia, northeast Georgia,
called Gainesville Elementary School. It's mostly Hispanic, mostly
poor. It's the kind of school where people just say, well, gosh, these
kids can't learn, give up, move them through. This year, 90 percent of
the students passed the state tests in reading and math. That's a
fantastic statistic, isn't it? (Applause.)
We wouldn't know if we didn't measure. We wouldn't know if we
didn't ask the questions about whether a child can read and write and
add and subtract. We wouldn't know if we didn't correct problems
early, before they're too late. And fortunately, the school has got a
principal that has challenged the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Here's what she said: "We don't focus on what we can't do at this
school, we focus on what we can do. We do whatever it takes to get the
kids across the finish line."
That's what we're going to do here in this country. As we
celebrate this important month, our mission, our goal, our deepest
desire is for every child -- every child -- including those whose
parents don't speak English as a first language, to be able to realize
the promise of this country by making sure the public schools have high
standards in excellence in every classroom. And that's what we're
going to do. (Applause.)
As we celebrate this important month, we also need to celebrate
ownership, because that's part of the American experience. We want
more people owning their own home. I think there's nothing better than
people opening up the door where they live and saying, welcome to my
home. Bienvenidos a mi casa. (Laughter.) Thanks for coming to my
piece of property. And we must be dedicated to the proposition that
ownership ought to extend to every neighborhood and every group.
I set a goal to have 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end
of this decade. And we're on track to meet the goal -- 1.6 million new
minority homeowners bought homes in the last two years. It's a
fantastic statistic, I think. I think it's part of helping bring hope
into people's families.
Also I'd like to talk about entrepreneurship. I mean, the Latino
community is entrepreneurial. I mean, you talk about small business
owners who have got vision and drive and desire, sit down with Latino
business owners. They have a great sense of business and balance sheet
and, as importantly, a great desire to own their own business. And one
of the most hopeful aspects of our society today is the number of
Hispanic-owned businesses that thrive throughout America. I love it
when I meet an Hispanic entrepreneur, particularly somebody who came up
with an idea at their kitchen table, and said, I want to own something,
I want to own my business. And now they're employing people. Seventy
percent of new jobs in America are created by small businesses. Think
about that. And the role of government is to encourage the expansion
of small business opportunity and entrepreneurship through every
society, every part of our society. And we're doing just that in
America. And our country is better for it.
Listen, we're a diverse nation, but there are things that bind us
-- our love of freedom, our belief in God, our understanding of the
importance of family, our desire to realize dreams, the deep desire for
people to live in a free society. I'm proud of your heritage. I'm
proud of the ancestry. I'm proud to call Latinos Americans, and I'm
proud to be your President. God bless, and welcome to the White
House. (Applause.)