Democrats and Latinos

Tad Szulc (“How Can 29 Million People Be Politically Invisible?” Opinion, July 26) must have attended a different Democratic National Convention than I did and read a different platform. Contrary to his assertions, more than two Latinos made it to the podium and Latino concerns on civil rights, immigration, education, English-only, Puerto Rico and other issues were addressed in the party platform.

More important, the Clinton-Gore ticket offers a real choice to Latino voters.

As governor, Bill Clinton protected bilingual education from being outlawed and, in stark contrast to the Bush Administration’s mishandling of the Haitian refugee crisis, helped defuse the political maelstrom of Cuban Marielitos who had been sent to Ft. Chafee, Ark., in 1980.

When they both served in Congress, Dan Quayle voted for English as the official language and a sharp reduction in visas for family members of U.S. citizens while Al Gore supported language assistance in voting and family reunification.

Virtually every national institution can do more to respond to the growing Latino population. But Szulc should take another look at the Democratic Party and the Clinton-Gore ticket before he states the convention and party platform are lacking in that commitment.

JOHN D. TRASVINA

Washington

The writer is past president of the Hispanic Bar Assn. of the District of Columbia.