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9 Goal IX 1 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/goal9 and id is 1 raw text is: J. Lo rules the charts and movies. Real Women Have Curves takes Sundance. Frida draws crowds at upscale museums and suburban cine- mas. The Grammys and MTV awards go Latin. Mexican restaurants appear in affluent neighborhoods. The fate of a Latino child in Miami captivates the media and talk shows for months, and for an entire summer it seems everybody is Livin' la Vida Loca. For years Latinos anticipated the day when their sheer numbers and a porous border would make them part of mainstream America. It seems that day is finally here. Clearly, America is now influenced in the arts by Latino cultures. But what of the true test of inclusion-political appointments? In recent years Latino bar associations have listed as a high priority the appointment of Latinos to the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Regional Latino bar associations have similarly focused heav- ily on statewide judicial appointments. Yet there is no shortage of issues facing Latinos. Statistics consistently list Latino youth as being at high risk for dropping out of school and for teen pregnancy. Terrorist attacks on the United States have raised extremely important concerns about national security and civil liberties. Latinos may enjoy unparalleled pop- ulation growth and increasing clout in American politics, but clearly, partisan politics raises a whole new set of prob- lems. Recent events add urgency President George W Bush's 2002 nomi- nation of Washington, D.C., lawyer Miguel Estrada to the highly visible U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exposed divisions within Latino communities. The divisions were widely reported by the media, including the New York Times. Some Latinos opposed the nomination, maintaining Estrada was too conservative. Others supported him, feeling comfortable with his views or simply finding insufficient grounds to oppose him. Still others were cautious and noncommittal. The nomi- nation stalled before the November 2002 elections; however, he is widely expected to be renominated when Congress reconvenes this year. The November 2002 national elec- tions clearly complicated the picture for Latinos. Although Latino affinity with traditional values such as family life, faith, and military service has long been known, Latinos, with some notable exceptions, have traditionally voted Democratic. But Republicans now hold the majority of both houses of Congress as well as the White House. Further, Latino political power is emerging at a time when Americans are increasingly weary of civil rights claims and worried about border security, aggravating a long-standing sore point with Latinos. As a result, Latinos are searching for lessons from Estrada's nomination. Jose Feliciano is an attorney with Baker and Hostetler, a member of the ABA Board of Governors, and former chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. Reached by phone at his Cleveland office, Feliciano pointed out that differ- ing viewpoints within Latino communi- ties concerning Estrada are not a fatal flaw to the development of the Hispanic community. He notes that the Latino community is not monolithic, and it shows in some sense a maturation of the community ... The nomination process is partisan politics, things like this are going to occur-after all, we live in a democracy. The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the most promi- nent Latino bar association to consider continued on page 5 AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN THE PROFESSION

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