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Antonio
Villaraigosa, Chair of MEChA (student wing of Aztlan movement) at UCLA,
former CA assemblymember, former CA Assembly speaker, currently Los
Angeles City Councilman at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference
in Los Angeles, 6/1997
"Part of today's reality has been propositions like 187 (to deny
public benefits to illegal aliens, 1994), propositions like 209 (to
abolish affirmative action, 1996), the welfare reform bill, which targeted
legal immigrants and targeted us as a community. That's been the midnight.
We know that the sunny side of midnight has been the election of a Latino
speaker - was the election of Loretta Sanchez, against an arch-conservative,
reactionary hate-mongering politician like Congressman Dornan! Today
in California in the legislature, we're engaged in a great debate, where
not only were we talking about denying education to the children of
undocumented workers, but now we're talking about whether or not we
should provide prenatal care to undocumented mothers. It's not enough
to elect Latino leadership. If they're supporting legislation that denies
the undocumented driver's licenses, they don't belong in office, friends.
They don't belong here. If they can't stand up and say, 'You know what?
I'm not ever going to support a policy that denies prenatal care to
the children of undocumented mothers', they don't belong here."
Listen to his speech here
