[June 07, 2008]

Hispanic Leaders Convention comes to a close in Spain

(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Madrid, Jun 7 (EFE).- The Hispanic Leaders Convention concluded here Saturday with the unveiling of a long list of concrete proposals to strengthen ties and open new avenues of cooperation between Spain and the burgeoning U.S. Hispanic community.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, one of the United States' most influential Hispanics, gave the closing speech at the gathering, which drew some 60 prominent U.S. Latinos to the Spanish capital.

Spain and the United States always have had a "very positive relationship" and "I want that relationship to continue, especially between Hispanics and the Spanish people," Richardson told reporters before attending the event's closing lunch.

The governor, a former Democratic presidential hopeful who now backs Barack Obama, said he always has felt that "Spain is the mother country for U.S. Hispanics, but for many years Spain was more interested in Europe."

That has changed because now "Spain sees its future in Latin America and in the Hispanic community," Richardson said at the end of the convention's plenary session, in which Latino and Spanish leaders agreed to forge new ties of cooperation.

Juan Carlos Iturregui, president of the Association of Hispanic Leaders of the United States - one of the organizers of the event along with the Fundacion Carolina and the Spanish government - said "we can do diplomacy, business and education together. Let's do things that are concrete."

Iturregui issued that call during one of the round-table discussions, in which Hispanic leaders discussed with their Spanish counterparts possible ways to capitalize on the enormous potential of the estimated more than 45-million-strong U.S. Latino community.

At the moment that community "is not interested in reaching out abroad" and that is a mistake, said Dina Siegel, director of the Latino and Latin American Institute of the American Jewish Committee in Washington.

In the same vein, Gilberto Oca?as, a Hispanic organizer for the Obama campaign, expressed his desire that "we can build bridges" and reverse the current situation, in which many U.S. Hispanic citizens "don't even think about Spain."

To achieve that goal, the attendees on Saturday proposed several concrete measures, including facilitating efforts by Spaniards to do business in the United States or Hispanics to enter the Spanish market, implementing strategies that create new links between and more visibility for the two communities and expanding opportunities for internships.

Yet another initiative would create a program - similar to the existing Young Hispanic Leaders Program - that gives future Spanish leaders the opportunity to travel to the United States and familiarize themselves with the U.S. political, economic, social and cultural environment.

Also attending the convention were Esther Aguilera, president of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus Institute; Ramiro Atristain-Carrion, vice president of Harris Bank; David Hernandez, president of utility Liberty Power and a distinguished member of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Victor Reinoso, deputy mayor of the District of Columbia. EFE

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Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.

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