http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/su ... 177829.htm

Link to Michelle Malkin's article.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ght=malkin

Posted on Wed, Aug. 02, 2006


INACCURACIES, INCORRECT TRANSLATIONS
Column misrepresents Hispanic group

By Janet Murguia


Re "Separatist group has White House's ear," Michelle Malkin column July 13: [Malkin's column] is filled with inaccuracies about our organization, the National Council of La Raza. For example, Malkin incorrectly translates our name as "the race." In Spanish, as in English, words have multiple meanings, and in our case, La Raza means the people or the community. Hispanics are an ethnic group, not a race.

Similarly, Malkin repeats an already discredited charge that La Raza uses federal funds for political purposes. In fact, these funds are used to support the work of the Raza Development Fund, the largest Latino community bank in the country, to help fund health clinics, day-care facilities, homes for first-time buyers and community-based charter schools.

Malkin also cites a quote from Marcos Aguilar that we do not agree with or endorse. NCLR is not a separatist organization, and we do not and have never supported a reconquista (reconquest).

As an American institution founded nearly 40 years ago, our mission is to help open the door to the American Dream to all Latinos, and we work to help integrate Hispanic immigrants into this great nation through more than 150 community-based organizations that are helping people learn English and become citizens.

I have offered for months to meet with Malkin. She has yet to respond. Is she being impolite, unfair, or is she just afraid to hear the truth? Regardless, the offer stands.


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The writer is president of National Council of La Raza in Washington D.C.