Statement by Regla Gonzalez on Don Feder Article

Good Afternoon,

My name is Regla Gonzalez, Vice President of the League of United Latin American Citizens and I am here representing our President, Rick Dovalina, and the 115,000 members of organization.

We are outraged at the blatant racism present in Don Feder's article "No statehood for Caribbean Dogpatch."

We regard the printing of this article as an attempt by Don Feder and the Boston Herald at lowering the bar on racist hate language when directed at Puerto Ricans and Hispanics and we will not tolerate this offensive action.

LULAC demands a retraction from Mr. Feder and an apology from the Boston Herald. In addition we demand that the Herald appoint a community advisory panel to review its relationship with the Hispanic community with respect to coverage, employment, contracting, governance, and philanthropy.

More than 200 years ago, patriots in Boston, took up the cause of freedom and insisted that Britain provide the colonies with either representation or their freedom. Mr. Feder and by inference the Boston Herald rejects that idea and claims that a colonizing power does not have any responsibility to consider the desire for self determination of the people it rules over.

LULAC rejects this un-American and repulsive idea.

If the citizens of the United States did not intend to extend self determination to Puerto Rico we should not have seized possession of it 100 years ago. We have already made our decision about Puerto Rico, now its time for the citizens of Puerto Rico to make theirs.

Let's hope the people of Boston don't let racists like Don Feder trick them into turning their back on the most cherished of our American principles-Democracy.