Vanguard official meets with president

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- He was close enough to peek over President Bush’s

shoulder and read his speech notes.

Jesse Miranda, a nationally recognized Latino leader and director of

the new Center for Urban Studies and Ethnic Leadership at Vanguard

University in the city, flew to the nation’s capitol Tuesday to meet with

Bush.

“It was very interesting, very intimate in a sense, if that can happen

with the president,” said Miranda, who sat with Bush and nine others for

an hour in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House.

Miranda then met for 15 minutes with just the president and the Rev.

Luis Cortes of Nueva Esperanza Community Development Corp. in

Philadelphia.

“The issues [discussed] were the status of the Hispanic religious

community and the areas that need development, particularly aligning

ourselves with the faith-based organizations,” Miranda said.

At the meeting, Bush acknowledged the contributions of the Latino

faith community to the nation and encouraged Latino faith leaders to get

behind his faith-based and community initiative.

“I’ve been so impressed by the faith-based leaders I’ve met all around

our country, because there is a genuine commitment to the poor and the

disadvantaged,” Bush told Latino leaders in a speech given Tuesday. “And

that’s a commitment that we must channel and a commitment we must

harvest.”

Latino faith leaders from across the country support Bush’s efforts to

put faith organizations on an equal footing when it comes to providing

government services, Miranda said.

The information Miranda was in Washington, D.C., to share was the

result of the completion of the first phase of a study that will have

national implications.

Miranda is one of two executive directors of the Hispanic Churches in

American Public Life project, which will examine the effect of Catholic,

Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal and select other religious

traditions on the political and civic life of Latinos.

The first phase, a telephone survey of 2,400 Latinos nationwide, found

that while religion plays a prominent role in their lives, most Latinos

are no longer Catholic.

The study team hopes to find a way to bring the various churches

together to enhance Latinos’ role in their communities and raise Latinos’

civic and political standing.

The importance of this meeting lies in the invitation more than what

was actually said, Miranda added.

“I had been going there for years and was always one of two or three

Hispanics that would be in a crowd of 50 people,” said Miranda, noting

that most in attendance Tuesday were Latino. “His having lived in Texas

shows his knowledge of our culture. He repeatedly told us our country is

richer because of the contribution of Hispanics.”