Week # Air Date

Election year 2002 saw some historic movement for Latinos. In New Mexico, where both major party candidates for governor were Latinos, Democrat Bill Richardson was elected to occupy the state house for the next four years. Almost 24 hours after the polls closed the strength of Latino voter turn out this mid-term election is still being analyzed, but one thing is certain the Latino delegation in congress will increase from 19 to 22. Nationally Republicans rode President Bush's coattails to victory in both the House and Senate; two of the new Latino members of Congress are Republicans. Another Latino Republican Bryan Sandoval won the Attorney General position in Nevada. Massachusetts and Colorado took up statewide English only propositions. Voters in Massachusetts elected to do away with bilingual education while Colorado became the first state in the country where the English only initiative made it before voters and was rejected. According to NALEO Latinos were instrumental in that defeat. Exit polls conducted by the William C. Velasquez Research Institute showed Latinos voted for Democrats for governor by wide margins in California and Texas. And in Texas, Tony Sanchez garnered 89 percent of the Latino vote while California Governor Gray Davis received 71 percent of the Latino vote. Now joining us here on Latino USA to talk about this election are from Los Angeles Antonio Gonzalez of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project and from Miami Sergio Bendixen of Bendixen and Associates, a political consulting and polling group.

Election monitors were at their stations across the country this election day to help ensure every citizen could vote freely. But as Washington, D.C. based commentator Katie Davis found in her neighborhood officials observers are no help if they can't communicate with the person who's trying to vote.

November 12 is a day of mourning for many New York Dominicans. On that day, a year ago, American Airlines flight 587 crashed while on route from New York City to Santo Domingo. 260 people died in the crash including 5 on the ground; the second worst aviation tragedy in us history. Recently family and friends of the victims traveled by bus loads from New York to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Transportation Safety Board hearings investigating possible causes for the crash. And as Latino USA's Patricia Guadalupe reports family members still feel there are many questions about the tragedy that remain unanswered.

Laura Hernandez has been writing for most of her short life. I met her a year ago soon after flight 587 crashed. She's a sharp and precocious 11 year old. And she wrote this poem a week before her life took a dramatic turn. Her mother Carla and her baby sister Juannie were both on flight 587 and since then Laura has found strength ands support through her writing. Her poem is entitled 'Imagination.'