For the second year in a row Human Life International presented an exhibit at the 9th Annual National Hispanic Leadership Conference, October 11-13th. Hispanics from across the nation converged in the windy city of Chicago to discuss political, social and educational issues they considered important. The event was not limited to Hispanic leaders in the civic, professional, political and social fields; but included future leaders as well --exceptional Hispanic students from universities in several states, who also came to discuss the issues they considered important and to meet their Hispanic role models. The Pro-life Action League, Project Respect, and the Professional Women's Association joined HLI at the exhibit, bringing materials and volunteers.

Abortion, as always, remained a critically controversial issue, and as such, it was not on the formal conference agenda. The country's Hispanic leaders are about evenly split in their positions on abortion. Some of the more "anglicanized" leaders who have adopted liberal, pseudo-intellectual ideas have traded in their traditional Hispanic family values to obtain positions of power and wealth in this nation. It is unfortunate that many Hispanics are finding themselves rejecting their traditional beliefs in order to be successful in today's political arena. However, I did encounter several Hispanics at the conference who have held fast to their traditions respecting life and family values, and have also managed to find success, although not as easily won.

There is an increasingly pro-choice push at these gatherings, although usually not overtly. While Human Life International continues to sponsor a pro-life exhibit at this conference, the pro-choice wolf is held at bay --for now. At present, HLI stands unchallenged by the pro-choicers when it comes to the dissemination of our life-saving, eye-opening materials. They cannot silence us, and fortunately, have made no effort to present the pro-choice perspective with a corresponding exhibit (also for now). Perhaps the definite pro-life stance of most of the conference attendees has managed to dissuade them (given the reputation Hispanics have for a passionate expression of their ideas).

The push towards the pro-choice position among some of the members of the NHLC board is not surprising considering many of those members come from various Hispanic groups which have already assumed a pro-choice plank; such as the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF). Speaking of Hispanic pro-choice groups, did you know that the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, (NALEO) presided by the pro-abort and so-called "Catholic" Knight of Columbus Edward Roybal, came out against Clarence Thomas during the Senate confirmation hearings? While NALEO has not taken an official pro-choice stand as yet, their position is crystal clear.

Among those members of the board who are pro-life, the NHLC is credited with Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a major source of pride to Hispanics, being the first female Hispanic state legislator and the first Hispanic congresswoman in the history of our great country.

Hispanics touting former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros as their "hero," crowded in to hear his keynote address at the National Hispanic Hero Awards Dinner Banquet (during the NHLC). On at least two occasions throughout his speech, he made mention of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Antonio, as well as countless allusions with a seemingly sincere emphasis on Hispanic family life and the growth of the Hispanic population. I found this quite irritating, as his position to date (as far as I know) has been pro-choice, yet he misled Hispanics with a public display of support for traditional Hispanic family values. It will be quite a difficult task (if not impossible) to get Hispanics to withdraw support from Cisneros, who is now being hailed as the future Hispanic presidential candidate --clearly our work is cut out for us!

This year's conference workshop on Hispanic social issues included a presentation on AIDS, by Nancy Rivera, Executive Director of the Midwest Hispanic AIDS Coalition. As is usually done in these secular AIDS forums, she advocated the use of condoms in preventing AIDS, and expressed a desire to see students using bananas for condom demonstrations in the high schools and colleges! I asked her if she had any materials on chastity education and/or for the promotion of abstinence and her answer seemed vague. She did however, take me up on my invitation to visit our exhibit, and she did pick up some of our materials on AIDS, condoms, and chastity, as well as our catalog. Perhaps there may be something in the works for the future in terms of promoting chastity more aggressively, given the evidence of increasing condom failure rates.

Our materials on AIDS and chastity drew the interest of many high school and college students attending the conference. There was a surprisingly positive response to information about chastity, as well as an amazement about the failure rates of condoms. Many students have been sold a bill of goods about how "safe" condoms are supposed to be, and are actually eager to hear the truth.

I spoke with Juan Andrade, Chairman of the Midwest Northeast Voter Registration and Education Project and conference organizer, who very graciously agreed to discuss the possibility of HLI offering an AIDS education workshop next year, which specifically advocates chastity and abstinence in preventing AIDS infection. The need for chastity education among young Hispanics is clear --they are hungry for viable alternatives, and they are fast coming to grips with the fact that their very survival depends on a change in behavior and attitude; and with the gracious support of our donors, HLI will be the vehicle to bring the light of life-and-soul saving truth to them!

Another largely amazing focus of the students' interest in our exhibit was their desire to learn more about Natural Family Planning, especially on the part of some of the young college feminists attending the conference. They were very interested in how we denoted birth control as an exploitation of women and their bodies, while using NFP works in harmony with nature's own cycles to prevent or achieve a pregnancy, and requires the husband's cooperation.

This strong desire to learn about NFP methods evidences an uncharted territory for NFP instructors, because apparently no one has ever talked to them about it. We hope to perhaps hold an NFP workshop at the NHLC in the near future as well, the demand is certainly there!

After we showed a film on abortion, one young woman approached our exhibit and grilled me with questions for about 1 ½ hrs. At the end of it all, she shook my hand, and thanking me, she informed me that she was head of a feminist group, and that up until the moment she walked up to our table she had been 100% pro-choice! She now considered herself 100% pro-life and she thanked me for having been there to open her eyes! Thank God and our donors that HLI was there to reach her, how many more are out there like her, searching and seeking out the truth?

Speaking of feminists, this year's Political Women's Forum at the conference was vastly different from last year's radical pro-abortion feminists' ensemble. One of the panel members, Margarita Rosa, commenced her presentation with a story about how she was a single parent and 8 months pregnant when she applied for her job as a commissioner on the New York State Commission on Human Rights. Another member of the panel, Mrs. Grace Ramos, also a commissioner from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in Fairborne, stated that she was proud to be a wife and mother, and that her family always came first. She also attacked the "women's issues" terminology as being sexist. She stated that issues such as child care are men's issues too. She explained that women do not have children alone, men are a large and essential part of the process and should be equally concerned. She spoke of seeing a unison of efforts between men and women, and, complaining about the gender polarity the pro-abort feminist groups have caused, she further hinted at the wedge that these groups have driven between the sexes.

The overall response from conference participants was positively pro-life! There was only one person who expressed a pro-choice position, however, and even this person did eventually become open to some of the ideas being presented, and when he did walk away, he stated that we had definitely given him some things to think about. Incidentally, this man's wife is part of a population planning committee --perhaps that is why he continued to show disbelief over the notion that the threat of overpopulation is indeed a hoax. Most of his pro-choice stand was based on this idea, and I believe that given the proper proofs, many population alert people like him would renounce their panicky "chicken little" fears.

Many positive fruits came from this secular conference, including a boost to efforts towards building a Hispanic pro-life network across the nation (which we began last year). Several people offered to work as volunteers, including a medical student who offered to help by doing research for us in our project to create subject dossiers. There is also a Christian preacher who wishes to work with us in uniting Hispanics in defense of life. Many wonderful things are yet to come, and by next year we should have a really strong group of Hispanics fighting for life in Chicago.