[inaudible conversations] a next on booktv after words with guest host Leslie Sanchez former director of the white house education initiative. This week u. S. Representative Luis Gutierrez and his memoir Still Dreaming my journey from the barrio to capitol hill. The 10 term democratic congressman from chicago discusses his journey from cabdrivers to Community Organizer to legal charge for Immigration Reform at the u. S. House of representatives. The program is about an hour. Host congressman get to see you. Lets have a conversation between two Puerto Ricans a liberal and conservative but we share a love for puerto rico in weird both committed to Immigration Reform. I found the book fascinating. Its great storytelling. You have a great sense of humor. Humor. There are some fantastic and it notes here and i recommend everyone should read this book. And latino or nonlatino its a fabulous book. As i read it to things came to mind identity and empowerment to words that describe Luis Gutierrez. A commitment to your latino roots in your puerto rican identity and a commitment to empower the Latino Community. Is that an assessment of who you are . Guest yeah. We try to describe to the reader why is it that Luis Gutierrez has a vocation for immigration and Immigration Reform . Why has he made that a priority . As you read the book he began to understand that my mom and dad left nothing in puerto rico. They had nothing there. They had no future. It was very sad. They had gone to grade school and then they came to america without a coat, without Language Skills with nothing except a desire. As immigrants continue to come to this country. They were puerto rican. Every aspect they came in 52 so we were in new york 60 years ago. The headlines in new york city would be that we were bringing diseases. How do we stop them from coming to new york . They were criminals, that they didnt speak the language and they wanted to get on welfare. How many times have we heard the same descriptions of immigrants today . So i saw my parents then and i wanted to inform people about how it is that i am brought up. I remember look i was born in 53. That was 10 years before the civil rights act. We may have been north of the north and masondixon line. The police were hostile to us. They were much more likely to put you up against the wall in ask you what you are doing. Youre always a suspect in your own neighborhood. Moreover there were each as you knew better than to go to and swimming pools in schools and neighborhoods that were inaccessible because they were for whites only. I wanted to inform people and then going to puerto rico for all of a sudden i am not puerto rican anymore. Host we really have to see your childhood as you were saying, growing up in puerto rican lincoln park and then when you are fit team your dad tells you son we are moving to puerto rico and this is what you say in the book. I think now that moving was the choice for my dad. It was an obligation. For my parents tired of the english language radio stations lacks in the end it was gangs and hippies and assassinations. It was time to go to puerto rico. Youre going to puerto rico at 15. Leaving your friends and everything you knew and he went to a place you had heard about. You were born in chicago. How was that experience . Guest first of all i grew up in bilingual household. What do we mean by bilingual . My parents spoke to me in spanish and i responded in english. They understood my english and i understood their spanish. I was never equipped to go to puerto rico. This was my dad and moms dream. It was their goal. My dad didnt call a family meeting to discuss the future. You did what you were told. It wasnt hard but you know what , as i describe in the book there and later on when you think about what was like for my mom and dad they came to america and they had two teenagers, my sister and i . Bayside gangs and they saw drugs. They were deep and devout catholics. What did they see . They saw john f. Kennedy we had a picture of john f. Kennedy. We had jesus christ too. We have the picture of john f. Kennedy and they saw him murdered and they saw another good Catholic Robert f. Kennedy and Martin Luther king. They saw hippies in the movement and drugs. It was such a time in the United States. When Martin Luther king was assassinated they saw the National Guard on our streets in the city of chicago. They saw a rioting and that my dad said its time to go back to the mountains of puerto rico, a place that is safer so i can finish raising the children. Host its because you grew up in a puerto rican neighborhood you thought of yourself as puerto rican but you go go to puerto rico and all of a sudden they see you as the guy from the u. S. As american and to separate the story here you are in class. You go to talk to this girl and you approach her and introduce yourself and she says the gringo is bothering me. Was she really talking about many . All of a sudden you go to puerto rico and now you are the gringo. How do you deal with that . Guest it was very difficult. It was a very painful time. I used to think that adolescents was the science of pain. Those were the two words and ive learned subsequently that it isnt that its about growing , write . But its a very painful time. Adolescence could be the science of pain because its a painful time for all of us into the rejected and isolated. Do you know what else i also write . Deno and luis and my friends and how they took an interest in me and how people came up to me from the Puerto Rican Independence Movement in city just came back from exile come, the son. You are part of the puerto rican diaspora. Welcome home. That was a very important time in my life. I learned spanish but i was in a spanish emergence. You and i understand that in 1969 to be a latino in the mountains as we talked about earlier the mountains are really much more traditional than Puerto Ricans and informed us more about who we are in the mountains then the beaches. The beaches or are more of a tourist phenomenon. We are not a country of surfers. Host its a mountain culture. Guest to mounting culture where its coffee and sugar cane. Sugarcane was the life led. When i get there i see sugarcane and icy fields and icy coffee groves and agriculture and i say to myself [inaudible] the interesting thing is it taught me in chicago theres one social class. You are all puerto rican. If there wasnt an upper class a middleclass and lower class. We were all in the same class, the puerto rican class that lived in the city of chicago. You work in a factory or swept floors are washed dishes. You you were all working class people. I realized social classes and social structure and the kinds of divisions that are made based on the color of your skin and on your income and who you are in terms of her income. I tried to describe some of that. Host you saw in the States Puerto rican as it were necessarily there. Guest lets say the entrepreneur in my neighborhood the top guy. They owned the local Grocery Store and probably were wealthy in comparison to the rest of us. We know he had more money because he always had it at his counter. How much he took in credit that day and how much you borrowed but he was an institution. I never member him charging interest. What he did was he kept you as a client and the bodega was a part of order rico and United States. Every now and then they would show up. Host family when you go to places like that. Now in puerto rico ive read in the book is for your political conscience awakens. You become involved with the independent party and the puerto rican independent party. The Minority Party and your parents supported the party in power that supports the political status. What was it about the Puerto Rican Independence Party that excited you and lead you to get quickly involves . Guest two things. Number one remember its and 68 and its still a fire in the belly. Puerto rican independence has never gained more than four or 5 of the electoral vote. They were. Years and dentists, lawyers, architects, owners. Many many women that industry and commerce as we would say. Do you know how many teachers where they are . A were everywhere and i looked at them. They are were important women and men. I listen to them plus they didnt call me gringo. They didnt call me american. They saw a fellow puerto rican that have been exiled as part of the colonial status of the United States. My parents and hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans had fled the islands in the 50s to try to find a Better Future because the island did not sustain any hope. I like to say plus you had to be there to see that young man. You could take an extended matter and build it into a grade for rader. The careful what you tell him. Maybe thats exactly where he is going as i read late in the book let me continue with your political career. Something in the book says a lot about you but says a lot about your families and your work ethic where it certainly comes from your father. When you move back from chicago to puerto rico he starts a restaurant and it didnt go very well but after that when you went to college were always working. At one point even started driving a cab because you wanted to make money to go back to puerto rico to help with your future life. It seems to me you say at one point that you felt it was important as a puerto rican to show that you are hardworking and Puerto Ricans have a good work ethic because there are many still today that like to use racist sino phobic characterizations of Puerto Ricans saying they are lazy and they just want welfare. But you are always working. Guest i was always working and i told the story of my dad and his restaurant, there were many times you relate any go back and you become saddened to think they worked so hard. Saving all that money to have this restaurant and have this beautiful place but that had never even gave it a name. He never even gave it a name. He worked so hard. I can only imagine how disillusioned he must abandon how hard or can you must abandon that he persevered and continued forward. I understand that there is a time when you need the government traded i understand that. I dont question it and i dont judge people. I think there is a role. I have always felt and i have always strived in every part of my life. So here i am im in chicago. Im married. Its 1977. I have met bachelors degree. You think they would be looking for a young bright intelligent people like to me to work for your firm for your company. No one. One application after another so i thought to myself i did this in college. I drove a cab but i have to tell you it was hard because i was driving a cab in so many plans. I remember when it didnt went back to see my data christmas and he said after all the effort and all at the expense for you to wind up doing exactly what i did. I kept telling him that its a stage its a movement. I have to keep my selfrespect and my dignity. I have to work and this is something that puts food on the table and pays the rent. Having said that it was good for me. Host how do immigrants do it now . Lawyers, doctors. They have to do it to sustain their families. Guest they do all kinds of work. They are the assistant to the assistant in the medical office when they have a medical degree. They are a legal aid, some paralegal when they were a lawyer. This happens but they work their way back. I think its the story of america to tell you the truth. Sometimes i look at the immigrant community and i always say they dont want to work. Are you kidding . They get one job in many time with immigrants they say what am i going to do for the next eight hours . Maybe i need a second job. They are always looking for a way to advance economically. Host the political interest was there. The commitment to the communities and something happens. You married the love of your life. How many years . Guest 35. Host congratulations. At that time he went back to chicago just like your parents did looking for a Better Future and you are not necessarily thinking of getting involved politically but something happens that makes you think i have to get involved. Can you describe a little bit would have been . Guest its a very important moment in my life. We would not be having this commerce a shin had it not been for them. In chicago there was an election for mayor in 1983. The incumbent, richie daily the son of mayor daley. They fight. Harold washington who was a freshman member of congress is compelled by the community to run for mayor and he wins the democratic nomination for mayor. Its a story. They call that subsequently babe ruth on the lake. He wins the nomination and on my door comes knocking officials from Dan Rostenkowski. Who is Dan Rostenkowski . Dan rostenkowski is the chairman of the Ways Means Committee the appropriations. Powerful committee. He is a concert to a democratic president and and a leader in the Democratic Caucus and whether his workers doing . Supporting upton the republican nominee under the theme upton, before its too late. Im sitting there in my home listening to these guys ask me to be a bigot, to be a racist to somehow be prejudiced. I said no. You are in the Democratic Party. U. N. Dan rostenkowski and all of the White Democratic Party establishment should be ashamed of yourselves. They did not want a black man to be mayor of the city of chicago. They said the lights wouldnt come on at night and the garbage wouldnt be picked up. They there would be chaos and pandemonium under the theme before its too late. Mondale came to chicago to campaign for him and they were viciously booed when they visited a church on a sunday. So i just want you to think of a time in which the city was ready. I stood up, could do you know what . We had just gotten our first house and we used to watch this old house and how they sanded their floors and how they refinish the woodwork and how you did a little drywalling how you rerouted your bathroom. We were happy. On the weekend i played dominos with my friends. I had a job. I was happy. A Perfect Party here and at baptism there in a wedding in your life is complete. We also planted azaleas in our front yard to make sure we kept up with all the neighbors. Then they knocked on my door and i said do you know what . Maybe im going to have a few beers and a few less games of dominos on the weekend and we will water the azaleas later. I need to get involved politically. As a puerto rican washington i ran against Dan Rostenkowski and got beaten. I got 24 of the vote but it changed my life. Host you for taking the chicago democratic clinical machine supporting Harold Washington and then challenging Dan Rostenkowski. Congressman we are going to have to cut it short because you are being called for a vote on the floor. Guest okay. Host congressman you decided to take Dan Rostenkowski in the Democratic Political machine in chicago. Im sure they were not happy with you. How was that . Guest number one i was very angry and disillusioned but at the same time very motivated with a high level of spirit saying we need a Democratic Party that doesnt use race as a barometer. I kept thinking of Martin Luther king you know and how people were going to be judged by the content of their character and the color of their skin. In chicago in 1983 we were still judging people on the color of their skin. Host the incredible thing is you fight them and he the one in that precinct. Guest in 1983 Harold Washington had thousands of volunteers just like the young people who had grown up in the 60s and 70s and were ready for change. Harold was a largerthanlife figure. He was eloquent and at the same time he was inspiring. He inspired me so i won 280 of 220 and i remember winning that precinct in the next year i run against Dan Rostenkowski for committeeman and they think well i just have to replicate this in 50 more precincts and im sure winner. It wasnt quite that way. I got 24 of the vote but i wanted the public to understand the next time you say luis got 87 of the vote the last election last november it wasnt always that way. I got 24 of the vote. Everyone at my neighbors on on the block that i live don had a Dan Rostenkowski poster in their window. Host and they were orange and blue right . Thats when you started getting a reputation as a rebel but somebody who stands for principle and you were willing to go against your own party and the machine if you believed what you are doing. Guest it was the right decision to make. Harold washington after that campaign invites me to come and join his administration. We get to meet and talk. A kid like me . Im 30 years old. Im sitting down with the mayor of the city of chicago. He is mentoring me and teaching me. He gives me a job. The responsibilities that i had in my story is not unique. There were hundreds of other young men and women they were given their first opportunity. He opened it up for women and and latinos and for black people to finally have positions of responsibility and all the past was to do good job and make sure that everyone regardless of the color of their skin or whatever they lived in jakarta that got a fa