Luis Cortes Bringing Latinos To the Table:
In the summer of 2000, a fleet of dark, unmarked vehicles pulled up
to the North Philadelphia office of the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr. As
neighbors watched in amazement, armed men hustled a mysterious
visitor inside. What happened next launched the remarkable ascent of
a Hispanic Baptist minister until then little known outside
Philadelphia. The visitor was G.O.P. presidential candidate George W.
Bush, on a low-profile visit to woo Cortes and other Hispanic
leaders. Over the next few hours, Cortes and Bush formed a bond that
has vaulted the minister to the top tier of the fast-growing Hispanic
Protestant community. With grants from Bush's Faith-Based Initiative
and the cachet that comes from his Bush connection, Cortes, now 47,
has expanded his two-decade-old organization, Nueva Esperanza (New
Hope) nationwide, building houses in poor communities, offering
start-up loans to Hispanic businesses and launching an aids-awareness
program. In 2002 Cortes established the National Hispanic Prayer
Breakfast, addressed annually by Bush and attended by a bipartisan
slate of political heavyweights. "Part of integrating is
understanding power," says Cortes. "Our people have power, but they
have never used it." Now he's showing them how.
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Text David Van Biema, Cathy
Booth-Thomas/Dallas, Massimo Calabresi and John F.
Dickerson/Washington
John Cloud and Rebecca Winters/New York, and Sonja Steptoe/Los
Angeles.
With reporting by Amanda Bower/New York, Rita Healey/Denver,
Sean Scully/Philadelphia and Elaine Shannon/Washington
FROM THE FEBRUARY 7, 2005 ISSUE OF TIME MAGAZINE; POSTED SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2005
