FairVote - Antonio Gonzalez

Antonio Gonzalez

Antonio Gonzalez is President of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP). SVREP, founded in 1974, is the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the U.S.

Gonzalez assumed the presidency of SVREP in 1994, after serving during 1984-90 as an SVREP organizer and 1991-94 as a policy program director with the William C. Velasquez Institute, SVREP's sister organization. Gonzalez and SVREP have been central figures in the dramatic growth of Latino political participation across the nation. Gonzalez was the central architect of the Latino Vote USA and Latino Vote 2000 campaigns in 1996 and 2000 that mobilized record numbers of new Latino voters across the U.S.

In 2001-2 Gonzalez led a Latino coalition effort in several states that provided fair redistricting plans using 2000 Census data to state legislatures and local governments in order to increase opportunities for Latino and other minority communities to elect representatives of their choice to public office.

Currently, Gonzalez is leading two national nonpartisan voter mobilization alliances, the Ten Four Campaign and the Campaign for Communities. Together both efforts aim to raise Latino voting to a record 10 million registered and 7.5 million votes cast in 2004.

Gonzalez is perhaps the paramount expert on Latino voting characteristics and tendencies. In that capacity he assumed the presidency of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a non-partisan research and policy institute, also in 1994.

Gonzalez put WCVI on the map as the first national Latino organization to include U.S.-Latin America relations in the U.S. Latino Agenda. Key Gonzalez initiatives included: sending delegations to observe the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran elections in 1990 and 1991, leading the Latino Consensus on NAFTA movement that led to the creation of the three billion dollar North American Development Bank in 1993, promoting greater dialogue between the U.S. and Cuba, and critiquing the War on Drugs.

Gonzalez has lectured and written on U.S. Latino voting behavior, as well as Latino participation in U.S.-Latino America policy. He currently appears as a regular commentator on the National Public Radio’s Tavis Smiley Show and hosts his own weekly show of Pacifica’s KPFK in Los Angeles called “Strategy Session.”

Gonzalez has traveled extensively in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and is fluent in Spanish.

A graduate in U. S. History of the University of Texas, San Antonio in 1981, he also conducted undergraduate coursework at UC San Diego during 1975-77 and Masters course work in Latin American History at U.C. Berkeley in 1981-82.

Advisory Committee

In 2008, FairVote established a new Advisory Board comprised initially of recent members of its Board of Directors. These leaders receive updates from FairVote about our progress and regularly provide comments and advice:

Nikolas Bowie, Yale undergraduate student
Erin Bowser, executive director of Environment Ohio
Antonio Gonzalez, President of Southwest Voter Registration Ed. Project
Jesse Jackson Jr., Member of Congress
Laura Liswood, CEO of Council on Women's World Leaders
Nina Moseley, former executive director of Democracy South
Clay Mulford, chief operating officer of National Math and Science Initiative
Rashad Robinson, Director of media programs, GLAAD
Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms. Magazine



Home. > About Us > Leadership > Advisory Committee > Antonio Gonzalez
	Antonio Gonzalez Antonio Gonzalez is President of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP). SVREP, founded in 1974, is the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the U.S. Gonzalez assumed the presidency of SVREP in 1994, after serving during 1984-90 as an SVREP organizer and 1991-94 as a policy program director with the William C. Velasquez Institute, SVREP's sister organization. Gonzalez and SVREP have been central figures in the dramatic growth of Latino political participation across the nation. Gonzalez was the central architect of the Latino Vote USA and Latino Vote 2000 campaigns in 1996 and 2000 that mobilized record numbers of new Latino voters across the U.S. In 2001-2 Gonzalez led a Latino coalition effort in several states that provided fair redistricting plans using 2000 Census data to state legislatures and local governments in order to increase opportunities for Latino and other minority communities to elect representatives of their choice to public office. Currently, Gonzalez is leading two national nonpartisan voter mobilization alliances, the Ten Four Campaign and the Campaign for Communities. Together both efforts aim to raise Latino voting to a record 10 million registered and 7.5 million votes cast in 2004. Gonzalez is perhaps the paramount expert on Latino voting characteristics and tendencies. In that capacity he assumed the presidency of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a non-partisan research and policy institute, also in 1994. Gonzalez put WCVI on the map as the first national Latino organization to include U.S.-Latin America relations in the U.S. Latino Agenda. Key Gonzalez initiatives included: sending delegations to observe the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran elections in 1990 and 1991, leading the Latino Consensus on NAFTA movement that led to the creation of the three billion dollar North American Development Bank in 1993, promoting greater dialogue between the U.S. and Cuba, and critiquing the War on Drugs. Gonzalez has lectured and written on U.S. Latino voting behavior, as well as Latino participation in U.S.-Latino America policy. He currently appears as a regular commentator on the National Public Radio’s Tavis Smiley Show and hosts his own weekly show of Pacifica’s KPFK in Los Angeles called “Strategy Session.” Gonzalez has traveled extensively in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and is fluent in Spanish. A graduate in U. S. History of the University of Texas, San Antonio in 1981, he also conducted undergraduate coursework at UC San Diego during 1975-77 and Masters course work in Latin American History at U.C. Berkeley in 1981-82. Advisory Committee In 2008, FairVote established a new Advisory Board comprised initially of recent members of its Board of Directors. These leaders receive updates from FairVote about our progress and regularly provide comments and advice: Nikolas Bowie, Yale undergraduate student Erin Bowser, executive director of Environment Ohio Antonio Gonzalez, President of Southwest Voter Registration Ed. Project Jesse Jackson Jr., Member of Congress Laura Liswood, CEO of Council on Women's World Leaders Nina Moseley, former executive director of Democracy South Clay Mulford, chief operating officer of National Math and Science Initiative Rashad Robinson, Director of media programs, GLAAD Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms. Magazine