Editor's note

As LATINO LEADERS goes to print, the nation has celebrated the Fourth of July and is approaching September's festivities for Hispanic Heritage Month.

The two events, at first sight, do not seem to be directly connected, any more than our Jaci Velasquez cover story appears to be linked to that of Bernardo de Galvez, 18th-Century governor of Louisiana, in our Leaders of the Past section.

But if it were not for Galvez's crucial and timely help in defeating the British during the American Revolution, the nation would almost certainly not today celebrate the Fourth of July, and may well not have won its independence and freedom until the following century.

His efforts are as much a piece of America's hispanic heritage, as the songs and acting of Jaci Velasquez are an integral part of American culture. The soldier and the singer stride across four centuries of Latino contribution to the United States.

Jaci, who sings in Spanish and English, has joined the many other great

Latino artists and entertainers in sewing one more stitch into the American multicultural patchwork: a patchwork mirrored by Galvez's army of Indians, Creoles, free Africans and Spanish regulars.

Galvez, who was born in Spain and is buried in Mexico City, once governed what is today Cuba, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Southwest United States, Wyoming and Mexico. He was honored by the US Congress, which owed its existence almost as much to him as to his friend and ally George Washington.

America has always meant more than political lines drawn on a map: Galvez was an American.

Nick Wilson

Editor

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