sonja, the podium is yours. >> good morning. it is a privilege for me to join today with our longtime partner and champion, representative castro, to discuss a important issue in our community. the continued and severe underrepresentation of latinos in the media. during his time in congress, representative castro and -- u.s. have worked together on a host of issues affecting our community, including education, economic empowerment and voting rights. yet, there is no question that our ability to advance policy changes that expands opportunity for latinos on any of these major issues is sorted -- thwarted by the perceptions our fellow americans have of the latino community. our recent polling research confirms two things. first, most americans know very little about latinos. not our contributions or our challenges. second, there is an empathy gap among americans when it comes to the hispanic community. while 20% of those surveyed view our community negatively, the majority are simply indifferent to us. in short, the real story of