Sylvia Aguilera, MPP’94
Closing the Digital Divide
At a Congressional hearing last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unveiled a plan to bring high-speed Internet access to more Americans, influencing new programs and billions of dollars in federal spending over the next ten years. That’s good news, says Sylvia Aguilera, MPP’94, as long as those efforts target the people who need it most.
“The Hispanic community has the lowest level of technology use of all minority groups in the United States,” explains Aguilera, executive director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP), a nonprofit coalition of the nation’s top Hispanic organizations devoted to bridging the digital divide that has existed for decades.
According to recent Federal Communications Commission study, only 50 percent of Hispanics have broadband at home. Among Spanish-speaking Hispanics, that number drops to as low as 20 percent, compared to the average 65 percent for the general population. This reality has sounded more alarms in recent years as digital innovations have become increasingly tied to things like civic engagement, education, and career advancement. “There’s so much going on with technology today,” she adds. “If you don’t keep up, it can hold a community back.”
Aguilera has been advocating for the Hispanic community since her undergraduate days at American University, when she interned with the DC Office of Latino Affairs. Shortly after, she received a fellowship grant from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation that helped her beef up her analytical training at the Harris School. “I feel like I’m so much stronger an advocate because I can bring well-founded policy arguments to the table instead of just passion,” she says. “Without that really strong foundation, being able to break down issues and present them clearly, you can’t get far in this town.”
That methodical perspective helped her land a position working on housing policy at the National Puerto Rican Coaltion, where she helped create HTTP in 1996. At the time, the lack of access to advanced technology was a hot topic among maintream advocates, and Hispanics were worried they were getting left out of the discourse, she says. HTTP would finally give Latino organizations a seat at the table.
HTTP has since grown into a leading voice on telecommunications and technology issues, providing policy changes impact the Hispanic community and testifying before Congress and regulatory agencies with recommendations. As the first full-time executive director, Aguilera now devotes all her energy to speaking with policymakers on Capitol Hill, coordinating Latino organization efforts, and analyzing documents like the FCC’s 360-page National Broadband Plan to help HTTP members take advocacy positions. “If people are trying to develop policy solutions, we need to be a part of that discussion,” she says. “I want to lead [HTTP] to the next level.”
And there’s plenty of work to do. Ask Aguilera why Hispanics lag behind in technology access and her answer is twofold: First, the digital divide is tied closely to low education, acculturation, and income levels. Second, in the scope of American history, Hispanic organizations have arrived on the civil rights field after other minority groups and are still playing catch up in certain areas, technology included. In both cases, HTTP and its high-speed connection efforts are making up for lost time.
By Steven Yaccino
