Introduction
When James Madison, the philosopher considered the father of the Constitution, was drafting the Bill of Rights, he sought to foment liberty for a populace who had seen up close what life was like without it.
After the colonies won their independence from England during the Revolutionary War, they were restless and fighting amongst themselves; the delegates from each state had descended upon Philadelphia to form a Congress in order to settle their differences and begin operating under a new federal government. The populace, informed by their experience of having been subject to a king, had been wary; Madison sought to unite the citizenry with his vision to protect the rights of the individual citizen from government encroachment or suppression, and preserve the freedom which had been so hard-won and, as Madison put it, jealously guarded.
When Madison first introduced the Bill of Rights to the Congress, he knew there was division upon the adoption of such a document—a philosophical battle between those for and against centralized government power. And so, before he introduced it, he delivered a speech by way of persuasion. “I believe that the great mass of the people who opposed” the idea of a federal government, he said, “disliked it because it did not contain effectual provisions against encroachments on particular rights, and those safeguards which they have been long accustomed to have interposed between them and the magistrate who exercises the sovereign power; nor ought we to consider them safe, while a great number of our fellow-citizens think these securities necessary.”
The Bill of Rights would be important, Madison concluded, because of the very reasons they had rebelled against the British crown, and he welcomed the citizens that dissented to the government as it stood, allowing him to fathom a document that strengthened and enshrined the nascent country’s freedoms. His hope was to “satisfy the public mind that their liberties will be perpetual, and this without endangering any part of the constitution, which is considered as essential to the existence of the government by those who promoted its adoption.”
The Congress was convinced, ratifying it on December 15, 1791.
Two-hundred and thirty-four years later, and nearly 250 years since the founding of the United States, it seems prudent to examine and retrench our fealty to those original rights, on which the country has prided itself ever since. The Bill of Rights provides a structure by which Americans can live by self-determination rather than an overlord’s rule, by which we are free to practice the religion of our choice, to speak out in dissent, to be free from unwarranted search and seizure, to have a speedy and unencumbered trial by jury, to be free from others’ infringements on the rights granted therein, and so on.
Meanwhile, American society has accelerated beyond what we can assume the founders, in the 18th Century, could ever comprehend. The United States has industrialized, technologized, and strengthened our original status as a land of immigrants, further enshrining the pluralism and diversity which shapes the country. By 2050, Latinos are projected to make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population, per one study by the Pew Research Center, with Black Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans projected to comprise over half the U.S. population by 2044. As our political power grows concurrent with our economic power, we heard Madison’s original call to imagine further liberties as the times demand, to jealously guard our freedom while honoring the country’s original desire to live peaceably and happily without the aegis of a King.
A Bill of Rights for our Future is a project dreamed up seven years ago by HOPE CEO Helen Torres, who was inspired upon seeing the way Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit Hamilton reenvisioned the founding of our country to center people of color, emphasize the importance of immigrants, and provide commentary on our more inclusive present. Like all important art, it sparked the synapses, and got Torres wondering what a Bill of Rights envisioned by Latinas might look like in the 21st Century, with all of our contemporary advancements and conundrums. For this first iteration, HOPE gathered a diverse collective of Latina professors, policymakers, activists and other leaders and asked them a single question:
If you could add a right to the Bill of Rights, what would it be?
The project follows the thought behind James Madison’s speech to the first Congress—that the freedom of the populace should be its utmost consideration—and was conceived to build upon the foundation laid forth by the Constitution: justice, domestic tranquility, general welfare, the blessings of liberty. Our invitees’ answers reflect these values for a more equitable future, while showcasing the vast diversity of thought amongst these esteemed Latinas about how to get there. It is a reflection of the complex nature of our fragile democracy, as well as the infinite multiplicities within our community itself.
We believe passionately in participatory democracy, and so the nature of this project is not to deliver lofty ideas from on high. Rather, it is meant to spark vision, creativity, and fire among you, too, for the future of a democracy in which Latinas and all communities both have an equitable say and play an important part in shaping.