The end of the year holds promising signs for the country and HispanicLatinos – unless the Republican-held House of Representatives drives the global financial markets into turmoil and drags the economy back into recession and/or various foreign crises detonate.  If not for the fiscal cliff, the nation should be able to look forward to start moving again and leaving the blight of the disastrous Bush years behind – finally.  With wars ending (and hopefully none soon aborning) and the economy slowly eating away at the remaining distressed properties in an improving housing market, the country can begin to assess what it needs to do to fix itself for the years ahead.  Finding the will to rebuild its infrastructure, expand its domestic energy supply and strengthen its educational systems, the nation can deliver on its promise.

Though it takes courage to tackle the issues at hand, a strong economy can salvage much.  With the Bush Recession slowly lifting, the oft-misused phrase “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” comes closer to being true.  No country’s economy is better positioned to explode – and burn with a flourish.  Some of the country’s travails – a plague of obesity, students saddled with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, a corrupted Washington, a broken immigration system, an increasingly farcical Supreme Court – are redeemable.  For that precise reason, HispanicLatinos need to step up their efforts to help resolve the challenges that vex the country.

HispanicLatinos did themselves a favor by voting overwhelmingly Democratic last month – thus serving notice on out-of-step Republicans that they will be blamed for any misstep that makes the future more challenging still.  In fact, the GOP is on probation.  But so are Democrats – and HispanicLatinos themselves.

On so many fronts the problems that confront HispanicLatinos can be traced back to their being forced by history and other forces for starting life behind or on the wrong foot.  But most of those can go a long way to being resolved with better parenting, higher levels of civic engagement, more focused decision-making by individuals and more effective and courageous leadership by their elected and appointed leaders (and the development of new leaders and/or the replacement of those least worthy of their positions).

HispanicLatinos often reveal themselves in public opinion surveys as being the most optimistic of all groups in the country.  I always hope that those feelings reflect an innate sense that the fundamentals of their community and the nation are strong.  But I also have suspected that many tend to settle for too little or for only enough to get them by – the wrong attitude in a nation in which individual initiative and achievement are essential.  Of all the things HispanicLatinos need is the prerequisite ability to see what is possible in their lives.

And everything is possible.

No HispanicLatino youngster anywhere in the country is doomed automatically to a life defined by bad schools or bad diets.  Good parenting can overcome any challenge.  In families in which parenting could be improved, there almost always is an aunt or an uncle or cousin or teacher or coach or priest or pastor who can make a difference.  But for these secondary actors to have an opportunity to intercede, a greater, more positive vision of the future must be revealed and organized for all.  Hope comes from an elevated sense of self or from leaders who can spell out how their communal good fortune can motivate HispanicLatinos to create for themselves a far different destiny than that often ordained by the past.

HispanicLatinos who have done well and have excelled have a special responsibility.  Unless they engage, they give free reign to those who can stunt everyone’s progress.

The fundamentals of the country are good.  And so are those of the HispanicLatino population – but they must stoke themselves into the fire that they can become.

Jesse Treviño is the former editorial page editor of The Austin American-Statesman.