Satisfied Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month! This yr’s theme is “Latinos: Riding Prosperity, Energy and Growth in The us.” That theme has made me mirror upon my very own circle of relatives’s historical past on this nation and the way a long way we’ve come.
As lots of you recognize, I’m Mexican American and a fifth-generation Arizonan, which means that my circle of relatives has been in Arizona for the reason that 1700s. My great-great Nana Eduvijes Fontes used to be a pioneer girl, who lived via laborious instances throughout the Melancholy, witnessed battles of the Mexican Revolution, and traveled loads of miles alongside what is referred to now because the Arizona-Mexico border serving to information infantrymen within the Arizona wasteland. My different great-great Nana operated a meals stand, even promoting as soon as to Francisco “Pancho” Villa, who used to be a pacesetter within the Mexican Revolution. My circle of relatives additionally comprises my Tata Albert, who used to be a veteran and a mechanic for the Town of Phoenix, and my Nana Celia, who raised 11 youngsters together with my mother, Eduvijes.
Eduvijes Fontes
Elevating a big Mexican American circle of relatives in Phoenix within the Nineteen Fifties and 60s supposed dealing with discriminatory indicators like “No Canines or Mexicans.” My mother used inform me tales about peering into downtown division retailer home windows, admiring the pretty attire, however by no means having the ability to pass inside of. She’d additionally inform me concerning the instances when the circle of relatives dressed as much as attend mass within the downtown Basilica. My circle of relatives used to be by no means allowed within the upstairs pews—however as an alternative, could be compelled to take a seat and pray within the basement of the church. They had been remoted and hidden from the remainder of the church goers.
Eduviges Fontes in The Day-to-day Arizona Superstar paper.
Remarkably, and a testomony to the “Prosperity, Energy and Growth in The us,” my mom’s daughter now runs the Administrative center for Civil Rights on the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Services and products—only one era later. My circle of relatives’s tales, my roots, and our collective studies form who I’m, and the paintings I do with all of you. I’m very pleased with my historical past and tradition. I consider my circle of relatives on a daily basis in our paintings—what they’ve skilled and overcame, and the way I were given right here. I do know each and every of you’ve gotten your personal circle of relatives histories that force you to advancing the project of our place of work and civil rights in our nation. I’m ecstatic so as to proportion mine.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra pictured with OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer and her mom.
I’m additionally proud to be a part of an Management that helps and honors the various historical past of generations of Latinos, who’ve formed this nation. This month, President Biden signed a proclamation on Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month to spotlight the important contributions that our colleagues, together with our personal head of HHS, Secretary Xavier Becerra, in addition to greater than 62 million Latinos make within the U.S. This Management has additionally made fairness a Day One precedence, together with expanding Latino enrollment in healthcare via roughly 1 million folks, offering over 7.6 billion greenbacks in investment for 1400 Group Well being Facilities (CHCs), which predominately serve Latino and communities of colour, and making improvements to prescription drug protection and reducing prices during the Inflation Aid Act.
And this month, I participated in a panel titled “Latinas to the Entrance: Dialog concerning the State of Girls’s Well being” on the first-ever HHS Hispanic Well being Summit. Latinas are specifically inclined within the reproductive well being house, with 6.5 million Latinas now dwelling within the 26 states that experience banned or are more likely to ban abortion. I proudly spoke at the movements that HHS has taken to offer protection to reproductive healthcare, and an outline of civil rights protections that Latinas are coated via, and the assets which are made to be had via my place of work. This dialog is necessary and wanted available.
Latinas to the Entrance: Dialog concerning the State of Girls’s Well being Panel
The paintings we’ve performed to beef up the lives of Latinos dwelling in The us makes me proud. I can at all times use my circle of relatives’s historical past as motivation in operating with all of you to satisfy the OCR project. ¡Feliz Mes de los angeles Herencia Hispana!