[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       A TRIBUTE TO LUISA DeLAURO

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, on December 24 a very special member 
of the Connecticut community, Luisa DeLauro of New Haven, celebrated 
her 80th birthday.
  Luisa DeLauro has served her neighbors on New Haven's Board of 
Aldermen for 27 years, the longest tenure in the board's two century 
history. Through four decades and five different mayors--soon to be 
six, Luisa has been a tireless advocate for the people in her Wooster 
Square ward, the heart of the large Italian-American community in the 
New Haven area. She has fought consistently for more jobs and better 
housing, clean parks, and sidewalks, and lower taxes. After 14 terms as 
an alderwoman, her neighbors lovingly refer to her as ``The Mayor of 
Wooster Square,'' although most of them view her more as a friend than 
as a political representative.
  As a young woman, Luisa worked in the heat and din of a New Haven 
dress factory, struggling with other Italian immigrants to secure a 
better life for herself and her daughter in a land of opportunity. At 
night and on weekends, she worked in a bakery to supplement her meager 
income. Somehow, Luisa found the time to enter politics. In 1933, she 
wrote in the newsletter of the 10th Ward Democratic Club,

       We are not living in the Middle Ages when a woman's part in 
     life was merely to serve her master in the home, but we have 
     gradually taken our place in every phase of human endeavor, 
     and even in the heretofore stronghold of the male sex: 
     politics.

  As an alderwoman, Luisa has garnered praise for her tremendous 
energy, her unswerving loyalty to Wooster Square, and her Italian 
pastries, which she distributes at board meetings and on election day. 
She has also been a consistent champion of seniors and minority 
communities in her own ward and throughout the city.
  But she will always be remembered, together with her late husband 
Ted, for preserving the architectural beauty of downtown New Haven. In 
the 1940's, the couple fought hard against a plan to demolish many of 
the old buildings in Wooster Square and central New Haven and redevelop 
the area. Thanks to their efforts, the classic structures--many of 
which were over a century old even then--were renovated instead of 
destroyed. Today, Wooster Square is the most beautiful part of New 
Haven.
  Luisa DeLauro's life symbolizes what is best about America: family 
and hard work and public service. And she is showing no signs of 
slowing down. On her 80th birthday, I salute her.

                          ____________________