[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10519-H10521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Meyers of Kansas). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. de la Garza] is 
recognized for 60 minutes.

[[Page H10520]]

  Mr. de la GARZA. Madam Speaker, I take the time today to inform the 
House and my colleagues that yesterday, September 16, was Mexican 
Independence Day. I spent the day visiting schools on the border area 
where I live that were celebrating on our side of the Rio Grande River 
the Mexican independence. I would like to relate to why it impacts on 
our side, and a little bit of what we have in unison with the people of 
Mexico and the nation of Mexico.
  First, let me say that the odyssey began some 500 years ago, when the 
first Spanish galleons traveled across the Atlantic under the 
sponsorship of a gracious queen of Spain, really searching for the Far 
East and the spices, and all of the other things that they wanted to 
bring back to Spain and to Europe, but a sailor named Christopher 
Columbus navigated his way and ended up in the islands of the 
Caribbean. From then came further and further immigration to the new 
lands, to the new world.
  Some of the first galleons that traveled from Spain, and the Spanish 
and the Portuguese navigated the world over, all the seas of the world, 
and then Great Britain and all of the other navies of the European 
nations, those that had navies, but this was the beginning of 
colonizing, the beginning of bringing people.
  Records show that the Spaniards came to Hudson Bay, to the northeast 
part of the United States, throughout the Atlantic, through the Gulf, 
but the eventual landings in which we are interested tonight came into 
what is now Mexico, basically Mexico and the Gulf parts of the United 
States. Although others went to what is now Peru, Chile, Argentina, 
they began settlement throughout all of the Americas.
  The relation to us, and this is of interest, is that in 1776, the 
process for independence began in what is now our Nation, the United 
States of America, by mostly immigrants from Great Britain, some German 
and other Europeans, but basically from Britain who had taken dominion 
over the lands that we now know as the northeast part of the United 
States, and a few States of the South. All of us know the interest and 
it was mentioned in earlier debate about taxation without 
representation.
  Eventually there was that yearning for independence which all 
individuals have inherently, so began the quest for independence, and 
the independence that was declared independent; or we, those who 
represented our country at that time, their desire for independence led 
to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
  Mexico came some 33 years later, in 1836. That was what began the 
process, on September 16, 1810. So what I wanted to bring out to the 
attention of our Members is that people of similar interests and 
similar desires that lived in Mexico and were the leaders of Mexico 
wanted their independence from Spain, so we had probably the most 
powerful nation in the world at that time, Spain, with dominion over 
what we now know as the Americas.
  They were saying the same thing, and that is the interest that we 
insist that our children and hopefully all of our people understand, 
that unity in thought and in deed by people of similar character and 
similar interests, and by accident, there were many similarities. There 
was a cry for independence here; there was a cry for independence in 
Mexico.
  A bell was rung in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell that all of us 
know. Thirty-some years later a bell was rung at a village named 
Dolores Hidalgo, which could be almost the echo of what we heard in 
Philadelphia, almost the echo of the bell that rang at Dolores Hidalgo, 
shouting the same thing: Liberty, just, freedom, equality. It has been 
hard to achieve and it is not yet ultimately achieved, both in our 
country or in Mexico, but that was the beginning.
  George Washington was, in Mexico, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla. 
We had a Betsy Ross that is credited for weaving the first flag of our 
country. Mexico had a lady, Dona Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, that was a 
part of the independence movement, and actually warned the Mexican 
insurgents or the Mexican freedom-loving leaders of that effort that 
the Spaniards were coming to catch them and imprison them.
  Those are the things that we recollect at this time, because they 
almost copy our Constitution, and the Jefferson and the Franklins, 
Mexico had their counterparts. Morelos was a foremost Parliamentarian 
in Mexico, and they have had harsh times because of internal problems, 
military.
  But this is something that we ought to realize and consider in our 
dealings with Mexico, that we were dominated by the British, and I say 
we, those that lived here at that time.

                              {time}  2245

  My part of Texas was not a part of the endeavor of 1776 because we 
were a part of New Spain. Then when those great Mexicans, of which my 
family was one, although we lived far away from the area up where the 
events occurred, it was nonetheless part of New Spain, and later it 
became part of Mexico when Mexico secured its independence from Spain. 
And then when Texas secured its independence from Mexico in 1836, we 
became Texas. And then when Texas joined the Union, we became citizens 
of the United States of America for which we are proud and we have 
served. You can count the Purple Hearts, you can count the Medals of 
Honor, you can count those who served. I served twice, Navy and Army. 
My mother's youngest brother died in the service of our country. We 
have his Purple Heart. So those are the things that unify us. I wanted 
to say to some of our colleagues that might have some concern that we 
have a double culture. Well, double or triple culture does not diminish 
an individual, it enhances the individual. It brings more knowledge, it 
brings more activity related to their individual ethnic beginnings.
  In Texas, the center part of Texas when Mexico wanted to colonize the 
northernmost part of their territory at the time, which stretched 
basically from Texas to California, to Oregon, all what we call now the 
Southwest, they sent impresarios which they offered land to go bring 
from Europe people to colonize, to come and live on the land. But one 
caveat was, don't bring Spanish, don't bring British, don't bring 
French. Those were the three nations that coveted that area. So they 
went to middle Europe and they brought German and Czech and Slovak and 
Polish, some Hungarians. Madam Speaker, those are the ethnic groups in 
my congressional district now in Texas that came when we were a part of 
Mexico. They settled in that area, and I have in my district all of 
those ethnic groups, speaking their language, their culture.
  Next week there is going to be a Czech night near Corpus Christi. We 
have the German festivals, we have the Polish festivals. This is part 
of what the United States is. This is a mosaic of what we are and who 
we are. That is why the interest in the Mexican independence. Because 
if they had been no Mexican independence, we may not have at this time 
what we now know as the United States of America.
  Also in an unfortunate incident of history, two-thirds of Mexico 
became part of the United States. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, 
California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, almost all of that area which was 
Mexico became part of the United States. And now we proudly proclaim 
and pledge allegiance to our flag. But yet we have respect for whom our 
ancestors were, what they did, and where they came from. And so we have 
this dual, that when we celebrate Mexican independence day, many of our 
families, my family, were part of that effort and became independent 
from Spain, as our brethren from the northeast became independent from 
Great Britain. And now we are what we are, incidents of history but 
nonetheless reality in the world we live in. And because of that, we 
are the most powerful Nation in the world, in the history of the world.
  Also this morning, Madam Speaker, I was able to participate in a 
Hispanic month celebration at the Department of Agriculture. As 
unmerited as it may have been, they honored me with a plaque being 
chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. But this is something that 
most of our colleagues need to know, and the people need to know, that 
when the Spaniards came to the new world, they brought what was the 
beginning of American agriculture, the greatest agricultural nation in 
the world. But they brought the seeds for wheat, the vines for the 
grapes. They brought many of the European agricultural products. But 
here was corn and

[[Page H10521]]

cocoa and some argument about tobacco but I insist that tobacco was 
here. Potatoes. Throughout the Americas, we wove together what the 
Europeans brought with what we already had here. And in many parts of 
this Western Hemisphere, the Indians, we call them that, the Aztecs in 
Mexico, they had irrigation systems, they had aqueducts. At the same 
time they had aqueducts in Spain and all the areas of Europe. The basic 
American water law comes from Spain. But the natives in this 
hemisphere, the Aztecs, performed surgery. They had zoological gardens 
grander than any that you see now throughout our country. They had 
pyramids grander than those on the River Nile. And in Guatemala and in 
the Yucatan and in Peru, the Incas, we had a civilization equal at 
least to that that came from Europe. This is part of our history, part 
of our culture.
  That is what I wanted to tell my colleagues, that when we celebrate 
Mexican independence day, we are celebrating part of what has been an 
impact on what is now the United States of America, including 
territory. Because this was the way to the Pacific that belonged to 
Mexico at that time, in 1848, the Treaty of Dolores Hidalgo that was 
transferred to the then fledgling United States of America. So you 
cannot separate the issue. I as an individual cannot separate or bring 
myself to separate myself from the culture, from the ethnic 
derivatives. I serve this Nation, this country, that flag. But yet some 
of my ancestors served the other country and that flag, and forever I 
will have respect for both, but loyalty to this one. So that is 
something I wanted to make clear. For those who may have some 
confusion, for those that may ask, well, why would we celebrate Mexican 
independence?

  Mexico has had a very harsh history, occupied by Spaniards first, 
occupied by the French. President Benito Juarez began the process of 
ridding Mexico of the French occupation. The Austrian emperor opposed 
an emperor of Mexico named Maximilian and they did not have the ability 
to resist but eventually a humble Indian named Benito Jurarez led an 
effort to rid Mexico of the imposition of foreign rule. And we 
celebrate the Fifth of May, which is the culminating battle, not the 
end, of getting the French out of Mexico. That is celebrated on the 
border and through many parts of the United States where there are 
Mexicans or of Mexican descent, because this was what rid all of the 
new world of foreign powers. The French were the last to occupy Mexico 
and after that, there has been basically no formal occupation of any of 
the lands of North and South America. We celebrate that with great joy, 
we do in Texas because the general that led the Mexican troops had been 
born in Texas, when Texas was a part of Mexico. So we take great pride 
in that. That general was born in what is now my congressional 
district, in Goliad, TX, when his father was head of the garrison for 
the Mexican army in Goliad, TX. Goliad later played a part in the Texas 
effort for independence against Mexico. But I wanted to congratulate, 
if for no one else but myself as a Member of this House, the people of 
Mexico and the Government of Mexico.
  One word that I would like to leave, and it is quoted quite often, 
that President Benito Juarez said that ``among men, as among nations, 
respect for the rights of others is peace.'' And that we honor on the 
Fifth of May.
  And then another great President of Mexico and my good and dear 
friend, President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, said right here from this rostrum 
when he delivered an address to a joint session of Congress that, and I 
quote, ``Geography has made us neighbors, history has made use 
friends.'' He said that right from here, Madam Speaker. And that is 
what we celebrate when we celebrate. You cannot separate the United 
States of America, as we know it today, from the Mexican people, from 
the Mexican culture because, as President Diaz Ordaz said, ``Geography 
has made us neighbors, history has made us friends.'' That is 
irrevocable, that is inseparable.
  And so I join with all of those that celebrated yesterday throughout 
the United States Mexican independence with this explanation, if I 
might call it, of why we do that, why we are proud, and what we have 
done in order to foster and enhance the United States of America which 
for those of use that are citizens is indeed something that we feel 
that an accident of history made me a citizen of the United States of 
America but one that I am terribly proud, but I will always have a 
love, admiration and respect for the Mexican people because at one time 
we were part and a great part of our country was part of their country. 
That is irrevocable, but also you cannot separate it from your feelings 
and from the interests that you have when neighbors honor and respect 
neighbors.

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