[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14306-S14307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MAYOR JOE SERNA

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, a great American died this past 
weekend: Mayor Joe Serna Jr. of Sacramento, California. Mayor Serna was 
much beloved by his constituents, family, and friends. We will all miss 
him terribly.
  Joe Serna and I became friends while working closely together on gun 
control, education, and other issues of mutual concern. He was a man of 
great vision, courage, energy, warmth, and humor.
  He was also a living embodiment of the American Dream: a first-
generation American who helped to reshape the capital of our Nation's 
largest state.
  Joe Serna Jr. was born in 1939, the son of Mexican immigrants. As the 
oldest of four children, Joe grew up in a bunkhouse and worked with his 
family in the beet fields around Lodi.
  Joe never forgot his roots. After attending Sacramento City College 
and graduating from California State University, Sacramento, he served 
in the

[[Page S14307]]

Peace Corps and went to work for the United Farm Workers, where Cesar 
Chavez became his mentor and role model.
  In 1969, Joe managed the successful campaign of Manuel Ferrales for 
the Sacramento City Council. After serving on the city's redevelopment 
agency in the 1970s, Joe was elected to the Council himself in 1981. He 
was elected mayor in 1992 and re-elected in 1996, winning both races by 
wide margins. Throughout his terms in office, he continued to work as a 
professor of government and ethnic studies at his alma mater, Cal State 
Sacramento.
  Mayor Serna virtually rebuilt the city of Sacramento. He forged 
public-private partnerships to redevelop the downtown, revitalize the 
neighborhoods, and reform the public school system. He presided over an 
urban renaissance that transformed Sacramento into a dynamic modern 
metropolis.
  Joe Serna died as he lived: with great strength and dignity. Last 
month, as he publicly discussed his impending death from cancer, he 
said, ``I was supposed to live and die as a farmworker, not as a mayor 
and a college professor. I have everything to be thankful for. I have 
the people to thank for allowing me to be their mayor. I have society 
to thank for the opportunity it has given me.''
  Mr. President, it is we who are thankful today for having had such a 
man serve the people of California.

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