[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 97 (Thursday, July 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ``HONORING A FALLEN HERO, YASBEL `MAC' ARREDONO ORTIZ''

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HILDA L. SOLIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 12, 2001

  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Ysabel ``Mac'' 
Arrendondo Ortiz, who proudly served his county in Korea. Although he 
was listed as Missing In Action on Dec. 2, 1950, his family never gave 
up hope that he would return home. In January of 1954 his mother, 
Concha, received notice that Corporal Ysabel A. Ortiz had been awarded 
the Purple Heart Award posthumously for making the supreme sacrifice 
for his county.
  Cpl. Ysabel was born and raised in the 31st Congressional District 
city of El Monte, California. He was a third generation El Montean. His 
grandfather, Longino Ortiz, came to America in 1915 to look for a 
better life for his family and escape the troubles of the Mexican 
Revolution. He arrived in El Monte and sent for the rest of the family 
from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico.
  Ysabel A. Ortiz, or Mac as his friends and family knew him, attended 
school in El Monte at a time when Mexican-American children were 
segregated from white school children. Mac attended school up to grade 
5 at Lexington School and then Columbia school from grade 6 through 8. 
He attended El Monte High School and then enlisted in the U.S. Army at 
age 18.
  Mac's service to his country has not gone unrecognized. His name 
appears on a bronze plaque honoring our nation's war dead at the El 
Monte Historical Museum. Mac's photo also hangs in the La Historia 
Society Museum/ Museo de Los Barrios Veterans Exhibit, which is also in 
El Monte. To this day, Cpl. Ysabel ``Mac'' A. Ortiz's Purple Heart is 
proudly displayed by his sister Chata.
  Mac Ortiz was survived by his mother, Concha Ortiz (now deceased); 
his father, Ysabel M. Ortiz, Sr. of West Covina, CA; his brothers 
Harold Ortiz (now deceased) and Jose Lucio Ortiz, of Oklahoma; his 
sisters Esmeralda ``Chata'' Ortiz Ureno of Covina and Jennie Sanchez of 
Whittier; his step-brothers Manuel Ortiz of El Monte and Rudy Ortiz of 
Bakersfield; and his step-sisters Rose Soto of West Covina and Ana 
Sanchez of Arcadia.
  Mac Ortiz's loving memory lives in the hearts of Chata and the entire 
Ortiz family. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mac Ortiz's 
contributions to our great nation.

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