[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 90 (Friday, June 25, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1284-E1285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF RAFAEL LOPEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 25, 2004

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of the great young 
leaders I have had the privilege to know and work with. Rafael Lopez of 
Watsonville, California, will be leaving his post as founding Executive 
Director of First 5 Santa Cruz County to attend Harvard University and 
pursue a Master's degree in Public Policy and Administration.
  Rafael is a native of Watsonville, where his family worked as migrant 
agriculture workers. One of the many noteworthy facts about his life is 
that he was the first in his family to graduate from both high school 
and college. Rafael graduated from Watsonville High School and attended 
Vassar College in New York and the University of California, Santa 
Cruz, where he earned a degree with honors in American Studies and was 
awarded a Distinguished College Service Award. Rafael's resume reflects 
his deep commitment to his community and our nation: an internship with 
a Member of Congress, staff member of the UCSC Chicano Latino Research 
Center; Coordinator for Residential Education at Merrill College, UCSC; 
working with groups such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz 
County, the El Andar Foundation, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz 
County, the City of Watsonville, the County of Santa Cruz, the list 
goes on and on.

[[Page E1285]]

  Most recently, however, Rafael has truly shown what it means to be a 
community leader. In 1999, he ran for a seat on the Watsonville City 
Council in a special election, and won with over 70 percent of the 
vote. At the time, Rafael was the youngest person in Watsonville's 
history to serve on the council, and he approached this position with a 
passion and commitment that reflected his love of his hometown. As in 
all things in his life, he felt called to serve his constituency to the 
best of his ability, and reached out to those he served in an 
unprecedented manner.
  Shortly after his election victory he was tapped as the founding 
Executive Director of First 5 Santa Cruz County, a countywide program 
implemented through the passage of the California Children and Families 
First Act (Proposition 10). Once again Rafael rose to the challenge of 
working with and implementing a program aimed at serving children from 
zero to five years old and their families out of whole cloth. While the 
act itself does provide many specifications for how each county's 
commission would operate, it also provides the flexibility necessary 
for each commission to implement the act in a way that helps its 
constituency best. For Rafael and the commissioners, this included 
grant funding to large and small programs; countywide analysis with 
partners such as the United Way on the state of families and children 
in Santa Cruz County; and perhaps most groundbreaking is the upcoming 
implementation of guaranteed health care for all children from zero to 
eighteen. This last program has been the vision of many individuals and 
organizations in the county, and is the result of a unique and exciting 
partnership, but without a doubt Rafael's energy, focus and passion for 
this program shines through.
  Mr. Speaker, there are few individuals who have left as large an 
impact on the Pajaro Valley and Santa Cruz County as Rafael Lopez. I am 
honored to know him, and equally saddened to see him go. I would like 
to take this opportunity to wish him and his wife, Rosa Ramirez, all of 
the best in success and happiness as they enter this new stage in their 
lives.

                          ____________________