[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E244-E245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN HONOR OF JESSICA GOVEA THORBOURNE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2005

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a true heroine, 
Jessica Govea Thorbourne, who passed away on January 23 after a 12-year 
battle with breast cancer. Throughout her 58 years, Jessica worked 
tirelessly to improve the lives of immigrant farm workers and to 
strengthen the labor movement in California, nationally, and in Central 
America. She was a courageous, effective, and visionary leader, and a 
wonderful person. She will be sorely missed.
  Born in Porterville, California, Jessica began working in the cotton 
fields at the age of 4. By the age of 9 she was distributing leaflets 
alongside her father, Juan Govea, a respected leader of the Mexican 
American community of Bakersfield. He had been recruited by Fred Ross 
Sr. and Cesar Chavez to help organize local workers for the Community 
Service Organization, CSO. Her mother Margaret also became a very 
effective advocate of CSO. At

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the age of 12, as the president of the Junior CSO, Jessica led other 
child farm workers in a successful petition campaign for a neighborhood 
park.
  After graduating valedictorian from Bakersfield High School, Jessica 
completed one year of college. She made the sacrifice of foregoing 
college to begin working closely with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm 
Workers, UFW. It was there as a caseworker that Jessica first called 
attention to the adverse effects of pesticide exposure on farm workers. 
While most believed that the rashes, headaches and dizziness were from 
heat exposure, Jessica having suffered the same symptoms herself, 
believed it to be pesticide poisoning. Her persistence gave fuel to 
union boycotts and eventually gained national attention when it became 
the focus of the 1969 Senate hearing on migrant workers.
  When she was 21, she was sent to Canada to enlist supporters in the 
union's fight against grape growers. Her passion and eloquent speaking 
ability won broad support from students, laborers, and church groups 
and drew millions of Canadians into the boycott. The success of the 
boycott gave the UFW the critical leverage it needed to win contracts 
with the entire California grape industry. Because of her warnings, 
these contracts contained clauses banning the use of dangerous 
pesticides. Later, Jessica served as the National Director of 
Organizing for the UFW and was elected to the national executive board.
  Jessica spent countless hours registering voters and turning out the 
vote for numerous elected officials, including Jerry Brown in his 
successful bid for governor of California in 1974, and Robert Kennedy 
in his bid for the California Democratic 1968 presidential primary.
  As Chair of the California Democratic Party, I worked closely with 
Jessica in 1982. She demonstrated extraordinary leadership, energy, and 
commitment as the head of a crucial state-wide voter registration and 
get-out-the-vote drive. In 1992, she worked with Fred Ross Jr., at 
Neighbor to Neighbor, training leaders of SICAFE, the coffee workers' 
union of El Salvador, and with workers targeted by Salvadoran death 
squads.
  For the last two decades, she continued her work as labor educator at 
Rutgers and Cornell Universities. At Cornell she directed the Labor In-
House Programs in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. There 
she trained and inspired many organizers including Chinese-speaking 
health care workers, who with her assistance became activists and 
leaders in Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union.
  Despite her poor health from her battle with cancer, which she 
believed was caused by exposure to pesticides in the fields, she 
continued to be an invaluable colleague in the labor movement fighting 
for economic and social justice.
  We thank Jessica for her leadership, her courage, and her dedication 
to the labor movement and to our nation. Her work will continue in the 
laborers she empowered and the students she inspired.
  Our thoughts and prayers are with Jessica's husband, Kenneth 
Thorbourne Jr., her mother, Margaret Govea, and her siblings. I hope it 
is a comfort to them that so many people share their loss and are 
praying for them at this sad time.

                          ____________________