[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 10 (Thursday, January 16, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S435-S436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        REMEMBERING JOSE MONTOYA

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in 
honoring the life of Jose Montoya, a husband, father, professor, 
activist, artist, and poet. Jose Montoya passed away on September 25, 
2013. He was 81 years old.
  Jose Montoya was born in Escobosa, NM and grew up in the farm towns 
of California's Central Valley. He served in the U.S. Navy during the 
Korean War before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the 
California College of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from 
California State University, Sacramento.
  Cognizant of the plight of farm workers because of his own experience 
picking grapes as a boy in the fields of Delano and Fowler, Jose 
Montoya became an advocate for the rights of farmworkers. In 1969, Mr. 
Montoya co-founded the Rebel Chicano Art Front--later known as the 
Royal Chicano Air Force--a highly influential collaboration of artists 
who worked alongside Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to generate public 
awareness of the struggles of migrant farmworkers.
  Mr. Montoya also touched the lives of thousands of students during 
his 27-year tenure as a professor of art, photography, and education at 
California State University, Sacramento, where he created the Barrio 
Art Program. Designed to provide students with hands-on experience 
working with communities in the arts, this program continues to serve 
as a model for arts-based service learning programs at

[[Page S436]]

other universities. In addition to his contributions as an artist, 
activist, and educator, Montoya was an accomplished poet who was 
selected as the city of Sacramento's Poet Laureate in 2002.
  Jose Montoya's legacy was eloquently summarized by his son Richard in 
an op-ed written for The Sacramento Bee: ``Jose Montoya was a cultural 
front liner and first responder. A doer. A creator who brought levity, 
defiance and satirical wit to the bloody fields of the San Joaquin as 
well as to the frigid halls of academe, all the way to the State 
Capitol and beyond.''
  He is survived by his wife, Juanita Jue, along with eight children, 
19 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. My heart goes out to his 
family and loved ones, and my thoughts and prayers are with them. We 
are indebted to him for his dedication to social justice and his 
immeasurable contributions to the community and our society.

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