[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 60 (Monday, April 8, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING LONGTIME CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST NATIVO VIRGIL LOPEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. J. LUIS CORREA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 8, 2019

  Mr. CORREA. Madam Speaker, I would like to take some time today to 
honor Nativo Virgil Lopez, a longtime civil rights activist and a 
powerful voice and advocate for the immigrant community. A sixth-
generation Mexican-American, Nativo Virgil Lopez was born in Los 
Angeles and raised in Norwalk. As a high school student, he was 
inspired to grassroots immigrant rights activism by the national 
movement against the Vietnam War, due to the high numbers of deaths and 
wounded of Latinos and African Americans.
  In 1982 he founded the Orange County chapter of Hermandad Mexicana 
Nacional (HMN) based in Santa Ana, an organization dedicated to 
improving the social and political conditions of Latinos in the United 
States. He was involved in successful efforts to win a large-scale 
amnesty for undocumented immigrants in 1986, and the years-long 
campaign to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses 
in the 1990s.
  In 1996 Lopez and Hermandad was instrumental on a Latino get-out-the-
vote drive that helped Loretta Sanchez win California's 46th District 
seat in the U.S. Congress.
  In 1996 Nativo was elected as a trustee of the Santa Ana Unified 
School District and served through 2003. Backed by the MALDEF--Mexican 
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund--he claimed that the 
practice of printing initiative and recall petitions in English-only 
was a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This led to the state 
requiring Spanish-language petitions statewide in 2002, and local 
jurisdictions also providing multilingual election materials.
  Nativo was a key co-organizer of the 2006 United States immigration 
reform protests. Over 500,000 people marched for comprehensive 
immigration reform in those marches in Los Angeles and Santa Ana. 
Nativo was leader in making this a reality.
  Nativo has been a previous member of LULAC and has renewed his 2019 
membership with Santa Ana LULAC Council No. 147. He has worked closely 
with LULAC National President Domingo Garcia to stop the building of 
the border wall and continuing his struggle for the adoption of a 
comprehensive immigration reform that has a smooth pathway towards 
citizenship.
  Nativo Lopez is truly a fighter for the immigrant community, and I am 
proud to honor his commitment to the community.

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