[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING GEORGE L. ORTIZ

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 6, 2020

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today with my 
colleague, Representative Jared Huffman, to remember George L. Ortiz 
for decades of exceptional public service to Northern California and to 
honor him for his commitment to our Latino community.
  Mr. Ortiz was born in East Los Angeles in 1934 to migrant farmworker 
parents. From an early age, Mr. Ortiz followed in his parents' 
footsteps by working in the fields of Southern California. He then 
served in the U.S. Army in Germany in 1957 and 1958. After his time in 
the military, he received a track scholarship at Fresno State College, 
where he became the first member of his family to attend college.
  Mr, Ortiz moved to Northern California in the 1960s and became a 
social worker, first for Sonoma County and then for California Rural 
Legal Assistance. For nearly 60 years, he was at the forefront of 
efforts to organize and bring equal opportunity and treatment to 
Mexican Americans living in the North Bay and beyond. In 1967, Mr. 
Ortiz co-founded California Human Development, a leading human services 
organization, and the Latinos Unidos scholarship program.
  In 1999, The Press Democrat named George Ortiz as one of 50 people 
most responsible for shaping Sonoma County through the 20th Century. In 
2017, the North Bay Business Journal bestowed on him the Latino 
Business Leadership Award. In 2018, Sonoma State University awarded Mr. 
Ortiz the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and that same 
year, the Mexican government presented him one of its highest honors, 
the Ohtli Award, for his efforts on behalf of Mexican nationals in the 
United States.
  Mr. Ortiz leaves behind a loving and devoted family; his wife Carol 
and their children, Robert and Diane and two granddaughters.
  Madam Speaker, we thank Mr. Ortiz for his unrelenting commitment to 
uplift Latinos in Northern California. It is therefore fitting and 
proper that we honor his service and remember the life of George L. 
Ortiz here today.

                          ____________________