[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 197 (Thursday, November 19, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H5940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING MARIA CERDA

  (Mr. GARCIA of Illinois asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, on November 8, we lost a 
trailblazer for the Latino community due to COVID-19.
  Maria Cerda was the first Puerto Rican woman and first Latina 
appointed to the Chicago Board of Education.
  In that role, she secured funding for bilingual education programs 
and culturally responsive curricula that helped children like me, whose 
first language was not English, succeed.
  She went on to cofound the Latino Institute and later served as an 
appointee to President Jimmy Carter's National Council on Educational 
Research.
  In the 1980s, Mayor Harold Washington appointed Maria Cerda to head 
the Office of Employment and Training to oversee Federal job training 
programs.
  The role she played in turning Chicago into a sanctuary city also 
deserves recognition.
  Maria was once accosted by immigration agents in a clear case of 
racial profiling. The incident prompted Mayor Washington to issue the 
Nation's first ordinance preventing harassment of people of immigrant 
background.
  We celebrate her for her outstanding commitment to social, 
educational, and economic equity for Latinos in Chicago and throughout 
our country.
  Rest in power, Maria Cerda. We are eternally grateful for your work.

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