[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 13, 2026)]
[House]
[Page H670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING ROBERTO MONDRAGON

  (Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of 
Roberto Mondragon, a Lieutenant Governor and musician.
  Roberto Mondragon was a beloved cultural figure in New Mexico whose 
voice, music, and lifelong work helped keep our traditions alive. He 
brought his resonant tenor to the cultural renaissance that made sure 
Nuevo Mexico did not lose its culture, its songs, its language, or its 
poetry. At a time when the Spanish language, music, and tradition were 
being pushed aside, he lifted them up, insisting that they belong not 
only in memory, but in classrooms, on the radio, and in the halls of 
power. He showed generations of young people, including my own high 
school choir that I sang in, the West Side Singers, that tradition is 
not behind us, but within us.
  Roberto will be remembered every time we sing ``That's New Mexico''; 
``Asi Es Nuevo Mexico,'' our State song.
  ``That is New Mexico, the Black, the Hispanic, the Anglo, the 
indigenous, all your children, all equal''; ``Asi es Nuevo Mexico. El 
negro, el hispano, el anglo, el indio. Todos son tus hijos, todos por 
igual.''

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