[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 26713]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 26713]]

     STATEMENT HONORING MR. BATISTA VIEIRA AND MRS. DOLORES VIEIRA

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 25, 1999

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to congratulate Mr. Batista 
Vieira and Mrs. Dolores Vieira on the 25th anniversary of their 
involvement with the Broadcast Radio Industry, a quarter-century tenure 
that has been marked by tremendous dedication and service to the 
Portuguese community in California. Because of their work, the 
Portuguese language, culture, traditions, and values have remained 
alive for the people of California in ways that would have been 
otherwise impossible.
  For the last twenty-five years, Mr. and Mrs. Batista's ``Portuguese 
Radio'' has helped the ``Portuguese of the Diaspora'' living in my 
district and surrounding areas in Northern California to remain in 
close contact with the customs and lives of their friends and families 
in Portugal. ``The Portuguese Radio'' has impressed itself upon the 
daily lives of so many Portuguese immigrants because of the connection 
it brings to the nation many of these individuals still consider their 
cultural homeland; the sounds of Portugal broadcast over Portuguese 
Radio fill the homes and businesses of these people for countless hours 
of the day with sounds of the land they once knew, tying their old 
traditions and ways of life to the land that has newly become their 
adopted home.
  Northern California, and particularly Santa Clara County, is a land 
of tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity, serving as it does as a 
home to immigrants from all areas of the globe. The cultural richness 
of this area is truly a result of the efforts of individuals such as 
Mr. and Mrs. Vieira who have worked through the Broadcast Radio 
Industry to preserve the beautiful traditions of Portugal in living 
form. The people of Northern California owe them a profound debt of 
gratitude.

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