[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15431]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO MR. ALFREDO ZAMORA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY CUELLAR

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 20, 2006

  Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Alfredo Zamora, 
Jr., Chief Executive Officer of South Texas Rural Health Services, 
Inc., for his exemplary leadership in providing healthcare to those 
living in rural areas in South Texas.
  Alfredo Zamora, Jr. was born on June 19, 1941, to his Mexican-
American migrant parents, Guadalupe Cantu and Alfredo Zamora. His 
family would travel to Wisconsin, and to the fields of Illinois to work 
the land there. After he graduated from Cotulla High School in 1961, he 
joined the United States Army, and received a honorable discharge in 
1963, which allowed him to attend a teacher's college where he then 
continued his further education at Carthage College in Kenosha, 
Wisconsin, and he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in elementary 
education in 1968.
  He also received a fellowship in the Ford Foundation Leadership 
Development Program in 1969 that helped him learn how to become an 
effective leader in advocacy, community organizing, and political 
awareness. The leadership skills that Mr. Zamora learned was put to 
great use by becoming the first Mexican-American mayor of the City of 
Cotulla in the State of Texas. In 1972, Mr. Zamora was recruited to 
become Executive Director of SER-Jobs For Progress, an advocacy 
organization that helped represent Hispanics in Racine, Wisconsin. He 
also attended the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee where he 
received his M.S. in Supervision and Administration, and extensive 
study work towards his Ph.D. in Urban Education during his tenure with 
SER-Jobs For Progress.
  In 1981, Mr. Zamora was hired as Chief Executive Officer of South 
Texas Rural Health Services, Inc., a community health center. He has 
successfully guided the organization from a singular site and a 
$250,000 operating budget to approximately $4.5 million worth of needed 
services to a multiple-county service area in South Texas. Mr. Zamora 
has spent his life working to help better the lives of those in his 
community, and I commend him for his commitment to South Texas and to 
improving rural healthcare services.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have had this time to recognize the 
wonderful dedication and commitment of Alfredo Zamora, Jr. to advocacy 
in the areas of healthcare and education for the City of Cotulla and to 
the rural community of South Texas, and I thank you for this time.

                          ____________________