[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 18733-18735] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]DeLAURO MEMORIAL TABLE UNVEILING IN NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT ______ HON. ANNA G. ESHOO of california in the house of representatives Friday, December 2, 2011 Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, the following remarks were delivered by our colleague, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut's Third Congressional District, on the occasion of the DeLauro Memorial Table Unveiling in New Haven, Connecticut, on Sunday, October 23, 2011. Her remarks chronicle the extraordinary story of her mother and father, Luisa and Ted DeLauro, their neighborhood, their patriotism, and their service to a beloved community. It is the story of an American family, and the story of America as well. It also informs the U.S. House of Representatives why our colleague, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, exhibits her values with such passion and excellence with her fighting spirit on behalf of her constituents, continuing the legacy of her parents' history and heritage. Mr. Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to pay tribute to our colleague, her parents, and all the members of the community who chose to honor the DeLauro family with their lasting tribute to them for all they have stood for and contributed. The name `DeLauro' is synonymous with patriotism and service across generations and it is a privilege to place these words in the Congressional Record which describe how one family has so enriched the America they loved and served so magnificently. Remarks of the Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro DELAURO MEMORIAL TABLE UNVEILING, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2011 (As prepared for delivery) Well, this is very special, and I do not know how to express my appreciation. I am beyond words. What a turnout. Above all, I am appreciative that my mother Luisa is here to witness what you have built, and to hear your thoughts about my dad Teddy and her and their work. Luisa will be 98 this Christmas Eve and, as you can see, she knows when she is the center of attention. I want to thank Mayor John DeStefano who had the inspired idea for this tribute. He [[Page 18734]] met with Lynn Fusco, Jamie Cohen, Gerry Weiner, Barbara Segaloff, Robert Mele and others to bring his idea to fruition, consulting with community contacts in hopes of this being a surprise to Luisa and me. I only found about this effort well after it was under way. In a cynical time, it is sometimes difficult to believe that someone's motives are just what they seem, trying to find a way to honor people's contribution. Mayor, your words today capture so much of our shared history and heritage--and I will not forget the many who were generous enough to support this work. I should also thank Alderman Michael Smart. Independently, he had the idea of naming the corner of Academy and Chapel for Luisa. That too was a surprise, which only underscores this neighborhood's feelings for Luisa. Jamie Cohen is the closest of friends, a neighbor and now head of the Valley Community Foundation. We started together working for Chris Dodd and the Dodd family and I love that he helped organize this effort, mobilize such talents and call on people's generosity. I will always remember his words today. I am in awe of Senator Chris Dodd deciding to be here and offering such a special view. More than anyone, Chris combines humanity, loyalty, family and effectiveness to play such an historic role, captured at the University of Connecticut's Thomas Dodd Research Center. He did not say it, but Chris took some of the biggest risks on me--to run his first Senate campaign, to lead his office in Washington and run his re-election when I was still recovering from cancer surgery. No one has such a legacy and he continues to shape our future. I especially want to thank Joe Carbone, who came to play the same role as me as chief-of staff to the mayor and who knew my Dad and believes his generation was touched by Teddy. I can remember my dad coming home from the supply house and saying, ``Lou, the Carbones just had twin boys, Billy and Joey.'' And to this day, Joe will visit Luisa every weekend, where my mother gets so much joy in recounting the old political stories--Dick Lee, Arthur T, John Golden--and the exploits of so many neighborhood kids that she will tick off name by name, tale by tale. I have to thank the Italian Societies who organized the reception for today's unveiling and who played such a critical role in this neighborhood and the Italian American community. St. Andrews. Ladies and Men. Theresa Argento and Frank Gargano--and Theresa, that is a family that should be honored. Santa Maria Maddelena--Ladies and Men--Andy Consigilio, who is always there for me; Rheta Debenedet St. Catello. Irene Flynn St. Trofemina--Julia Nicefaro Santa Maria Delle Virgine--Ruby Proto We have all been shaped by what our families brought with them from Amalfi, Scafati, Minori, and Maori. They forged a life in America centered in this neighborhood and now shape our future through at least three generations. My family's story is just a thread in that fabric of history. And this memorial is just a moment in that living history. So many hands took such care and contributed so much to create this memorial. Darren Antolini at Fusco Corp and everyone who was part of the construction and installation; Barry Svigals at Svigals Partners; Anthony Capasso of Capasso & Sons; John DiTullio at Sign Lite; Start Community Bank; Bruce Alexander and Yale Press. I can see the love of their work in this table. And so many people in the city government worked for this: Robert Levine, Parks Director, Christy Hass, Rosemarie Lemley, a force of nature, and Michael Abeshouse--who worked so closely with my mother for years providing support on the Board of Aldermen. From the neighborhood: Harvey Koizim, Andy Ross, Beverly Carbonella, and so many others. A committee of devoted friends of this community worked to produce this precious program booklet, above all Anthony Riccio, who has written so eloquently of the Italian-American contribution to this city and country and today devoted his words to capturing the lives of Teddy and Luisa and this family. I want to thank in particular Barry Svigals, the sculptor who embraced this mission and captured my family's kitchen table on Green, Chapel and Olive Streets, where so many people sought help maneuvering through the maze of institutions not so welcoming to Italian Americans. But even more, they talked, planned and conspired on how to get the city to pay attention to this neighborhood and its needs. This table and chairs for me is timeless. It captures the humanity of an emerging community, now shared with others in this park. I thank you for that and I think so will this neighborhood. Teddy and Luisa were devoted to me and made sure I got every possible lesson--dance, piano, French, horseback riding--How many Italian horseback riders do you know? And the very best Catholic education. I had the chance to go to St. Louis School, Lauralton Hall, Marymount College, the London School of Economics and Columbia University. And above all, that I not work in the shirt shops, the mills or factories or the primer shop at Winchester--where my mother worked as a young woman during the war. Imagine what they would have done with the education they gave me. They gave me my values too. We are today right across from St. Michael's Church reminding us that my father was a devout Catholic and daily communicant. There and at this table, life was a living lesson about hard work and decency, thinking of others, community and the honor of working to help others. Luisa and Ted are special because so much of what they did they did together and shared around this table, just as Stan and I get to share in each other's work. Stan is here--just back flying overnight from Italy and Venezuela where he is working to elect new leaders. I regret that Stan never knew my father because they shared such a passion for politics and campaigns, from the local to the presidential. My father was born in Scafati and came to the United States in 1913 and walked away from school in the 7th grade when they made fun of his halting English. Where do those values and will come from? He was totally self-educated, became the city court interpreter, helped translate letters for neighbors, and assisted on Yale research projects. He was a self-taught musician who became the first clarinetist in the U.S. Army band, and surrounded us with every Italian opera that he knew by heart. My folks took me at age 9 to see Aida at the Met. He had me listen to Beethoven's Symphonies, and asked me to identify the instruments, which I could not--but he could. He took me with my cousins to see the Yankees play. Only Joe DiMaggio was a bigger passion. When Stan worked for President Clinton, and we met Joe DeMaggio in the suite, I told him on Wooster Street people asked not how the Yankees did, but how Joe did. I wanted to find a way to call my Dad. And he was so intense and animated about what was happening to people in this neighborhood. That was true whether he was going around door-to-door collecting insurance premiums during the Depression--and paying them himself when people were broke--or when he saw what the city and state contemplated for this neighborhood. That was true when he took the position as neighborhood liaison and director of this area's redevelopment. He went door-to-door showing his faith in this community, coaxing people to invest in their properties. With a band of architects, he convinced the owners to transform Court Street from a den of drunkenness, disease and odors to become the gateway to Wooster Square. Teddy's passion sometimes became a temper. Ask Bill Donahue, who is here today. When he disagreed with the agency at a hearing, he would give up the gavel, go sit with the residents, and back them against the city. In fact, he and Luisa stood in front of the bulldozers to prevent them from razing more houses and from putting a highway through this neighborhood. So, I urge those who enjoy the quality of life in this neighborhood to remember the immigrant activists who made this possible. My Mom and Dad wrote to me while I was at college in London October 23, 1962 during the Cuban Missile crisis, proud that President Kennedy was calling ``Khrushchev's hand,'' but virtually in the same paragraph he wrote he was heading a ``committee to finance the bust of Dr. Harry Conte, also to have a Community Christmas tree in our park. . . . Next week we will move from this office to the corner of Olive and Court, and the present site will be demolished to make room for the new Greene St. housing. I'm sure that by July 1963 when you get back you will see many projects completed. . . . There is no need to tell you how much we miss you, and we are counting the days until your return.'' My Dad was known as the `Mayor of Wooster Square' and he and Luisa founded and headed the Wooster Square Neighborhood Association, worked to have this neighborhood declared the first historic district in the city and Luisa started the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was Teddy who decided politics was the right way to make a difference. He became head of the 10th ward Democratic committee when Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman defined what it meant to be a Democrat and a proud American. He ran once for the board of aldermen, giving it up to make enough money to pay for my college education. Luisa lost her first efforts to win the 8th ward, before winning and serving amazingly for 35 years--the longest serving member of the Board in this city. Our home was surrounded by books of minutes, agendas, budgets, as she took her role very seriously on the Board of Finance--holding six mayors and innumerable department heads accountable. As was expected at the time, my grandmother had my mother leave school when she was 13--starting to work at Strauss Adler when she was legally able at age 14. Think of that. She would educate herself at night but she worked in the factories through the war. She was still working on the sewing machine for piecework wages when I was a young girl in the 1950s. [[Page 18735]] Yet in 1933 at age 20--three-quarters of a century ago--she wrote in the tenth ward's Democratic newsletter--``my motive . . . is to encourage the female members of this organization to take a more active part in its affairs. We are not living in the middle ages when a woman's part in life was merely to serve her master in her home'' and should enter the ``here- to-fore stronghold of the male sex: politics.'' ``Come on girls, let's make ourselves heard.''--those words now immortalized in this sculpture. Where did that come from? She was so dogged and fearless and nothing brought out her qualities like a good fight. She worked for affordable housing, from Columbus Mall to Winslow Celantano to Farnam Courts. She was unrivaled in trying find people a job. Above all, she went to the senior centers and worked for the residents of Winslow Celantano like they were her own parents. When they lost their heat, she went around to every store on Wooster Street every day to make sure the residents had food. Long before America got it, she fought for everyone regardless of color or gender. She was above all and continuously a woman of her times that had no end point. When this country faced the tumultuous cultural changes of the 1960s and the Vietnam war, my father was not at all comfortable with what he saw. We had some serious moments. In one of my parents' letters during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he wrote, ``Now, I'm going to preach again. This concerns the situation between us, and Cuba. In your conversations with the English, you may note they are not in favor of the blockade. Please do not get into any controversial arguments. Do not join any demonstrations in London either for or against anything. Occupy yourself with your studies, and whenever you have free time enjoy yourself.'' A decade later, Luisa DeLauro in her sixties backed Joe Duffy, the anti-war Democrat against the wishes of the machine, not to mention Joe Lieberman against Ed Marcus. She supported the primary challenge of Frank Logue against the machine candidate and faced political wrath of Arthur Barbieri, including a primary challenge for her own seat. My own story is not so interesting once you think about the two great influences in my own life. It was written. And I will not dwell on my work, though so much of this began at this kitchen table. My father wanted me to be a pianist and if not that, to make $10,000 a year. He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said a dancer--he said get a more stable profession! He did not think I would make it politics because I had too much book learning in my head and not enough experience working and living with people-- understanding their lives. But politics was in my blood and for many years I worked for a succession of civic and elected leaders--from the Community Action Institute to the city of New Haven, from Frank Logue to Chris Dodd. When I was discovered to have ovarian cancer and beat that back with wondrous nurses and doctors at Yale New Haven Hospital, I made a decision that I too had to run for office and play a role in this tradition. Nothing was a bigger honor than to be elected to the Third Congressional seat in the tradition of Albert Cretella, Bob Giaimo, Larrry DeNardis, and Bruce Morrison. Eleven times the people of this district have sent me to Washington to battle for them--as my father and mother would have done in their day. I now believe it is no accident that today my bill to bar discrimination against the unemployed is part of President Obama's Jobs Bill, because my dad asked in his time why the workers at Candee Rubber Company who helped make it profitable in good times lost their jobs in bad times. And I believe it is no accident that I stood right behind the president when he signed his first law, The Fair Pay Act, because my mother asked the same challenging questions when she was but 20. What motivates what I do springs from growing up in an Italian-Catholic household, with Teddy and Luisa DeLauro. This sculpture brings it full circle, with all our words captured here. Mayor, thank you for getting this started, thank you all for joining my family today, and enjoy this neighborhood where my mother still lives and where it all began. All the best. ____________________