[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17026-17028]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ALAN GRAYSON

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2013

  Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following.


       Recognizing the Career and Accomplishments of Leticia Diaz

  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month to 
recognize a great leader in the Central Florida community.
  Leticia M. Diaz, a native of Cuba, is one of the founding faculty of 
Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law and was appointed dean 
in 2007. During her tenure as dean, the law school has emerged as a 
leader in legal education in Florida, featuring nationally recognized 
Moot Court and Trial Team programs, a growing faculty, and a $7 million 
expansion of its campus with the opening of a 32,400-square-foot Legal 
Advocacy Center in 2011. Diaz is the first Cuban-American female to 
hold the position of dean at an ABA-accredited law school in the United 
States.
  Under Dean Diaz's leadership, Barry Law School's student enrollment 
has increased nearly 40 percent--from 571 in 2006 to 793 in 2013. Diaz 
was instrumental in launching the Summer in Spain study abroad program 
in 2009. Under her leadership, the school has opened three centers: the 
Juvenile Justice Center, the Juvenile Life Without Parole Defense 
Resource Center, and the Center for Earth Jurisprudence. The school's 
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has been honored eight 
years in a row by the American Bar Association for its service to the 
community.
  Diaz's publications range from analysis of the FDA's role in consumer 
protection to environmental law with a focus on consumer health. In 
2009 she spoke at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government 
on international piracy issues, with an emphasis on environmental law.
  Her professional involvement includes serving on the ABA Commission 
on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities. She has taken a 
leadership role on Hispanic issues, including penning an article on the 
DREAM Act that was entered into the Congressional Record in December 
2010 and hosting a White House Hispanic Action Summit at the law school 
in September 2011. She and alumni met with U.S. Supreme Court Justice 
Sonia Sotomayor in December 2011 when the inaugural group of Barry Law 
graduates was sworn in to practice before the Supreme Court. Diaz is 
also a past member of the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Chamber of 
Commerce of Metro Orlando.
  Diaz was listed as one of 25 influential Hispanics in Central Florida 
in a 2012 issue of Vision magazine, a publication of the Hispanic 
Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando. She

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received the Outstanding Hispanic Female in the Legal Field award at 
the inaugural Hispanic Women Who Make the Difference Awards in 2008 and 
earned the ``Leading Lawyers'' recognition from the South Florida 
Business Journal in 2009. In 2013, Diaz was named Outstanding Female in 
Education during La Prensa's Mujeres Destacadas awards.
  Before joining Barry's faculty, Diaz practiced law in the areas of 
personal injury, toxic torts, and workplace chemical exposure, while 
teaching part-time at the law school. She currently teaches in the area 
of environmental law, environmental justice, toxic torts, and product 
liability.
  Diaz earned her Juris Doctor degree at Rutgers Law School in New 
Jersey in 1994. Prior to entering law school, she earned her PhD in 
organic chemistry from Rutgers University. She spent two years as a 
postdoctoral research chemist at Hoffman-LaRoche in New Jersey, where 
she primarily worked on the synthesis of anti-HIV compounds.
  Dean Diaz has brought together leaders from throughout the country to 
the Central Florida area to discuss the important issues of the day and 
has convened meetings and events that bring together varying 
perspectives on issues that affect our community. Central Florida is a 
better place for the work and leadership that Dean Diaz has provided to 
our community.
  I am happy to honor Leticia M. Diaz, during Hispanic Heritage Month, 
for her service and her work to educate, train, and inspire the leaders 
of tomorrow.


          Recognizing the Contributions of Zulma Velez-Estrada

  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month to 
recognize Zulma Velez-Estrada, an outstanding Central Floridian who has 
dedicated her life to lifting up the voices and pioneering the causes 
of Hispanics.
  Zulma Velez-Estrada was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She 
received a Bachelor's Degree in Management from the University of 
Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and her Master's Degree in Finance 
Management from American University, Puerto Rico. Zulma began her 
professional career at Health Care Manufacturing Industries in Puerto 
Rico. She was also a Management Consultant for the Energy and 
Environmental Research Studies Department for the University of Puerto 
Rico for three years until she decided to migrate to Florida in 1991.
  Moving to Florida was a significant change for her and her five 
children. Since moving to Florida, Zulma has dedicated her life to 
working with her community. She became a Governmental Operations 
Consultant and began doing Community Outreach for the Department of 
Children and Families (DCF) in Osceola County. Zulma developed and 
coordinated a Community Awareness Program with the goal of empowering 
frontline staff and engaging communities in Osceola and Orange 
counties. She also organized the first Hispanic Leaders Meeting with 
the Department of Children and Families and developed their Hispanic 
Media Database. Zulma coordinated the participation of Osceola County 
employees at their first 150k Meals Packing Event for underprivileged 
Osceola County children. Zulma also coordinated the first Pastor's 
Seminar on Domestic Violence in Osceola and Orange counties in 
cooperation with the DCF and domestic violence prevention 
organizations.
  Zulma was the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for the Democratic Party, 
Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) Interim Manager, and 
Director for the Non-Partisan Education and Registration Program ``Que 
Nada Nos Detenga'' for the PRFAA. Under her leadership, 63,000 new 
voters were registered from 2003 to 2004. While at PRFAA, Zulma also 
developed the First International Voting & Education Festival at Lake 
Eola Park in Orlando.
  Ms. Velez-Estrada worked for four years as International Business and 
Trade Specialist for the Metro Orlando International Affairs Economic 
Development Commission, where she worked with the Latin and Hispanic 
European markets, led business missions and hosted international 
governmental and private industry representatives, and found new 
businesses opportunities for Central Florida. She developed and 
implemented the International Export Roadshow and counseled over 125 
companies on how to export products abroad. She also developed Trade 
Missions to Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.
  Zulma has helped increase Hispanic participation in elections. She 
managed political campaigns for state Senators and Commissioners. Zulma 
also served as the feminine voice on the first non-partisan radio 
program in Osceola County directed toward educating the Spanish 
speaking Community on political issues. She has also worked as a 
volunteer on the presidential, gubernatorial, congressional, and state 
representative election campaigns as well. She was elected Secretary of 
the Osceola County Democratic Party, and is an active member of the 
Orange County Democratic Party.
  Zulma has been honored with awards from Estrellas Cristianas 
Ministries for Chaplain of the Year, Tu Revista Mujer as one of the 
``Eleven Most Distinguished Women,'' the Florida Department of Children 
and Families for Community Partnership, Impacto Newspaper as a 
``Pioneer of the Past Shining Today,'' Hispanic Women Assembly, LULAC, 
United Third Bridge, and the Santa Maria Municipality of Peru for 
Outstanding Service with Twin Cities Development.
  I am happy to honor Zulma Velez-Estrada, during Hispanic Heritage 
Month, for her service to the Central Florida Hispanic community.


              Recognizing the Contributions of Jose La Luz

  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month to 
recognize Jose La Luz, an educator and an advocate for workers' rights.
  A native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, La Luz comes from a working-class 
family and spent his primary years living on the Island. La Luz credits 
his grandfather, a self-made merchant in the mountain town of Ciales, 
and his mother, a rural school teacher who nurtured and educated poor 
children in nearby barrios, with being his role models and instilling a 
sense of compassion and justice in him. They inspired La Luz to 
advocate for workers' rights such as better wages and working 
conditions as an adult.
  While growing up in Puerto Rico in the 1950s and 1960s, La Luz's 
grandfather used to take him to the tobacco, coffee and sugarcane 
fields in Puerto Rico where he witnessed firsthand the plight of poor 
Puerto Ricans who were toiling these fields to earn their meager 
livelihoods. Having seen the poor conditions under which workers lived 
and worked, La Luz began to understand the importance of advocating for 
the human rights of those who had no voice. The fight for basic rights 
and justice for all people, no matter who they are or where they are 
from became his life's passion.
  La Luz attended the University of Puerto Rico where he studied social 
sciences before receiving a sports scholarship from the YMCA and 
transferring to Springfield College in Massachusetts. He is a graduate 
of SUNY's Empire State College with a Bachelor's degree in Labor 
Studies. He also has a Master's Degree in labor studies from Rutgers 
University.
  Widely recognized as a labor strategist and intellectual, La Luz has 
served as a Visiting Labor Leader in residence at Cornell University. 
He has also written white papers on organizing strategies in labor 
unions, and served as an instructor in the Labor Studies Programs at 
Michigan State and Rutgers University. He became a Wurf Fellow in the 
Kennedy School State and Local Government Program at Harvard University 
in 2007. In 2011, La Luz received a lifetime award for his 
distinguished career as one of America's outstanding labor educators 
from the United Association for Labor Education.
  During his college years, La Luz was involved in the Students for a 
Democratic Society, and spoke out on issues such as the Vietnam war. He 
also became involved with local Puerto Rican Farm Workers organizations 
in the Tobacco Valley in Connecticut and Massachusetts. As a community 
organizer, La Luz helped secure new rights for migrant workers in the 
area by putting public pressure on the Labor Department of Puerto Rico 
and denouncing the deplorable conditions that the migrant workers were 
working under. He also helped merge the local farm workers with Cesar 
Chavez's United Farm Workers of America.
  Among La Luz's most recent achievements is the restoration on May 17, 
2011 of public worker rights in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Law 45 had 
been nullified by the passage of a new fiscal austerity law, Law 7. Law 
7 effectively suspended collective agreement clauses in an effort to 
repress public employees and strip them of collective bargaining 
rights. Law 7 also caused the layoffs of over 19,000 public sector 
employees in Puerto Rico and aggravated an already dismal unemployment 
rate. La Luz was fundamental in speaking out against the injustices by 
insisting on the need to restore bargaining rights for public workers. 
La Luz made the case for the restoration of rights as he led a 
grassroots lobbying campaign along with other union leaders and the 
President of Puerto Rico's Senate. His efforts resulted in the passage 
of Law 73 which restored the employee contracts and rights that had 
been suspended by Law 7.
  It is with great honor and pride that I honor Jose La Luz's exemplary 
contributions to workers' rights and the Hispanic community.

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