[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 180 (Friday, September 17, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50417-50418]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24434]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 180 / Friday, September 17, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

 ___________________________________________________________________

 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 50417]]

                Proclamation 7220 of September 14, 1999

                
National Hispanic Heritage Month, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                During National Hispanic Heritage Month, we reflect on 
                the history of a people who were part of this land long 
                before the birth of the United States. Hispanics were 
                among the earliest European settlers in the New World, 
                and Hispanics as a people--like their many cultures--
                share a rich history and great diversity. Hispanic 
                Americans have roots in Europe, Africa, and South and 
                Central America and close cultural ties to Mexico, the 
                Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Spain. 
                This diversity has brought variety and richness to the 
                mosaic that is America and has strengthened our 
                national character with invaluable perspective, 
                experiences, and values.

                Through the years, Hispanic Americans have played an 
                integral role in our Nation's success in science, the 
                arts, business, government, and every other field of 
                endeavor, and their talent, creativity, and 
                achievements continue to energize our national life. 
                For example, Hispanic Americans serve as NASA 
                astronauts, including Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first 
                Hispanic woman in space. Mario Molina of the 
                Massachusetts Institute of Technology shared a Nobel 
                Prize in chemistry for research that raised awareness 
                of the threat that chlorofluorocarbons pose to the 
                earth's protective ozone layer. Cuban-American writer 
                Oscar Hijuelos earned a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

                The achievements of today's Hispanic Americans build 
                upon a long tradition of contributions by Hispanics in 
                many varied fields. Before Dr. Ochoa and other Hispanic 
                Americans began to explore the frontiers of space, 
                Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado 
                ventured into the vast uncharted land of the New World. 
                A thousand years before Mario Molina calculated the 
                effects of human actions on the atmosphere, Mayan 
                priests accurately predicted solar and lunar eclipses. 
                And before Oscar Hijuelos described a Cuban family's 
                emigration to 1940s America, Miguel de Cervantes 
                Saavedra gave us the classic adventures of Don Quixote 
                and Sancho Panza.

                Today, people of Hispanic heritage are an increasingly 
                important and growing segment of our Nation's 
                population. Studies show that, in just a few years, 
                Hispanics will form the largest minority group in the 
                United States. In little more than a decade, Hispanic 
                Americans will wield buying power of nearly $1 trillion 
                per year. And by the middle of the next century, if 
                population trends continue, almost one-fourth of our 
                population will be Spanish-speaking. The success of 
                these citizens is vital to our continued national 
                prosperity, and we must ensure that they are empowered 
                with the tools and opportunities they need to thrive in 
                the next century.

                That is why my Administration has worked to widen the 
                circle of economic opportunity, enforce our civil 
                rights laws, invest in health and education, and 
                promote racial reconciliation. We have launched a major 
                initiative to mobilize the resources and expertise of 
                the Federal Government, the private sector, and local 
                communities to end racial and ethnic disparities in 
                health conditions and health care. We established the 
                first-ever Office of Minority Health Research and 
                Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of 
                Health. We also have sought to expand our Hispanic 
                Education Action Plan with an additional $480 million 
                for improving educational programs and institutions 
                serving high concentrations of Hispanic students. We 
                cannot seize

[[Page 50418]]

                the enormous opportunities of the 21st century if a 
                large percentage of our children lack the skills and 
                knowledge they need to reach their full potential.

                In honor of the many contributions that Hispanic 
                Americans have made and continue to make to our Nation 
                and our culture, the Congress, by Public Law 100-402, 
                has authorized and requested the President to issue 
                annually a proclamation designating September 15 
                through October 15 as ``National Hispanic Heritage 
                Month.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 
                15 through October 15, 1999, as National Hispanic 
                Heritage Month. I call upon government officials, 
                educators, and the people of the United States to honor 
                this observance with appropriate ceremonies, 
                activities, and programs, and I encourage all Americans 
                to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of equality.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-24434
Filed 9-16-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P