[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 37 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[Pages 1774-1775]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6719--National Hispanic Heritage Month, 1994

September 14, 1994

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    As children across the country return to school this year, it is 
easy to see the vast diversity that defines America reflected in the sea 
of young faces filling our classrooms. Our ancestors came from all 
corners of the globe, bringing the myriad cultures, knowledge, and 
beliefs that shape our Nation today. For every one of us, the community 
that shares our ethnic heritage can provide an important source of 
strength and continuity in today's rapidly changing international 
marketplace. If our Nation is to succeed in that global arena, we must 
embrace the energy and creativity of all of our people, relying on the 
strength of community more than ever.
    Young Hispanic Americans are future leaders, educators, and workers 
of our Nation. For their sake and for the generations of young people to 
come, we must strive to advance the great traditions of family and 
community that have enabled Hispanic Americans to make invaluable 
contributions to our country since its beginnings. These traditions, 
fortified by new opportunity, can uplift our people and help to build a 
brighter future for all of our children.
    On February 22, 1994, I joined Hispanic Americans in taking an 
important step toward setting a new standard for educational

[[Page 1775]]

excellence. Designed to better prepare our people to meet the challenges 
we face, Executive Order No. 12900, which I signed that day, seeks to 
improve educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans throughout the 
Nation. It establishes a commission of leaders from the Hispanic 
American community that will focus on Hispanic children and youth and 
recommend methods to improve their academic performance. Drawing on the 
high standards set by our Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the 
commission will look for ways to encourage government and the private 
sector to work as a team to inspire Hispanic students to achieve those 
goals. And an interagency working group will strive to ensure that the 
obstacles still confronting too many of our people--barriers from 
language to unemployment to crime--are more easily overcome.
    To recognize the accomplishments of Hispanic citizens and to focus 
national attention on their extraordinary contributions and 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, 
1994, as National Hispanic Heritage Month. I call upon the people of the 
United States, government officials, educators, and volunteers, to 
observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and 
activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day 
of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and nineteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:14 p.m., September 15, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
September 19.