Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Carmen Anaya was a remarkable human being. Her life of 79 years both inspires and teaches us. Born in Monterrey, Mexico; a teacher, she moved to the United States as a young woman and married Jose Anaya. For the next 20 years as their family grew, they worked as migrant farm workers all across America--harvesting cherries in Michigan, tomatoes in California, potatoes in Oregon, and sugar beets in the Dakotas. Eventually they opened a small general store in Las Milpas in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. In Spanish, a ``milpa'' is a temporary field that is cultivated for a few seasons. But the colonia of Las Milpas was the permanent home of thousands who lacked running water, had no paved roads and no jobs that offered a way to escape poverty. Even worse, most residents had little hope for a better future for themselves or for their children. In 1982, Mrs. Anaya joined with other people of faith to found Valley Interfaith, a nonprofit coalition of over 40 churches that, with the work of lead organizer Elizabeth Valdez, has now expanded to represent some 60,000 Valley families. Valley Interfaith leaders already knew how to cultivate fields, but together they learned how to cultivate hope and justice. For more than two decades, they have put their faith into action to help the impoverished help themselves and to hold elected officials accountable at all levels of government. With the very active and the very vocal participation of Mrs.…”