.

 Click to jump to see the following:

Cesar Chavez

Federico Pena

Hendry Cisneros

Politics

Cesar Chavez - Migrant Labor Activist

Cesar Estrada Chavez founded and led the first successful farm workers' union in U.S. history. When he passed away on 23 April 1993, he was president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Cesar was born March 31, 1927, on the small farm near Yuma, Arizona that his grandfather homesteaded during the 1880's. At age 10, life began as a migrant farm worker when his father lost the land during the Depression. These were bitterly poor years for Cesar, his parents, brothers and sisters. Together with thousands of other displaced families, the Chavez family migrated throughout the Southwest, laboring in fields and vineyards. Cesar left school after the eighth grade to help support his family.

He joined the U.S. Navy in 1945, and served in the western Pacific during the end of World War II. In 1948, he married Helen Fabela, who he met while working in Delano vineyards. In 1952, Cesar was laboring in apricot orchards outside San Jose when he met Fred Ross, an organizer for the Community Service Organization, a barrio-based self-help group sponsored by Chicago-based Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. Within several months Cesar was a full-time organizer with CSO, coordinating voter registration drives, battling racial and economic discrimination against Chicano residents and organizing new CSO chapters across California and Arizona.

Cesar served as CSO national director in the late 1950's and early 1960's. But his dream was to create an organization to help farm workers whose suffering he had shared. In 1962, after failing to convince the CSO to commit itself to farm worker organizing, he resigned his paid CSO job, the first regular paying job he had. He moved his wife and eight young children to Delano, California where he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). In September 1965, Cesar's NFWA, with 1200 member families, joined an AFL-CIO sponsored union in a strike against major Delano area table and wine grape growers. Against great odds, Cesar led a successful five year strike-boycott that rallied millions of supporters to the United Farm Workers. He forged a national support coalition of unions, church groups, students, minorities and consumers. The two unions merged in 1966 to form the UFW, and it became affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Cesar Chavez passed away on April 23, 1993, at the age of 66. More than 40,000 people participated in Cesar's funeral at Delano. He was laid to rest at La Paz in a rose garden at the foot of the hill he often climbed to watch the sun rise. In 1991, Cesar received the Aguila Azteca (The Aztec Eagle), Mexico's highest award presented to people of Mexican heritage who have made major contributions outside of Mexico. On August 8, 1994, Cesar became the second Mexican American to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. This award was presented posthumously by President Bill Clinton. Helen F. Chavez and six of her eight children traveled to the White House to receive the honor. Many skeptics declared the union dead after Cesar passed away, but such reports were proven to be premature. On Cesar'sbirthday, March 31st, 1994, under the leadership of his son-in-law and successor Arturo S. Rodriguez, the UFW marched 343 miles from Delano to Sacramento, echoing Cesar's historic 1966 peregrinación and demonstrating the strength of the UFW and the fact that Cesar's dream of a national union for farm workers remains a possibility. The UFW continues to win elections and negotiate contracts for farm workers.

Federico Peña - Former Secretary of Transportation

As the first Hispanic-American to head the Department of Transportation, Federico Pena had a reputation for leadership and hands-on management. In his nomination of Pena to now become secretary of energy, President Bill Clinton said that he "has proven himself a talented leader of a large and complex government agency. He found ways to encourage new technologies, promote safety, protect the environment." The president also said that he expects Pena "to streamline and reinvent the Energy Department," while overseeing "the urgent cleanup of our nuclear stockpiles." The president also hopes that Pena will work with the energy industry to create economic opportunity "by using energy in a way that does not hurt our environment."

As secretary of transportation, Pena succeeded in opening foreign air routes to U.S. airlines. During the aftermath of the 1993 earthquake in Los Angeles, he eliminated federal red tape by seeing that millions of dollars poured into California to repair damaged roads and bridges. Before his stint at the Department of Transportation, Pena was the mayor of Denver, Colorado, where he served two terms -- the first Hispanic-American to hold that post. While mayor, he pushed for the construction of the $2.7 million Denver International Airport, the first major international airport constructed in the United States since the one in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1974. Pena also sponsored a clean-air campaign in the Denver metropolitan area that significantly reduced carbon monoxide pollution.

After receiving his law degree from the University of Texas in 1972, Pena moved to Colorado, where he became a lawyer and advocate for local Hispanic groups. Elected to the state legislature, he served four years there. His abilities were soon noticed when he was named the outstanding freshman in the Colorado General Assembly in 1981 and was chosen to be the Democratic Party's leader after only two years on the job.

Henry Cisneros - Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Touted as America's foremost federal housing and economic development official, Henry Cisneros began sprinting down life's long road of success decades ago and has yet to slow. Cisneros began his political career as an administrative assistant to the San Antonio City Manager and quickly moved up the ranks. In 1981, the citizens of San Antonio elected Cisneros to his first of four terms as the city's first Hispanic mayor.

Leaving the mayor's office in 1989, Cisneros took a three-year hiatus from politics. During the time he formed the Cisneros Asset Management Company for tax exempt institutions and hosted a television show titled, "Texans," as well as "Adelante," a daily radio commentary devoted to the Spanish-speaking audience.

On December 17, 1992, Cisneros' political career once again turned bright when President Bill Clinton nominated Cisneros for the position of secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Congress approved the nomination and Cisneros was sworn in on January 22, 1993. Since taking his cabinet position, Cisneros has worked to reduce homelessness in America, set an agenda to increase home ownership and created programs to revive economically downtrodden communities throughout the country.