Glad Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month! This yr’s theme is “Latinos: Riding Prosperity, Energy and Growth in The usa.”  That theme has made me mirror upon my very own circle of relatives’s historical past on this nation and the way some distance we’ve come.

As a lot of , I’m Mexican American and a fifth-generation Arizonan, because of this my circle of relatives has been in Arizona for the reason that 1700s.  My great-great Nana Eduvijes Fontes was once a pioneer girl, who lived via laborious instances all over the Melancholy, witnessed battles of the Mexican Revolution, and traveled loads of miles alongside what is referred to now because the Arizona-Mexico border serving to information infantrymen within the Arizona barren region. My different great-great Nana operated a meals stand, even promoting as soon as to Francisco “Pancho” Villa, who was once a pace-setter within the Mexican Revolution. My circle of relatives additionally comprises my Tata Albert, who was once a veteran and a mechanic for the Town of Phoenix, and my Nana Celia, who raised 11 youngsters together with my mother, Eduvijes. 

Eduvijes Fontes

Elevating a big Mexican American circle of relatives in Phoenix within the Nineteen Fifties and 60s intended dealing with discriminatory indicators like “No Canines or Mexicans.” My mother used inform me tales about peering into downtown division retailer home windows, admiring the pretty clothes, however by no means having the ability to move inside of. She’d additionally inform me concerning the instances when the circle of relatives dressed as much as attend mass within the downtown Basilica. My circle of relatives was once by no means allowed within the upstairs pews—however as a substitute, can be pressured to sit down and pray within the basement of the church. They have been remoted and hidden from the remainder of the church goers.

Eduviges Fontes in The Day-to-day Arizona Megastar paper.

Remarkably, and a testomony to the “Prosperity, Energy and Growth in The usa,” my mom’s daughter now runs the Place of work for Civil Rights on the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Products and services—only one technology later. My circle of relatives’s tales, my roots, and our collective reports form who I’m, and the paintings I do with all of you. I’m very happy with my historical past and tradition. I take into consideration my circle of relatives each day in our paintings—what they’ve skilled and overcame, and the way I were given right here. I do know every of you’ve your individual circle of relatives histories that force you to advancing the undertaking of our place of job and civil rights in our nation. I’m ecstatic so that you could proportion mine.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra pictured with OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer and her mom.

I’m additionally proud to be a part of an Management that helps and honors the varied historical past of generations of Latinos, who’ve formed this nation. This month, President Biden signed a proclamation on Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month to focus on the essential contributions that our colleagues, together with our personal head of HHS, Secretary Xavier Becerra, in addition to greater than 62 million Latinos make within the U.S. This Management has additionally made fairness a Day One precedence, together with expanding Latino enrollment in healthcare via roughly 1 million folks, offering over 7.6 billion greenbacks in investment for 1400 Group Well being Facilities (CHCs), which predominately serve Latino and communities of colour, and making improvements to prescription drug protection and reducing prices in the course of the Inflation Relief Act.

And this month, I participated in a panel titled “Latinas to the Entrance: Dialog concerning the State of Girls’s Well being” on the first-ever HHS Hispanic Well being Summit. Latinas are in particular susceptible within the reproductive well being house, with 6.5 million Latinas now dwelling within the 26 states that experience banned or are prone to ban abortion. I proudly spoke at the movements that HHS has taken to offer protection to reproductive healthcare, and an summary of civil rights protections that Latinas are coated via, and the assets which are made to be had via my place of job. This dialog is vital and wanted available.

Latinas to the Entrance: Dialog concerning the State of Girls’s Well being Panel

The paintings we’ve carried out to strengthen the lives of Latinos dwelling in The usa makes me proud. I will be able to at all times use my circle of relatives’s historical past as motivation in operating with all of you to satisfy the OCR undertaking. ¡Feliz Mes de l. a. Herencia Hispana!