Joyful Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month! This 12 months’s theme is “Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Energy and Progress in America.”  That theme has made me mirror upon my circle of relatives’s historical past on this nation and the way far we’ve come.

As lots of , I’m Mexican American and a fifth-generation Arizonan, which suggests my household has been in Arizona for the reason that 1700s.  My great-great Nana Eduvijes Fontes was a pioneer girl, who lived by laborious occasions in the course of the Melancholy, witnessed battles of the Mexican Revolution, and traveled a whole lot of miles alongside what’s now generally known as the Arizona-Mexico border serving to information troopers within the Arizona desert. My different great-great Nana operated a meals stand, even promoting as soon as to Francisco “Pancho” Villa, who was a frontrunner within the Mexican Revolution. My household additionally consists of my Tata Albert, who was a veteran and a mechanic for the Metropolis of Phoenix, and my Nana Celia, who raised 11 children together with my mother, Eduvijes. 

Eduvijes Fontes

Elevating a big Mexican American household in Phoenix within the Nineteen Fifties and 60s meant 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 attractive clothes, however by no means having the ability to go inside. She’d additionally inform me concerning the occasions when the household dressed as much as attend mass within the downtown Basilica. My household was by no means allowed within the upstairs pews—however as an alternative, could be compelled 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 Each day Arizona Star paper.

Remarkably, and a testomony to the “Prosperity, Energy and Progress in America,” my mom’s daughter now runs the Workplace for Civil Rights on the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Providers—only one era later. My household’s tales, my roots, and our collective experiences form who I’m, and the work I do with all of you. I’m very happy with my historical past and tradition. I take into consideration my household daily in our work—what they’ve skilled and overcame, and the way I obtained right here. I do know every of you’ve gotten your personal household histories that drive you to advancing the mission of our workplace and civil rights in our nation. I’m ecstatic to have the ability to share 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 Administration that helps and honors the various historical past of generations of Latinos, who’ve formed this nation. This month, President Biden signed a proclamation on Nationwide Hispanic Heritage Month to spotlight the important 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 Administration has additionally made fairness a Day One precedence, together with rising Latino enrollment in healthcare by roughly 1 million individuals, offering over 7.6 billion {dollars} in funding for 1400 Neighborhood Well being Facilities (CHCs), which predominately serve Latino and communities of coloration, and bettering prescription drug protection and decreasing prices by the Inflation Discount 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 notably susceptible within the reproductive well being area, with 6.5 million Latinas now dwelling within the 26 states which have banned or are more likely to ban abortion. I proudly spoke on the actions that HHS has taken to guard reproductive healthcare, and an summary of civil rights protections that Latinas are coated by, and the sources which can be made accessible by my workplace. This dialog is essential and wanted available.

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

The work we’ve finished to enhance the lives of Latinos dwelling in America makes me proud. I’ll at all times use my household’s historical past as motivation in working with all of you to satisfy the OCR mission. ¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana!