Bill Text: TX HR333 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: Congratulating Juanita Valdez-Cox on her retirement as executive director of LUPE.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-03-16 - Reported enrolled [HR333 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-HR333-Enrolled.html
| H.R. No. 333 | ||
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| WHEREAS, Juanita Valdez-Cox of Donna retired as executive | ||
| director of La Unión del Pueblo Entero on December 31, 2022, | ||
| following decades of distinguished service to the labor movement; | ||
| and | ||
| WHEREAS, Born in Mercedes, Ms. Valdez-Cox joined her | ||
| farmworker parents in the fields as a young girl; she earned a | ||
| degree in early childhood development from The University of Texas | ||
| Rio Grande Valley and became a teacher and director for the Colonias | ||
| Del Valle Head Start Program; in 1979, she took a position as a | ||
| community organizer in East Austin, where she was introduced to the | ||
| philosophy of Cesar Chavez and other civil rights leaders; she soon | ||
| returned to the Rio Grande Valley and began volunteering with the | ||
| United Farm Workers; after serving the organization as a regional | ||
| coordinator, she rose to become state director, and in 2000, she was | ||
| elected to the national executive board; three years later, all | ||
| Texas UFW staff transferred to LUPE, and Ms. Valdez-Cox was | ||
| assigned to manage its operations in the state; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Ms. Valdez-Cox was named executive director of LUPE | ||
| in 2007; she secured long-term funding from the Marguerite Casey | ||
| Foundation, leading to the formation of the Rio Grande Valley Equal | ||
| Voice Network, a coalition of nonprofit organizations striving to | ||
| improve the lives of working families; her negotiating skills | ||
| helped bring colonia residents millions of dollars for disaster | ||
| recovery housing and drainage improvements; under her leadership, | ||
| LUPE was a successful plaintiff in several groundbreaking federal | ||
| discrimination lawsuits, and she worked with state lawmakers to | ||
| bring streetlights to colonias; she advocated unceasingly for the | ||
| rights of the most vulnerable and for humane measures such as DACA | ||
| and fair asylum laws, and she pushed back mightily against | ||
| anti-immigrant rhetoric and dehumanizing and repressive policies; | ||
| in 2019, LUPE garnered a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award; | ||
| Ms. Valdez-Cox has shared her expertise in leadership roles with | ||
| many other worthy organizations, including the board of the Cesar | ||
| Chavez Foundation and the advisory committee of the National Farm | ||
| Workers Service Center's Sí Se Puede Education program; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Juanita Valdez-Cox devoted her career to making the | ||
| world a better place for workers and their families, and her | ||
| exceptional contributions will continue to resonate in the years to | ||
| come; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 88th Texas | ||
| Legislature hereby congratulate Juanita Valdez-Cox on her | ||
| retirement as executive director of LUPE and extend to her sincere | ||
| best wishes for continued happiness; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be | ||
| prepared for Ms. Valdez-Cox as an expression of high regard by the | ||
| Texas House of Representatives. | ||
| Martinez | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Speaker of the House | ||
| I certify that H.R. No. 333 was adopted by the House on March | ||
| 8, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 140, Nays 0, 2 present, not | ||
| voting. | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Chief Clerk of the House | ||
