LULAC Women Leaders Congratulate Kamala Harris
CEO and Vice-President of Nation’s Leading Latino Civil Rights Organization Call Her Election Historic
Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today issued the following statement:
Elsie Valdes-Ramos – LULAC National Vice-President for Women
“America today is witnessing history. Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris is the first woman ever elected to the second highest office in our country and the fact that she is a woman of color, gives me even greater reason to celebrate that I am alive to witness this moment. I know that Vice-President Harris will champion overcoming and removing the barriers created by what can only be described as genderphobia. She understands from her own experience growing up, the challenges that women are confronted with daily, especially women of color or of mixed race. All too often, society fails to allow itself to see beyond gender to embrace the greater ideals we share including that we are all ‘created equal, that (we) are endowed by (our) Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’.
2021 must be the year when America definitively resolves and acts to right generations of inequality and inequities for women in the United States and Puerto Rico. This includes compensation in the workplace, true equal employment with advancement opportunities and stricter laws and penalties to deal with sexual harassment on the job. So too, we must see greater support and assistance to women working as dual parents raising children by themselves or who may be experiencing domestic abuse and violence. Also, the expected deliberation by the Supreme Court about a woman’s right to decide her own reproductive health and care will come to the forefront while Vice-President Harris is in office. Undoubtedly, her leadership will play a pivotal role in the tone and tenor of the public discourse among millions of women across America.
Indeed, today marks the beginning and the LULAC Women’s Commission looks forward to engaging with Vice-President Harris to discuss these and other critical issues we care about.”
Sindy Benavides – LULAC National Chief Executive Officer
“Seldom in a lifetime do we get to see an event as transformative as what we are seeing today through the greatest expression of our democracy, our right to vote and to elect those we choose to lead us. The results show that voters of all backgrounds, races and beliefs see themselves in Kamala Harris, a 56-year old American daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants who will help make Joe Biden a better president for everyone. Her strength, her independence and her own moral compass as a leader should inspire all women in our nation and indeed, around the world. Her voice will espouse peace over violence, her views will engender inclusion rather than exclusion and her spirit will light a path towards unity not division.
Our nation has been through a difficult period these past few months of a horrific pandemic that has cost us dearly in the loss of loved ones and we are still seeking a way forward. I am truly encouraged that Vice-President Elect Harris will advocate for and encourage the future Biden Administration to bring relief swiftly to our communities of color that have been hit disproportionately by COVID-19. They are in pain and feel abandoned economically, cut off from health care and other vital social services. Her own experience growing up in a working family has prepared her well to empathize with our nation’s essential men and women workers risking their own lives and health to put food on our table and theirs.
As an immigrant daughter myself, carried here as a one-year old infant by my mother from Honduras who dreamed of a better life for us, I feel blessed to now be raising our two small children in the United States. However, I also recognize as does Vice-President Elect Harris, that women of color bear the additional duty of exceeding the expectation set for others around them. It is an expectation that is both imposed by others and one that we impose upon ourselves because we understand personally the sacrifices our parents made so that we might have a better future. I have no doubt that in the next four years, millions of women will walk with Kamala every day, we will say a quiet prayer for Kamala every day, and we will smile privately within ourselves every day, just knowing she is there for all Americans. God Bless America!”
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About LULAC
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1,000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit https://lulac.org/