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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 353 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 353

    Honoring the accomplishments and legacy of Juan Felipe Herrera.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 8, 2015

Mr. Takano (for himself, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Swalwell of 
California, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Thompson of California, Mr. Schiff, Mr. 
    Cardenas, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Honda, Mrs. Torres, Mr. Aguilar, Mr. 
    Langevin, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Farr, Mr. Ruiz, and Mr. McGovern) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                        on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
    Honoring the accomplishments and legacy of Juan Felipe Herrera.

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was born December 27, 1948, in Fowler, California, 
        to parents Maria de la Luz Quintana and Felipe Emilio Herrera who were 
        migrant farmworkers in California;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera spent his childhood living in farm communities in 
        Southern California and discovered his love of verse through his 
        elementary school choir;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera received an Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) 
        scholarship to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, and 
        graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1972;
Whereas while at the University of California, Los Angeles, Juan Felipe Herrera 
        immersed himself in the Chicano Civil Rights movement and performed in 
        experimental theater;
Whereas after graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, he 
        moved to the Bay Area and joined the Beat poetry movement, and was 
        active with the poetry movement in the San Francisco Mission District;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera graduated from Stanford University with a Master of 
        Arts in Social Anthropology in 1980;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' 
        Workshop with a Masters of Fine Arts in 1990;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera has published 29 books in total, which include 
        collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels, and 
        children's books;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera's collections of poetry include Half of the World in 
        Light: New and Selected Poems that won the National Book Critics Circle 
        Award and the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, 187 Reasons Mexicans Can't Cross 
        the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007, and Crashboomlove, which received the 
        Americas Award;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera's books for children include Portraits of Hispanic 
        American Heroes, SkateFate, Upside Down Boy, which was adapted into a 
        musical, and Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera has received numerous awards and fellowships 
        including National Endowment for the Arts Writers' Fellowships, 
        California Arts Council grants, the UC Berkeley Regent's Fellowship, the 
        Guggenheim Fellowship, Bread Loaf Fellowship in Poetry, and the Stanford 
        Chicano Fellowship;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera served as chair of the Chicano and Latin American 
        Studies Department at California State University, Fresno;
Whereas in 2005, Juan Felipe Herrera joined the Creative Writing Department at 
        the University of California, Riverside, as the Tomas Rivera Endowed 
        Chair;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American 
        Poets in 2011;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera became a Director of Art at the Barbara and Art 
        Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was named Poet Laureate of California in 2012 by 
        Governor Edmund G. ``Jerry'' Brown, Jr.;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera is the father of five children and lives in Fresno, 
        California, with his partner and poet, Margarita Robles;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was named the 21st Poet Laureate of the United 
        States by the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, for the 2015 
        through 2016 term;
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera is the first Latino Poet Laureate in the history of 
        the United States; and
Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera said that poetry ``is a way to attain a life without 
        boundaries'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes the accomplishments of Juan Felipe Herrera;
            (2) pledges to promote the legacy of Juan Felipe Herrera; 
        and
            (3) encourages the people of the United States to explore 
        the impact that the creative arts and poetry have in their 
        daily lives.
                                 <all>
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