IV 
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. CA´RDENAS, 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 Quin-
tana and Felipe Emilio Herrera who were migrant farm-
workers 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 Op-
portunity Program (EOP) scholarship to attend the Uni-
versity of California, Los Angeles, and graduated with a 
Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1972; 
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•HRES 353 IH 
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 Uni-
versity 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 sto-
ries, 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, Up-
side 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 
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•HRES 353 IH 
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, Riv-
erside, as the Toma´s 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 River-
side, 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 Lau-
reate 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 Lau-
reate 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; 
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