Prepared Remarks of Attorney General

Alberto R. Gonzales
Congressional Hispanic Leadership
Institute
Attorney General of the United States
September 28, 2005 - 8:15 PM
Thank you and good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of President Bush, it is a privilege to be with you to celebrate Hispanic

Heritage Month.

I realize that it is late and you have already heard from a number of speakers. But
let me add my voice to the chorus of gratitude to the Congressional Hispanic
Leadership Institute for creating a broader awareness of the diversity of thought,
interests, and views of Hispanic Americans.

The differences among us may be many, but I know that most of us share the belief
that America is the greatest country in the world. This is the reason that millions of
people have risked their lives and sacrificed everything just for a chance to fulfill
their dream of coming here.

Our Nation has so much to be thankful for, but perhaps most important is the
bravery of our men and women in uniform—men and women who work everyday
to protect our freedoms, risking their lives to build hope and peace and democracy.

Certainly, Hispanic Americans, as we all know, have added to the rich texture of
America—influencing music, literature, politics, and sports. But, just as we have
seen throughout America's history, Hispanics have excelled in defending our Nation
against terrorism and extremism.

Earlier this year President Bush expressed America's thanks—as he has done so
many times—to the families of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we
might live in freedom. His choice for praise is telling.

On Memorial Day the President told the story of Sergeant Rafael Peralta. Rafael was
an immigrant from Mexico. Like generations of immigrants to America, Rafael
came to this country with a dream of America in his heart. The day after Rafael got
his Green Card he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Rafael knew what was necessary for his family to live in freedom. He made the
ultimate sacrifice in Fallujah, where he died protecting his fellow Marines.

In this audience, we have Hispanic men and women who have served with honor in
the United States military. On behalf of the President and a grateful Nation, thank
you. And we have many more in this room who have dedicated their professional
lives to America's highest ideals as public servants and leaders.

President Bush understands the contributions and the strength Hispanic Americans
and our culture bring to America.

This month our Nation recognizes what we in this room know from personal
experience: The values of America's Hispanic community are the same values that
sustain our Nation's greatness: Sacrifice. Hard work. Trust. Personal initiative. And
perseverance in the face of adversity.

I saw these values everyday in the life of my father.

My father, Pablo, was not an educated man. But he worked everyday to give his
eight children the American dream.

As a young man, my father picked crops in the fields of South Texas where he met
another migrant worker—a young woman named Maria who became my mother.

He and two of my uncles, built the house that I grew up in Houston… my mother
lives there still today.

I still remember when I was a small boy playing in the field as they laid the cinder
blocks for the house foundation. Then they nailed together the 2x4s, put up the sheet
rock that would form the walls, and skillfully hammered the composition shingles
onto the roof. From that sweat and toil and vision arose the small two-bedroom
house that became our home.

That home is my past, but it also represents our heritage, as Americans who always
dream and work for a better tomorrow.

As a young boy I urged that my mother wake me before dawn so I could eat
scrambled eggs and tortillas with my father before he left for work. As my father
and I ate breakfast together, my mother would dutifully prepare a modest lunch of
beans and tortillas. She would then carefully place them in a brown lunch sack.
After breakfast my mother and I would wave goodbye to my father as he left to
catch his ride for work. The memories of this daily ritual burn strong in my chest as
I recall this simple time, that simple food, and those deep, enduring American
values of family, hard work, and sacrifice.

This is the heritage of our community. These are the values our Nation reaffirms
during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Just a few years ago, my mother came to stay with my family as she visited
Washington for the first time. We walked the monuments and the museums like
other curious tourists, but I also took her into the Oval Office, this little woman who
once picked cotton, to see the President of the United States.
It was important for me to be able to do that for her. I wanted to thank her for her
guidance and to show her what I had accomplished because of her sacrifices and
those of my father.

At dawn on the last day of her visit, she was up early to say goodbye as I left for
work—just as she had been there for my father on so many mornings. Only I wasn't
going to labor at a construction site, I was reporting to the White House to advise
the most powerful person in the world.

I don't think she ever dreamed that I would take her from the cotton fields to the
Oval Office. But she and my father knew that the proud heritage that they passed on
to their children—and that I pass to my sons—a heritage of hard work and sacrifice,
faith and family, hope and perseverance, could open untold doors in this land of
opportunity.

The story of America is a story of constant renewal and reaffirmation of our

founding ideas and our enduring values of faith, family, and freedom.

These are values that demand the best from every American: Whether you are a new
citizen who has just taken the oath to protect and defend the Constitution or you are
a citizen who traces his roots back to the first wave of refugees to come to this New
World, we must all treasure the opportunities that abound in this promised land.

Once again, let me extend my personal thanks to the Congressional Hispanic

Leadership Institute and to all those gathered here tonight for your work and your
sacrifice to extend the blessings of America to the generations to come.

Whether we are the community leaders, elected representatives of the people, or

citizens of this great Nation, we all have a responsibility to ensure justice,
opportunity, and equality under the law extends to every American. I am the son of
a Mexican cotton picker and a construction worker and I am the Attorney General
of the United States. I pledge to you that I will not forget where I come from nor
will I lose sight of the direction we must take our beloved Nation.

May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

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