Presented by Council President Ben Hueso
January 12, 2010
To see the video of the presentation:
http://granicus.sandiego.gov/ASX.php?publish_id=831&sn=granicus.sandiego.gov
WHEREAS, Gracia Molina de Pick is a life-long educator, feminist, and community activist for women’s equality, indigenous communities, labor and immigrant’s rights; and
WHEREAS, Gracia was born in Mexico City into a family of political reformers dating back to the 1800’s, and national intellectual and political leaders of the Mexican Revolution of 1910; and
WHEREAS, During her adolescence she was taken by her Aunt Elena Vazquez Gomez, an intimate friend of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, on regular Sunday visits to their home where she learned from Frida that “the importance of social responsibility mandates fighting for those who cannot defend themselves.”; and
WHEREAS, Gracia, at age 16, founded and led the youth section of the Partido Popular, the only political party that promised the vote for women and afterwards spent ten years in helping Mexican women to get the vote; and
WHEREAS, Gracia came to the United States in 1957 and moved to San Diego after her marriage to Richard A. Pick; and
WHEREAS, Gracia obtained a teaching credential and master’s degree from San Diego State University, participated in doctoral studies at UCSD, and a doctoral fellowship at USC; and
WHEREAS, Gracia has been a life-long educator fighting for bi-lingual education, developing an academic program at Mesa College that gave birth to the first Chicano Studies Department in the nation, and acted as a liaison and promoter of the Chicana/o Studies program at SDSU; and
WHEREAS, in 1970, Gracia became one of the founding faculty members of the Third College at UCSD and the author of the Third World Studies UnderGraduate Sequence; and
WHEREAS, in 1971, Gracia was one of founders of the National Women’s Political Caucus; and, was one of the founders of the first feminist Latina national organization, Comisión Femeníl Mexicana Nacional; and
WHEREAS, Gracia is a great supporter of the City’s libraries and has made a large contribution to the San Diego Library Endowment to support their efforts in the construction of the new Logan Heights Library; and
WHEREAS, Gracia is a member of the City of San Diego’s Human Relations Commission, where she contributes much of her time to ensuring that the City promotes activities that foster mutual respect and understanding, protects basic human and civil rights and creates an atmosphere that promotes amicable relations among all members of the San Diego community; and
WHEREAS, Gracia has received numerous awards from the California State Legislature, the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame, California Rural Legal Assistance, San Diego LGTB community, Centro Cultural de la Raza, Veteran Feminists of America and many other educational and political organizations for her life-long work toward educational and feminist reform and her fight for human rights, immigrants and worker’s rights; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Council of the City of San Diego, that this Council, for and on behalf of the people of San Diego, does hereby proclaim January 12, 2010, to be “GRACIA MOLINA DE PICK DAY” in the City of San Diego.