[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 180 (Friday, September 17, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50417-50418]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24434]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 180 / Friday, September 17, 1999 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 50417]]
Proclamation 7220 of September 14, 1999
National Hispanic Heritage Month, 1999
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During National Hispanic Heritage Month, we reflect on
the history of a people who were part of this land long
before the birth of the United States. Hispanics were
among the earliest European settlers in the New World,
and Hispanics as a people--like their many cultures--
share a rich history and great diversity. Hispanic
Americans have roots in Europe, Africa, and South and
Central America and close cultural ties to Mexico, the
Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Spain.
This diversity has brought variety and richness to the
mosaic that is America and has strengthened our
national character with invaluable perspective,
experiences, and values.
Through the years, Hispanic Americans have played an
integral role in our Nation's success in science, the
arts, business, government, and every other field of
endeavor, and their talent, creativity, and
achievements continue to energize our national life.
For example, Hispanic Americans serve as NASA
astronauts, including Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first
Hispanic woman in space. Mario Molina of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology shared a Nobel
Prize in chemistry for research that raised awareness
of the threat that chlorofluorocarbons pose to the
earth's protective ozone layer. Cuban-American writer
Oscar Hijuelos earned a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
The achievements of today's Hispanic Americans build
upon a long tradition of contributions by Hispanics in
many varied fields. Before Dr. Ochoa and other Hispanic
Americans began to explore the frontiers of space,
Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
ventured into the vast uncharted land of the New World.
A thousand years before Mario Molina calculated the
effects of human actions on the atmosphere, Mayan
priests accurately predicted solar and lunar eclipses.
And before Oscar Hijuelos described a Cuban family's
emigration to 1940s America, Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra gave us the classic adventures of Don Quixote
and Sancho Panza.
Today, people of Hispanic heritage are an increasingly
important and growing segment of our Nation's
population. Studies show that, in just a few years,
Hispanics will form the largest minority group in the
United States. In little more than a decade, Hispanic
Americans will wield buying power of nearly $1 trillion
per year. And by the middle of the next century, if
population trends continue, almost one-fourth of our
population will be Spanish-speaking. The success of
these citizens is vital to our continued national
prosperity, and we must ensure that they are empowered
with the tools and opportunities they need to thrive in
the next century.
That is why my Administration has worked to widen the
circle of economic opportunity, enforce our civil
rights laws, invest in health and education, and
promote racial reconciliation. We have launched a major
initiative to mobilize the resources and expertise of
the Federal Government, the private sector, and local
communities to end racial and ethnic disparities in
health conditions and health care. We established the
first-ever Office of Minority Health Research and
Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of
Health. We also have sought to expand our Hispanic
Education Action Plan with an additional $480 million
for improving educational programs and institutions
serving high concentrations of Hispanic students. We
cannot seize
[[Page 50418]]
the enormous opportunities of the 21st century if a
large percentage of our children lack the skills and
knowledge they need to reach their full potential.
In honor of the many contributions that Hispanic
Americans have made and continue to make to our Nation
and our culture, the Congress, by Public Law 100-402,
has authorized and requested the President to issue
annually a proclamation designating September 15
through October 15 as ``National Hispanic Heritage
Month.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim September
15 through October 15, 1999, as National Hispanic
Heritage Month. I call upon government officials,
educators, and the people of the United States to honor
this observance with appropriate ceremonies,
activities, and programs, and I encourage all Americans
to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of equality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fourth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 99-24434
Filed 9-16-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P