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Dear LULAC Familia,
On this July 4th holiday, I am thankful for all the blessings that we enjoy living in this country. We are with our loved ones in a place we can call home, we live in relative safety and security, we are able to work to provide and care for our families and to worship according to our faith.
And yet, these blessings promised by the greatness of America are still just a distant hope of a forgotten senior dying alone, a student burdened by college debt, a working family uninsured, a woman confronting inequity on the job or an LGBTQ youth bullied at school. It is the pang of pain felt by a deported undocumented Latino combat veteran and the desperation felt by refugees risking all to reach this land of opportunity. July 4th is also for them.
I celebrate America on this July4th because I am free to speak out, to march, to fight for the ideals of social justice that our founders envisioned. I can defend the defenseless within our very shores and borders. And I know that mine is but one voice, one raised fist, one cry --- among a multitude of my LULAC brothers and sisters. We too, are each of them.
Yes, we are a nation borne out of Native Americans as well as the immigrants who have journeyed here for generations to make this land their home – of freedom and liberty for all, not just some. Never forget, all immigrants were strangers when they first arrived.
Yes, this July 4th is special because we are just days away from the 90th Anniversary LULAC National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There we will again re-commit to the greatness of the United States as the leading Latino civil rights organization for justice through action.
I am proud that my ancestry is steeped in the Americas and that with more than 58-million other Latinos, we are contributing our talents, hearts and souls to the country that is now our home or has been the home of our ancestors for generations. May we on this July 4th pause, reflect and thank God for the United States of America, for the League of United Latin American Citizens and for our future together. All for One and One for All.
Hasta La Victoria!
Domingo Garcia
LULAC National President | 
