Luis Gutierrez says to NEIU grads to fight bigotry and discrimination

For much of our nation’s history, one of the most inexpressible questions that has been repeatedly asked, is this: “What is an American?” In his commencement address to the 900 graduates of Chicago’s Northeastern Illinois University on Monday,  U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, perhaps gave the best answer, when he described his fifteen year old grandson, who shared his transnational identity by saying, “Grandpa, on this side I am Mexican, and on this side, I am Puerto Rican, and here - pointing to his heart - I am American.”

There was barely a dry eye in the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion, after the sixty-four year old Congressman, related this story. And, indeed, much of the nearly hour long speech was filled with references to identity; identity as an attribute, as a verb, and most importantly what being an American means to this fearless defender of immigration reform and the need to unite, not to divide, not only the Hispanic community, but for all citizens in helping to redefine what being an American means now, and in the future.

Is America, a melting pot, or has it become a mosaic? For the latter, the hope behind this, as many a graduate school class would debate, and even eulogize, was that identity, and its cousin, identity politics could be taken into a new context, or even a new future paradigm.

For Gutierrez, a 1977 alumni of the school, this was a homecoming, but also a farewell as he has announced his retirement from Congress,(in November of 2017), and his speech was also, largely, a biography; an atypical trajectory for many Hispanic families, who, unlike Gutierrez was not born in the U.S., but instead traveled to the mainland, for financial security, and other opportunities lacking in their home countries.

He has been a major force in immigration reform and has chaired the Democratic Caucus Immigration Task Force since 2009; but has also made a name for himself, as well as an advocate for LGBT rights, Native American, and worker rights, so much so that his influence with the Illinois Congressional House delegation has given him the official title of dean, of that delegation.

A tag line for the speech, which resonated with his convictions, was to “hold the door open, wide, for others to come in,” a phrase not frequently heard in these divided and partisan times, and as advice for the graduates to also “open the door a little wider for the next person.”

This acknowledged crusader cited his own example, as he exhorted the graduates with the following: “do not allow bigotry and discrimination without raising your voice,” and to once again, remember to “open the door wider to let those in that pray differently, and love differently.”

On the other side of town, ready to fulfill this legacy, was his daughter Jessica, who announced that she is joining the race for Chicago's 30th Ward alderman seat. Local ABC affiliate, Channel 7, reported that “Her father watched teary-eyed as she launched her first campaign and promised to be an independent voice.”

She will face Ald. Ariel Reboyras, an ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Determined to be her own person, it was also apparent that she took the family pride of hard work as her father also acknowledged, that he relied on the hard work of his mother and father.

In closing, he pledged, to thunderous applause, that he would “not rest until the job is done and you have your U.S. citizenship,“ and showing, for the rest of us, that his leaving Congress is really only the beginning of the journey.