A giant has passed away. Raúl Manuel Grijalva, long time Arizona Congressman from 2003 to 2025, passed away on March 13, 2025 due to Lung cancer.
Raúl Manuel Grijalva (February 18, 1958 – March 13, 2025)
Raúl was the son of migrant parents. The father entered the United States in 1943 as part of the bracero program. Raúl was born in a small ranch just south of Tucson on February 18, 1958. He attended Sunnyside High School and the University of Arizona, earning a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. An early advocate for Mexican American and native rights he came to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the newly formed La Raza Unida political party. He lost a bid for the Tucson school board and thereafter took a more reserved approach to electoral politics.
In 1974, Grijalva was elected to the Tucson Unified School District where he served until 1986. Grijalva was the director of the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center from 1975 to 1986 and served as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 2002
He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2002 and served first in the Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, then in the 7th Congressional District and lastly in the 3rd Congressional district again until his death.
During his tenure in Congress he passed numerous important bills and championed issues pertaining not just to the immigrant community and the native American community but to all Americans.
He was present on January 6th and called it, “one of the darkest and most shameful days of our republic.”
Raúl Grijalva will be remembered by his constituents and by Latinos throughout the United State as a champion of freedom and a forceful advocate for the human and civil rights of Latinos everywhere.
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For a more thorough listing of Grijalva’s legislative accomplishments visit the Wikipedia website upon which this remembrance is based: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Grijalva