continue to add to our national portrait, to our culture and to our history of progress. tonight we honor the waves of hispanic immigrants who have come to our shores and enriched our nation. many have been here for generations. others may have just arrived. with their determination to build a better future and their commitment to safe family and community, we are all making america more american. this is the essence of our history, to honor the character of america. we must pass comprehensive immigration reform. [applause] i am proud to support the dream act and i hope that its passage [cheers and applause] i am proud to support the dream act and i hope that its passage will mark the first step toward reaching that goal. in congress, working with president obama, we have acted to address the challenges facing the hispanic community and shared by all americans. we passed health care reform, which will extend coverage to 32 million more people and nearly nine million latin
implemented innovative programs, including a medically supervised sobering center and intensive case management program for public neebyation. violence response teams and supportive housing. please join us in award to ms. barbara garcia. [applause] our next awardee in the field of category of health and medicine is, of course, one who needs no introduction, but we will list the just the same. dr. sandra hernandez, the chief executive officer of the san francisco foundation. she served as the director of public health for the city and county of san francisco. she is an assistant clinical professor at university of california san francisco school of medicine and she maintains an active clinical practice at san francisco general hospital in the aids clinic. we could not be more and more happy to recognize these two incredible honorees tonight. thank you. [applause] i just have to say these are two i my heroes. i have to take the opportunity. our next award is an award that w
i have the honor of welcoming our new director of public health in san francisco. [applause] as of the last 20 minutes, this is all past tense, barbara garcia has been the deputy director of health for the city and county of san francisco since 1999. while in this position, she has implemented innovative programs, including a medically supervised sobering center and intensive case management program for public neebyation. violence response teams and supportive housing. please join us in award to ms. barbara garcia. [applause] our next awardee in the field of category of health and medicine is, of course, one who needs no introduction, but we will list the just the same. dr. sandra hernandez, the chief executive officer of the san francisco foundation. she served as the director of public health for the city and county of san francisco. she is an assistant clinical professor at university of california san francisco school of medicine and she maintains an active clinical p
recession, we passed the recovery act, which has created or saved 3.3 million jobs, while cutting taxes for 98% of families and small businesses. [applause] in addition, we passed a small business bill to extends lending and credit to entrepreneurs. president obama just recently signed this bill, and we are extremely excited to see it put into action. small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. they create jobs and are the engine of our recovery. and today the fastest growing group of small business owners are women and minorities. our country s success rests on the long-standing ideal that anyone, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or creed can achieve the american dream. hispanic heritage month and tonight s event reminds us all of the strength of our hispanic communities and faith in that very american ideal. sincerely and best wishes, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house. thank you. [applause] we re now moving on to the next category. thank you again, nicole,
i was luisa s friend and neighbor for almost 40 years and she was one of the more inspirational figures in my life. i don t need to go through all the list of her accomplishments, which are in this book and which are not entirely complete. what impressed me the most about her was her dedication to her work as a teacher. every time i walked with her through our neighborhood or any other neighborhood in the city, without fail somebody in their teens or 20 s or 30 s would come up and acknowledge her and say, you know, you were my teacher in such and such a year and you were the best teacher i ever had and you helped me more than any teacher i ever had. and that was not an occasional curns. she was also dedicated to her work with the union and she had a good personality for that. she was a very assertive person. she taught me a little bit about community organizing, and together we organized our street into a neighborhood organization that has lasted for about 35 years and is s