“Even if it’s the first time, I guarantee you it won’t be the last,” she said in Spanish, to a brief applause as the packed chamber again withheld an interpreter.
Adelita Grijalva as Arizona Swen in After Delay
Democratic Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva will take the oath of office after a 50-day delay, meaning there could be enough votes to release more Epstein files.
Washington – granddaughter of laborerAfter waiting 50 days to take her seat in Congress, Rep. Adelita Grijalva took to the podium on the House floor and told her colleagues, “Our democracy works when everyone has a voice.”
“This moment is historic for our community.” Grijalva spoke in Spanish and did not provide an interpreter to his hundreds of colleagues on the House floor. “I am honored to be the first Latina woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislature.” (“This is a historic moment for our community,” she said. “It is an honor to be the first Latina woman to represent Arizona in Congress.)
During her roughly five-minute speech, Grijalva seamlessly switched between English and Spanish, as is common for many people who grew up along the U.S.-Mexico border, while also addressing some of her colleagues and addressing the Latino community.
Code-switching, the act of selectively switching between languages or dialects during a conversation, is a phenomenon familiar to bilingual and multilingual people in the United States.
Grijalva won a special election to replace her late father, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, becoming the first Latina and, in her words, “the first Chicana” to represent Arizona in the state Legislature. She said it’s the first, but not the last.
“Even if it’s your first time, I guarantee it won’t be your last.” She said this in Spanish, and there was a small round of applause in the packed room, which again refrained from interpreting. Her message seems to be aimed not at those who aren’t there, but at the next Latina in office.
She also spoke directly to her three children, Adelina, Raúl and Joaquín, along with her husband Sol and mother Ramona, who were sitting in the chamber.
“Thank you very much for your support and love.” she told them in Spanish. (“Thank you so much for your support and love.”)
Her message wasn’t just for her family or the Latinx community. In front of a packed chamber, she turned herself into a lawmaker.
“We need to fight for immigrant communities and veterans,” she told her colleagues. “We need to stand up for our public schools, our children, and our educators. We need to respect tribal sovereignty and the environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights because that’s what the American people expect of us. Let’s fight for them.”
Speaking in English, not Spanish, she said she was concerned about the damage caused by government shutdowns, executive overreach and ICE agents rounding up people without cause.
In his remarks, Grijalva also pledged to sign a release petition “now” to release more files related to the late disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats released bombshell emails on November 12 in which Epstein wrote that President Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims and “knew the girls.”
But the woman who refused to join her colleagues in resuming Congress due to the government shutdown and waited seven weeks before entering the workforce as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson ended her remarks with a final message to the community. “Please, my people.”
Go ahead, my people.
This article has been updated to add new information.
