Davenport’s LULAC Council 10 honored all their charter members and those who have helped the organization since it was created in 1959. Over 100 awards were handed out by sergeant at arms Henry Vargas and LULAC’s Iowa state director Gilbert “G.G.” Sierra during a dinner that their LULAC hall.
President Ernie Rodriguez did not attend because his sister and charter member, Estefanía Rodriguez passed away the night before. Mr. Vargas said that they held the ceremony to try to honor most of their recipients while they are still around, “two of them passed away this week.”
Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba was present and received an award. Mayor Gluba said to those in the audience to encourage family to apply for Davenport police and fire department positions since they are implementing an “aggressive” affirmative action program.
Former mayor Phil Yerington and Bert Brooke, wife of the late former mayor Charlie Brooke, were in attendance and also received awards.
El Sr. Vargas and “G.G.” spoke about the prime years of the organization and encouraged others to join LULAC. At one point they had a strong 250 member body.
“At one time we had more members in Council 10 than any other (LULAC) council in the U.S., including the Corpus Cristi (Texas) Council,” Mr. Vargas said.
Afterwards a presentation by Janet Weaver from the Iowa Women’s Archives at The University of Iowa titled “Mujeres Latinas Project” told the history of the first Latinos who came to the Cook’s Point area in Davenport and specifically the role of the Latin women who helped correct some of the injustices that were happening to Latinos at that time.
It included a slide show of pictures that were donated by some members of LULAC and two easels that displayed pictures of residents of Cook’s Point, a ticket stub from the LULAC convention held in Davenport, and even a letter from a World War I soldier to the mother of a fallen comrade.
Mr. Vargas said that the women involved helped out a lot and normally didn’t get the recognition that they deserved.
LULAC scholarship applications are limited to entering freshmen residing in the Quad Cities area. Hurry! Deadline for applications is Monday, March 31st. Applications may be obtained from high school counselors or by contacting Henry Vargas 323-4088; Ernest Rodriguez 323-5409; or at the following site http://geocities.com/lulac10_2000/ clicking on the scholarship link to open up a pdf file for downloading and printing.
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