Back on the campus where she first learned the power of public education and community, newly sworn U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva returned to Pueblo High School on Dec. 6 to take her oath before family, local leaders and tribal officials.

The homecoming ceremony, which occurred 24 days after her official swearing-in in Washington, D.C., blended celebration and protest and offered attendees a preview of the fights she plans to take on in Congress.

Grijalva graduated from Pueblo High School in 1989, and all three of her children attended the school as well.

Grijalva told attendees about her first few weeks in office, during which she introduced two bills and co-sponsored 56. She outlined her priorities, including protecting democracy, public education, natural resources and the economy, saying she wants the country to look more like it did when she grew up.

“They’re all really pushing forward the issues that people elected me to push for,” Grijalva said about the legislation she co-sponsored. “Our economy, education, protecting our environment, affordable healthcare.”

She reflected on the seven-week delay in her official swearing-in, saying she would have been sworn in right away if she were a Republican, and addressed an incident the day before during which she said she was pepper-sprayed by ICE agents during a raid at a westside Mexican restaurant.

“It’s one thing to see it on the news, one thing to see video. It’s another thing to be eye-to-eye with people who are looking through you like you’re inhuman,” Grijalva told Tucson Spotlight. “Except for one ICE agent, the rest of them could care less who I was. They didn’t care. And if they’re going to treat a sitting member of Congress that way, you can just imagine how they treat everybody else.”

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero celebrated Grijalva’s place in history as the first Latina elected to Congress in Arizona, calling her father, former Rep. Raúl  Grijalva, a mentor and expressing confidence that Adelita Grijalva would continue her father’s legacy.

“We know that we need to stand together in this fight that we are seeing in our country,” Romero said. “Our fight for public education, our fight for affordability, our fight for opportunity for our neighbors, for our public lands, for good jobs. For real.”

Romero also condemned violence perpetrated against Grijalva and other protesters.

“The disproportionate use of force and smoke grenades and pepper balls against our community will never, ever be tolerated in this city,” Romero said.

Other notable attendees included South Tucson Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela, Tucson City Council members Selina Barajas and Kevin Dahl, Tohono O’odham Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose, Pascua Yaqui Tribal Chairman Julian Hernandez and former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Sen. Mark Kelly was also in attendance, welcoming Grijalva to Congress and expressing hopes to work with her in Washington.

“We’ve waited too long for this, much longer than we were supposed to,” Kelly said of the delay in Grijalva’s swearing-in. “But it was kind of a good thing, because after this long wait, America got to see something that we already knew here in southern Arizona — that Adelita is a fighter.”

Grijalva’s son, Raúl  Grijalva-Gomez, spoke about his mother prior to her swearing-in.

“My courageous, loving mother. I am proud to be her son. I’m proud to have been raised by her,” Grijalva-Gomez said.

Grijalva thanked friends and family, as well as the community, school, union and tribal leaders present.

“On this very campus is where I got my start. It’s where I built lifelong friendships and learned about leadership,” Grijalva said. “Tucson raised me. It is where I learned the value of public education, the strength of working families, the power of organizing and the meaning of community.”

She emphasized quality public education, including literacy programs, opposing book bans, restoring federal funding and fighting school voucher programs.

She also pointed to the need for an immigration policy focused on dignity and the rights of migrants.

“Masked agents forcing their way into a humanitarian aid station cannot be tolerated. It cannot be normalized. It must be called out,” Grijalva said, referring to a Dec. 1 raid by Border Patrol agents on a humanitarian camp on the outskirts of Arivaca. “The Fourth Amendment doesn’t simply disappear in southern Arizona. Humanitarian aid is not a crime. Going in and asking about what is going on in a community is called oversight. It’s not an interruption, it’s an obligation.”

She closed her speech by promising to be “a fighter,” saying she would pick her battles in Congress with the community in mind.

That pledge was quickly reflected in the legislation she has already brought forward during her first days in office. The first bill Grijalva sponsored as a member of Congress was the Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act, which she introduced on Dec. 3.

If enacted, the bill would revoke a 2014 land swap that granted 2,422 acres of Tonto National Forest to the joint venture Resolution Copper. The land includes Oak Flat, which the Apache tribes consider a sacred site. Raul Grijalva had proposed similar legislation to protect Oak Flat during his time in office.

“Oak Flat is sacred and protected. It’s one of our historic places that should not have been part of any sort of agreement,” Grijalva told Tucson Spotlight. “We passed a lot of legislation last week about protecting students from China. Resolution Copper’s major holder is the People’s Republic of China. So I think we need to have a lot of transparency about this.”

Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie spoke about his three decades in tribal government and said he often felt discouraged when speaking with leaders in Washington.

“It wasn’t until I met (Grijalva’s) father and heard his words telling me ‘don’t stop, because what you’re saying is important,’” Nosie said. “Because people don’t realize what capitalism has done to us. If the United States government can’t even prioritize water first, but to put minerals before people, what does that tell you?”

Nosie told attendees about his frustrations trying to find institutional help when his tribe pushed back against the controversial mining at Oak Flat. He said administrators at Tonto National Forest told him he could not be helped unless he was assaulted or killed, and that the tribal government lacked jurisdiction to intervene.

Grijalva’s other piece of legislation introduced since taking office was the Right to Read Act, which her father had also introduced in 2022. If enacted, the bill would provide grants to states for comprehensive literacy development and target book bans in schools. She said that, as the daughter, wife and sister of librarians, the bill is personal.

“Investing in our public school libraries, directing real money to ensure that access is equal for every student, regardless of where they go to school, and we are going to fight against book bans and any restrictions against access of information,” Grijalva said.

Ian Stash is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact him at istash@arizona.edu.

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