Funeral services were held in Tucson on Wednesday morning for the late Congressman Raúl Grijalva. The longtime lawmaker passed away earlier this month after a year-long battle with lung cancer. He was 77.
Grijalva was one of Arizona’s longest-serving Congressional representatives — in office for more than 20 years.
At the historic St. Augustine Cathedral in downtown Tucson Wednesday morning, Grijalva’s long-time staffer Ruben Reyes told a packed room of funeral attendees that he met Grijalva long before that.
“I was a farmworker, University of Arizona college kid from the small town of Sommerton, Arizona, when I first met Raúl in the fall of ‘87. I was in a college group called MECHA — movimiento estudiantil chicano aztlan — and Raúl was our mentor,” Reyes said.
Somerton is an agriculture hub at the westernmost corner of Grijalva’s congressional district. Reyes said they later traveled there together while on the campaign trail to meet with local leaders.
“But also, he would talk to the waiters, the landscapers, the teachers, the immigrants, the construction workers, easily swaying back and forth between English and Spanish,” Reyes said.
Grijalva began his political career as a board member of the Tucson Unified School District, then as a Pima County supervisor. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of a several dozen current and former congressional attendees, said those deep, local roots went on to inform his work in Washington, D.C.
“Raúl constantly championed the unseen and overlooked, and in addition to the people of his distinct, he was beloved, from tribal communities in Alaska, to rural campos in Puerto Rico,” she said.
She said Grijalva was her mentor and his impact on young people is what shaped his legacy.
“More than any title of bill can possibly describe, is the impact Raúl had on leaders and young people, in the state of Arizona and nationally," she said.
Former New Mexico Congresswoman and Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told funeral attendees she served with Grijalva on the House Natural Resources Committee during her time in Congress.
"He was unwavering in his work to protect our air, land and water, and a powerful advocate for tribal communities everywhere," Haaland said.
Reyes, Haaland and Ocacio-Cortez were some of several speakers at the service, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Grijalva’s daughter — Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva — and others.
