Died from: kidney cancer
Farm Workers Mourn Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr.
The son of farm workers, Joe, his two brothers and sister were raised in impoverished farm labor camps near Lodi, Calif. All of them worked in the fields from a young age‹from picking wine grapes to harvesting beets with the short-handled hoe.
Joe Serna worked his way through college and served in the Peace Corps, organizing campesinos in isolated villages in the mountains of Guatemala.
For more than 30 years, he championed the United Farm Workers in Sacramento. He organized car caravans to Delano with food and clothing for the grape strikers. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s organizing UFW boycotts and picketing area stores. Cesar Chavez often called on Joe for help and support; Serna never turned him down.
He was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1981. In 1992, he became the city's first Latino mayor. He was considered the most activist and influential mayor the city has ever had.
His greatest achievement as mayor was reforming the city's poorly performing public schools, which mostly serve Latino and minority children. Serna made better quality schools his biggest priority. He recruited and elected a new reform school board.
Today, test scores are up and the Sacramento City schools are a national model of how an urban school district with poor and minority kids can turn itself around. Everyone says Mayor Serna deserves the credit.
Farm Workers Mourn Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr.
The son of farm workers, Joe, his two brothers and sister were raised in impoverished farm labor camps near Lodi, Calif. All of them worked in the fields from a young age‹from picking wine grapes to harvesting beets with the short-handled hoe.
Joe Serna worked his way through college and served in the Peace Corps, organizing campesinos in isolated villages in the mountains of Guatemala.
For more than 30 years, he championed the United Farm Workers in Sacramento. He organized car caravans to Delano with food and clothing for the grape strikers. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s organizing UFW boycotts and picketing area stores. Cesar Chavez often called on Joe for help and support; Serna never turned him down.
He was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1981. In 1992, he became the city's first Latino mayor. He was considered the most activist and influential mayor the city has ever had.
His greatest achievement as mayor was reforming the city's poorly performing public schools, which mostly serve Latino and minority children. Serna made better quality schools his biggest priority. He recruited and elected a new reform school board.
Today, test scores are up and the Sacramento City schools are a national model of how an urban school district with poor and minority kids can turn itself around. Everyone says Mayor Serna deserves the credit.
Died from: kidney cancer
Farm Workers Mourn Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr.
The son of farm workers, Joe, his two brothers and sister were raised in impoverished farm labor camps near Lodi, Calif. All of them worked in the fields from a young age‹from picking wine grapes to harvesting beets with the short-handled hoe.
Joe Serna worked his way through college and served in the Peace Corps, organizing campesinos in isolated villages in the mountains of Guatemala.
For more than 30 years, he championed the United Farm Workers in Sacramento. He organized car caravans to Delano with food and clothing for the grape strikers. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s organizing UFW boycotts and picketing area stores. Cesar Chavez often called on Joe for help and support; Serna never turned him down.
He was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1981. In 1992, he became the city's first Latino mayor. He was considered the most activist and influential mayor the city has ever had.
His greatest achievement as mayor was reforming the city's poorly performing public schools, which mostly serve Latino and minority children. Serna made better quality schools his biggest priority. He recruited and elected a new reform school board.
Today, test scores are up and the Sacramento City schools are a national model of how an urban school district with poor and minority kids can turn itself around. Everyone says Mayor Serna deserves the credit.
Farm Workers Mourn Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr.
The son of farm workers, Joe, his two brothers and sister were raised in impoverished farm labor camps near Lodi, Calif. All of them worked in the fields from a young age‹from picking wine grapes to harvesting beets with the short-handled hoe.
Joe Serna worked his way through college and served in the Peace Corps, organizing campesinos in isolated villages in the mountains of Guatemala.
For more than 30 years, he championed the United Farm Workers in Sacramento. He organized car caravans to Delano with food and clothing for the grape strikers. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s organizing UFW boycotts and picketing area stores. Cesar Chavez often called on Joe for help and support; Serna never turned him down.
He was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1981. In 1992, he became the city's first Latino mayor. He was considered the most activist and influential mayor the city has ever had.
His greatest achievement as mayor was reforming the city's poorly performing public schools, which mostly serve Latino and minority children. Serna made better quality schools his biggest priority. He recruited and elected a new reform school board.
Today, test scores are up and the Sacramento City schools are a national model of how an urban school district with poor and minority kids can turn itself around. Everyone says Mayor Serna deserves the credit.
Bio by: Josephine
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