“Adelante, mi gente.”

This is just the start for Grijalva … Tucson on the hook for homeless camp … And is that your final answer Mike Johnson?

The world watched as Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva raised her right hand on Wednesday, the buzz of the House of Representatives chamber dropping to a hush.

For thousands of Southern Arizona residents watching her be sworn in on C-SPAN, it was the moment we grabbed the remote to turn up the volume.

In her often fiery speech, Grijalva seamlessly kept switching back and forth between English and Spanish.

“Thank you to la gente of Southern Arizona. For making history, electing me as the first Latina – the first Chicana – from Arizona ever to go to Congress,” Grijalva said. “Este momento es histórico para nuestra comunidad. Es un honor ser la primera latina en representar Arizona en el Congreso, y les aseguro que aunque soy la primera, no seré la última.” ¹

The words in two languages were meant for a larger audience than just the House chambers.

Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva made a short video for social media showing her getting her pin, giving her family a tour of her new office and meeting with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

She scolded House Republicans for refusing to stand up to President Donald Trump for the last 10 months. Then she went after House Speaker Mike Johnson for denying 800,000 Southern Arizonans a real voice in Congress. And finally, she made good on her promise to sign the discharge petition to force a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files.

“Basic freedoms are under attack. Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents. We can and must do better,” Grijalva said. “What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority in this body has failed to do: hold Trump accountable as the co-equal branch of government that we are.”

If you’ve watched her dad on the House floor, the tone probably sounded familiar.

Love her or hate her — and let’s be honest, plenty of Southern Arizonans do both — this wasn’t just another polished stump speech that could’ve come straight out of her father’s playbook. It was the first defining move of her first term: a promise, a dare, and a shot across the bow, all rolled into five minutes at the mic.

By the time she was sworn in as a Tucson Unified School District board member in 2002, her dad was already a Pima County Supervisor. Two years later, he was walking the same marble hallways in D.C. that she just paced this week.

It is completely possible that Grijalva learned to count² in part by using yard signs, not flash cards — and you can tell. This is someone who has been around politics her whole life, but is now testing how she wants to use her voice in Congress.

Maybe that’s why Grijalva didn’t stop at signing one discharge petition. Her office announced she would sign eight more:

• Taxpayer Data Protection Act: Basically, “stop letting other agencies snoop into your tax returns without a court order.”

• Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act: Keeps food and healthcare money flowing even when Congress forces a shutdown.

• Trump’s Canada / Mexico tariffs: Takes back the “emergency” powers Trump used to launch mini-trade wars.

• Protect America’s Workforce Act: Gives federal workers back some of the bargaining power they’ve lost.

• “Liberation Day” tariffs: Shuts down another Trump-branded tariff trick to avoid congressional approval

• Support for Ukraine: Makes sure a peace deal isn’t one-sided and that military support doesn’t dry up for Ukrainians.

• More Epstein/Maxwell records: This releases any other files the feds have on the duo not directly tied to the Epstein files.

In other words, she didn’t just dip a toe into the discharge-petition game — she dived into the deep end of House politics.

Will any of these nine petitions actually succeed? Probably not all of them. Some may never even get close.

But with one speech and nine signatures, Adelita Grijalva just turned herself from “Raúl’s kid” into one of the loudest new voices in the House — and put Southern Arizona right in the middle of some of the biggest fights in Washington.

Now we get to see whether her colleagues follow her lead, or ignore her and leave her stack of petitions twisting in the D.C. wind.

Not gonna hear it: The Arizona Supreme Court won’t reconsider an appeals court ruling in favor of Hedrick Acres residents who sued the City of Tucson for allowing a homeless camp in their neighborhood, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. City officials said they were disappointed in the ruling, but they believed the underlying issue was addressed by an ordinance passed in June that prohibited camping in washes.

Less than they expected: A sports complex in Nogales, Sonora will go back to its original purpose as city officials dismantle a migrant shelter set up there, the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña reports. Officials braced for the mass deportations promised by President Donald Trump, but although roughly 1,000 immigrants are deported to the city every month, city officials never saw an influx that even came close to filling the sports complex.

A friendly face: When deportees arrive in Nogales, Sonora, one of the first people they talk to is Sister Tracey Horan, who helps run the Kino Border Initiative, a binational Catholic organization that helps deportees. She spoke with the Border Chronicle’s Melissa del Bosque about what she’s seen in her six years working in Nogales, including the big changes since Trump’s second term began in January.

“This is the first year I’ve heard so many stories of people who were at a court hearing and were detained even though they had ongoing proceedings, and they were still working through their case,” Horan said. “I’ve also heard from a lot of people who were just pumping gas at the corner or on their way to work. That’s not totally new, but the number has definitely gone up, including people who had legal residency.”

A marathon, not a sprint: Designing a marathon course is more complicated than you might think, KGUN’s Alex Dowd reports. Randy Accetta has spent months planning the Garmin Marathon in Tucson to make it a qualifier race for the Boston Marathon. The plan right now is to start downtown and wind through the city, like going through Sam Hughes and the Sunshine Mile. But they couldn’t include Mount Lemmon. Qualifying courses for the Boston Marathon can’t have a net-downhill trend. The good news is if you run the marathon (and you’re over 21) Pueblo Vida Brewing Company will give you a free beer, custom made for the marathon.

Speaking of beer, did you know a paid subscription to the Tucson Agenda costs about as much as buying one beer a month?

Building a better culture: Sahuarita officials say they’ve cleaned house and won’t see a repeat of a public works department employee who used town-issued fuel cards and purchasing cards for his own benefit, Kim Smith reports for the Green Valley News. Several employees left or were disciplined after town officials started investigating whether any other employees were following in the footsteps of Joe Marti, Jr, who is awaiting trial on eight felony charges.

When a reporter asked Rep. Adelita Grijalva why it took so long to swear her in, her reaction came from the heart.

The question put her on the spot, especially since Speaker Mike Johnson, who delayed her swearing-in for seven weeks, was standing right next to her.

Grijalva could have spewed some political nonsense to ease the awkwardness, but instead she gave an honest answer: She just pointed to Johnson.

1. Translation: “This moment is historic for our community. It’s an honor to be the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress, and I assure you that although I’m the first, I won’t be the last.”

2. Raúl was first elected to the TUSD Governing Board when Adelita was four years old.