* Grijalva’s father was a migrant worker from Mexico who came to the U.S. in 1945 through the Bracero Program.

* Grijalva served as director of both the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and the El Rio Neighborhood Center from 1975-86.

* Grijalva did not complete his undergraduate college education until 1987, when he received a bacelor’s degree in sociology.

* On May 29, 2010, Grijalva participated in a march protesting Arizona’s SB-1070 immigration law. Fellow demonstrators included SEIU official Eliseo Medina, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta.

* In November 2010, Grijalva and 15 other congressional Democrats met—either personally or through their respective staffers—with three supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack (FRSO/FB). Those FRSO/FB supporters, representing the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, expressed their condemnation of “the FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas of people doing international solidarity work and anti-war organizing.” It was reported that Grijalva and his 15 colleagues in Congress expressed “genuine concern” about the situation.

* In October 2011 the Institute for Policy Studies presented Grijalva with its annual International Award as one of the “heroes of the progressive movement.”

* In early 2013, Grijalva and a number of fellow elected officials and activists—most of whom were aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America—drafted a proposal urging President Barack Obama to award a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Fred Ross Sr., a radical who had been trained by Saul Alinsky and had served as a mentor to both Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

* In May 2013, Grijalva was one of 59 House Representatives who called on President Obama to liberalize the regulations governing Americans’ travels to Cuba.

* A noteworthy contributor to Grijalva’s political campaigns over the years has been the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America).

* Grijalva has spoken several times at “Take Back America” and “America’s Future Now” conferences organized by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Campaign for America’s Future.

* Grijalva has been a member of numerous Congressional committees and subcommittees related to environmental matters, and has become a favorite of environmental organizations like the Sierra Club. After the election of President Obama in 2008, many of these groups lobbied (unsuccessfully) to have Grijalva appointed as Secretary of the Interior, a position that Grijalva very much coveted.

* Grijalva has proposed, among other things, legislation that would require the Border Patrol to consult with federal land managers and tribal governments in order to ensure that its border-enforcement practices do no harm to the environment.

* Over the years, Grijalva has been a board member of such entities as the Center for Progressive Leadership, the Hispanic Family Literacy Institute, the Mexican American Studies and Research Center, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, the National Center for Interpretation, ProgressiveCongress.org, the Progressive Democrats of America, and the Progressive Kick Committee.