RESOLUTION CHAPTER 103

[Filed with Secretary of State July 22, 1998]

 

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 81--Relative to a sister state relationship with the State of San Salvador, El Salvador.

WHEREAS, The States of San Salvador and California are the commercial, industrial, and financial, centers of their respective countries; and

WHEREAS, San Salvador and California are the most populous states in their respective countries, and share common cultural ties, similar early history during the Spanish colonization, and strong family ties among sectors of their populations, and the Cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Salvador have the largest concentration of Salvadorans in their respective states; and

WHEREAS, California's educational and academic communities, through casework and research studies carried out by prestigious research institutions, have begun to recognize the significant economic, cultural migratory, and political contributions of the Salvadoran American community in California; and

WHEREAS, Although San Salvador and California share a great deal in common, they are sufficiently different that both would benefit from increased trade, investment, tourism, cultural, educational, and scientific exchanges; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature of the State of California is committed to encouraging relationships and exchanges between California and other regions of the world in order to promote better economic ties, understanding, and cultural relations; and

WHEREAS, Establishing and developing a sister state relationship between San Salvador and California would help achieve these goals, and would stimulate and facilitate additional mutually beneficial exchanges between cities such as Los Angeles, in which more than 450,000 Salvadorans reside, representing the second largest concentration of Salvadorans after San Salvador, the capitol city of El Salvador, and Salvadoran cities; and

WHEREAS, The State of San Salvador is committed to pass legislation necessary to enter into a sister state relationship with California; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California, on behalf of the people of the State of California, hereby extends an invitation to the people of the State of San Salvador, El Salvador, to join California as a sister state, and commit to the development of programs to foster social, economic, educational, scientific, and cultural programs in order to strengthen the democratization process and economic development of El Salvador and promote economic ties, and improve international understanding and goodwill between the two states and with El Salvador as a whole; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Mayor of San Salvador, the San Salvador Council of Municipalities, and the Governor of California.