Funeral services for former Representative Ben Miranda will be held Monday, November 25, at Saint Agnes Catholic Church, 1954 N. 24 St, Phoenix, AZ 85008 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. followed by mass. Miranda’s burial will take place at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, 23029 N. Cave Creek Road, Phoenix, AZ 85024 at 2 p.m.
According to Representative Catherine Hernandez Miranda’s office, following the burial, the public is invited to convene at the American Legion Post 41, 715 S. Second Avenue, Phoenix.
The Mirandas met while Catherine was teaching at a school in the Roosevelt School District. This past Monday, November 18, was the couple’s seventh anniversary.
Miranda grew up in a migrant farm family and was one of 11 children. Miranda was awarded the Bronze Star, one of the country’s top military decorations for bravery, heroism or meritorious service.
Miranda used his GI Bill to pay for his studies at Phoenix College and Arizona State University. He went on to receive a juris doctorate and the Dean’s Award from the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at ASU.
Miranda was also the co-founder of the Manzana Foundation, which forged an agreement with the Navajo Technical College to fill up its classrooms at branches in Phoenix and Tempe,” with undocumented entrants.
In September 2012, the Capitol Times “reported that Miranda recruited mostly “Dreamers,” whose parents brought them illegally to the US as children, to the dismay of the college, which wanted them to recruit local Native American students,” according to the Yellow Sheet.
“Students going to Navajo Tech pay hundreds and even thousands less per semester than what they would pay for out-of-state tuition at state schools. Miranda began the collaboration with the school a couple years before Obama implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young people to work in the US without threat of deportation,” according to the Yellow Sheet.
Navajo Technical College has an open-door policy for admission.