Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, First Cuban-American to serve in US Congress (House of Reps.)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, First Cuban-American to serve in US Congress (House of Reps.)

From Biography: Born in Cuba in 1952 and later immigrating to the United States at age eight, Ros-Lehtinen grew up with an anti-Castro activist father and memories of escaping Fidel Castro's regime. Focusing her career in education, Ros-Lehtinen earned both her a bachelor's degree in 1975 and a master's degree in 1985 at Florida International University. In 2004 she received her doctorate in education from the University of Miami. While operating a private school in Miami in the early 80s, Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, becoming the first Latina to accomplish this. She continued her groundbreaking streak by becoming the first Latina to serve in the state senate and in 1989, the first Latina and first Cuban-American to serve in the United States Congress as a member of the House of Representatives. Starting in 2011, she also became the first female to ever manage a regular standing committee, the Committee on Foreign Affairs. As a moderate Republican, Ros-Lehtinen was considered one of the most popular bipartisan politicians before retiring her House seat in 2017. She was the first House Republican to come out in support of gay marriage and served as a member of numerous caucuses in her 30-year political career, including the LGBT Equality Caucus, the Climate Solutions Caucus and the Congressional Pro-Life Women's Caucus.

US Congress

2017

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Ileana_Ros-Lehtinen_official_photo.jpg

US Congress

US Congress

Photograph

English

Figures

Hispanic-American. Cuba. House of Representatives. LGBT. Women. Florida.

Florida