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Encyclopedia of World Biography on Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (born 1952) is the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the United States congress.
Being first has become something that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen does quite well. In 1982, she became the first Cuban-born female to be elected to the Florida state legislature. Seven years later, after a successful career as a state legislator, she won a special election held on August 29, 1989, to fill the seat left vacant by the death of long-time Miami political powerhouse Claude D. Pepper. A few days after her victory, Ros-Lehtinen was sworn in as the first Cuban American, as well as the first Hispanic woman, ever elected to the U.S. Congress. "As the first Cuban-American elected to Congress," Boston Globe commentator Chris Black noted, "she also will be likely to become one of the most visible, most quoted Cuban-born politicians in the nation."
Ros-Lehtinen (pronounced ross-LAY-teh-nin), who is known as Lily to her...
This section contains 1,640 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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