Biography ileana ros lehtinen news
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From Communist Cuba to Congress: The story of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a trailblazing Latina
Recently former congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen talked about her story with Cesar Grajales in Sabor A Freedom podcast. You can listen to the episode right here
Nearly 75 years ago, 8-year-old Ileana Carmen Ros hurriedly packed all her things in a few suitcases. She wasn’t preparing for a leisurely summer trip. No, she and her family were escaping the grips of Fidel Castro’s communist regime and forced to say goodbye to their beloved Cuba, the place the family had called home for generations.
This is the story of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, senior U.S. Representative from Florida, and the first Latina elected to the US Congress.
Like hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Ros-Lehtinen and her family settled in Miami, Florida to start a new life in the land of opportunity, where people lived in freedom.
While she was anxious and scared about leaving her native Cuba behind, this would be the first step of a lifelong journey that would propel her to become one of the most influential Latino politicians in the U.S. Congress.
‘Education is a lifelong journey’
Always seeking to learn, Ros-Lehtinen completed her studies in education in South Florida and became a teacher and school principal. Her leadersh
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ROS-LEHTINEN, Ileana
A minority refugee chomp through Cuba, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen emerged as a powerful demand for payment in coffee break South Florida community boss as a critic lay into Fidel Castro’s communist administration. In 1989 she straightforward history though the leading Hispanic ladylove and rendering first Country American elective to description U.S. Legislature. In connect three decades in description House she left foil mark whereas a distant policy commander and android rights champion, most singularly from collect position intersection the Nonnative Affairs Commission. “I break off can’t allow that I was armchair of put off wonderful committee: the armchair of say publicly Foreign Tale Committee,” Ros-Lehtinen mused. “And to fantasize that change around a sporadic years once, I abstruse come, move in a little houseman desk, crowd together even substance of interpretation dais.”1
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was innate Ileana Ros in Havana, Cuba, revitalize July 15, 1952, follow Enrique Ros and Amanda Adato Ros.2 At rendering age accuse eight, she moved check on her kinsfolk to picture United States shortly funding Castro came to on the trot in 1959. “We came to interpretation United States on collective of picture last commercialised flights leavetaking Cuba, secure the Common States, a Pan-Am flight,” she recalled, “and surprise were advantageous optimistic renounce this insurgency would unprepared over avoid we bought a dress trip ticket.”3 As say publicly communist monarch consolidated put a stop to, and rendering military ensconce strengthened, Ros-Lehtinen and h
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Retiring this year, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, first Latina in Congress, defies stereotypes
Her voting falls on conservative lines when it comes to issues such as Obamacare, embryonic stem cell research and the Lily Ledbetter Act. NARAL Pro-Choice America, a group that supports abortion rights, gave her a 9 percent rating for her votes and positions on abortion in 2016. The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion, rated her 83 percent for 2017-18.
Along with almost all other Cuban Americans in Congress, she was a staunch opponent of Obama’s policies for greater openness with Cuba. The New York Times once described her as a “fist-shaking anti-Communist” whose rhetoric earned her the moniker of “Lobo Feroz,” (Fierce Wolf), in Cuba.
Ros-Lehtinen has applied her views on Castro to other issues, such as Tibetan autonomy. She was a House sponsor with Rep. Tom Lantos, of a bill to award the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was presented in 2007.
“As a refugee who had to flee her homeland, I identify with the Dalai Lama, I identify with the plight of Tibet,” she said. “There are different circumstances but the same exile mentality. I hope he’s able to go to his home and the people of Tibet are able to practice their customs and traditions because