In 1960, at the age of eight, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her family fled Cuba on one of the last commercial flights leaving Havana. They settled in Miami, FL, where Ros-Lehtinen began to build both her education and her career. She earned her associate degree from Miami-Dade Community College, a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Florida International University, and a doctorate in education from the University of Miami. She began her professional life as a teacher and founded a private bilingual elementary school, where she regularly assisted immigrant families in navigating the U.S. government process, an experience that drove her toward public service.
In 1982, Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve in the state legislature. She later served in the Florida Senate before entering the 1989 special election to fill the congressional seat that was left vacant. She won the election with fifty three percent of the vote, making history as the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban American elected to the United States Congress.
Ros-Lehtinen served fifteen terms in the house where she served on the Foreign Affairs Committee for the entirety of her career. During that time she became the first woman ever to chair the Foreign Affairs Committee. She was a consistent advocate for human rights, immigrant communities, and gender equality, co-sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 and opposing legislation she viewed as harmful to immigrants. Upon her retirement in 2019, she reflected: “I came here without knowing a word of English. That I’m now a member of Congress says a lot more about the United States of America than it does about me. This really is the land of opportunity.”
References
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “ROS-LEHTINEN, Ileana,” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/ROS-LEHTINEN,-Ileana-(R000435)/