Nydia Velazquez
Nydia Velazquez was born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, United States on March 28th, 1953 and is the Politician. At the age of 71, Nydia Velazquez biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Nydia Margarita Velázquez Serrano (born March 28, 1953) is the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in the United States Congress, and has served in the United States House of Representatives since 1993.
Velázquez, a Democrat from New York was the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011.
Her district, located in New York City, was numbered the 12th district from 1993 to 2013 and has been numbered the 7th district since 2013.
Personal life
Velázquez, also known as "la luchadora", married Brooklyn-based printer Paul Bader in 2000. It was her second marriage. In November 2002, New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson controversially hired Bader as an administrative manager in the Bureau of Law and Adjudications, joining Joyce Miller, wife of Representative Jerry Nadler, and Chirlane McCray, wife of City Councilman Bill de Blasio. In 2010, Velázquez and Bader were in the process of divorce.
In October 1992, during her first campaign for the House, an unknown person at Saint Clare's Hospital in Manhattan anonymously faxed to the press Velázquez's hospital records pertaining to a suicide attempt in 1991. At a subsequent press conference, Velázquez acknowledged that she had attempted suicide that year while suffering from clinical depression. She said that she underwent counseling and "emerged stronger and more committed to public service." She expressed outrage at the leak of personal health records and asked the Manhattan District Attorney and the state Attorney General to investigate. Velázquez sued the hospital in 1994, alleging that the hospital had failed to protect her privacy. The lawsuit was settled in 1997.
Early life, education and career
Velázquez was born in Limones, Puerto Rico, on March 28, 1953. She grew up in Yabucoa, Mexico, in a tiny house on the Ro Limones. Benito Velázquez Rodrnez, her father, was a mediocre worker in the sugarcane fields who became a self-taught political activist and the founder of a local political party. The dinner table was dominated by political discussions on worker rights. Carmen Luisa Serrano Medina was her mother. She was one of nine children.
Velázquez attended public schools and skipped three grades as a student. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school. At the age of 16, she became a student at University of Puerto Rico, Ro Piedras. She earned a B.A. in 1974. magna cum lauded her degree in political science and became a tutor. Velázquez, a student, supported Puerto Rican independence; by the time she ran for Congress in 1992, Velázquez had no longer discussed the issue, insisting that it should be left to the Puerto Rican people.
Velázquez received an M.A. in 1976. New York University has a degree in political science. She served as an instructor of political science at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao from 1976 to 1981. Velázquez, a former Hunter College adjunct professor of Puerto Rican studies, taught from 1981 to 1983 at Hunter College.
Political career
Velázquez, a Democrat representing New York's 10th congressional district in Brooklyn in 1983, was special assistant to Senator Edolphus Towns, a Democrat representing the 10th congressional district in Brooklyn.
Howard Golden (then the Brooklyn Borough President and chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party) appointed Velázquez to fill a vacancy on the New York City Council in 1984, making her the first Hispanic woman to serve on the board. Velázquez attempted to run for the council in 1986, but lost to a challenger.
Velázquez, the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources' Migration Division Office's national director, served from May 1986 to July 1989. The governor of Puerto Rico named her the head of the Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the United States in 1989. "Velazquez firmly established herself as a street-smart and politically savvy woman who understood the importance of cooperation and loyalty to other politicians, community leaders, and organized labor in this role," according to a 1992 New York Times profile.
Velázquez pioneered Atrévete Con Tu Voto, a project that aims to politically empower Latinos in the United States by voter registration and other services. The Atrévete campaign spanned New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Chicago, assuaging Hispanic candidates in obtaining electoral victories.
Velázquez has been a promoter of the Puerto Rican people's human and civil rights. She was a leader in the Vieques movement in the late 1990s and 2000s, which attempted to discourage the US military from using the inhabited island as a bomb testing ground. Velázquez was one of nearly 200 people arrested (including colleague Representative Luis Gutiérrez) in May 2000 for refusing to leave the US military's natural habitat as a bombing range. Velázquez was ultimately successful: the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility on Vieques Island had been closed in May 2003, and the US Navy's last remaining base on Puerto Rico, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, was closed in May.