Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: Primera Mujer Hispana en el Congreso

Description

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was the first Hispanic American woman and the first Cuban-American to become a Member of the United States Congress. By the time she was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1989, she had already blazed trails by having been the first Hispanic woman to serve in the Florida House and later in the Florida Senate. This non-political biography, published in both Spanish and English and written in terms accessible to children, describes Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen’s early life as a young refugee in Miami during the 1960’s, some of her accomplishments in Congress, and her dedication to the South Florida community she represents.

About the Author:
Silvia Lopez

I was born in Cuba, one of thousands of refugees who left the island in 1960 and settled in Miami. After spending all my professional life as school librarian, I began my second career as children’s author in 2014 when I had the good fortune to sign with Red Fox Literary Agency, which sold two of my books now scheduled for publication in 2018. My first bilingual book, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: First Hispanic Woman in Congress, was published through CreateSpace in 2016. Also that year I decided to self-publish Zunzuncito, the first story I ever wrote, as a gift to the hundreds of children who had sat at my feet and listened to my storytelling for so many years. Rather than publish it in print, I taught myself how to work a digital format and turned it into an eBook with illustrations by gifted Miami artist Verónica Cabrera. I constantly run into former students, many now with families of their own, from the schools where I served. None mention the Dewey Decimal System, the lessons on the encyclopedia or the online catalog. What they still remember, they say, is my storytelling. That is the greatest compliment I could ever hope for.