Olivia Perez-Cubas is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio\u2019s communications director. Photo Credit: Bill Clark\/CQ Roll Call
\nLatino\u00a0staffers are leading offices on Capitol Hill, running communications operations and advising some of the highest-ranking members of Congress.
\nMany started out their careers as interns. Some got their big break through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, or through someone looking out for them.
\nThey share their wisdom for\u00a0other Latinos who hope to follow in their footsteps.<\/p>\n
Joanna Rodriguez<\/strong>, communications director\u00a0to Rep. Carlos Curbelo<\/a>, R-Fla.: “It was actually another Hispanic woman. She was in charge of hiring interns for Sen. Rubio at the time and brought me into the office early on.” Jaime E. Liz\u00e1rraga<\/strong>, senior adviser\u00a0to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, D-Calif.: “This is probably more a thing of the past but \u2026 I\u2019ve often heard the expectation that as a Latino staffer, you would only work or focus on Latino issues. All issues are, in my mind, Latino issues. Every policy issue that Congress acts on affects the Latino community in one form or another.” Latino\u00a0staffers are leading offices on Capitol Hill, running communications operations and advising some of the highest-ranking members of Congress. Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,983,984],"tags":[1403],"ppma_author":[583],"class_list":["post-5084579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracypolitics","category-ma-politics","category-ri-politics","tag-congress-and-latinoshispanic-staff-in-congresshispanics-in-politicslatinos-in-d-c-senator-rubio"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jermaine Smith","author_link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/author\/jay\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Latino\u00a0staffers are leading offices on Capitol Hill, running communications operations and advising some of the highest-ranking members of Congress. 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\nBianca Ortiz Wertheim<\/strong>, chief of staff\u00a0to Sen. Tom Udall<\/a>, D-N.M.: “My path through government is that there\u2019s goodness. There\u2019s a belief that there can be goodness in government and that the shared love here in the office for New Mexico is also a common denominator.”
\n[Editor\u2019s note: Ortiz Wertheim is one of two Latina chiefs for Senate Democrats. The other is Susie Perez Quinn, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson<\/a>\u2019s chief of staff.<\/em>]
\nVeronica Duron<\/strong>, legislative assistant\u00a0to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer<\/a>, D-N.Y.: “I came to D.C.\u00a010 years ago through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute fellowship. I did a year long placement on the Hill, on the House side, with Congressman Solomon Ortiz<\/a>.”
\nOlivia Perez-Cubas<\/strong>, communications director\u00a0to Sen. Marco Rubio<\/a>, R-Fla.: “I started as an intern for Sen.\u00a0Rubio. I\u2019m from Miami and it was actually Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen<\/a> and her staff who connected me to the senator\u2019s office
\nJuan Pachon<\/strong>, communications director\u00a0for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats: “I was able to get to D.C. through a fellowship program for Hispanics. It\u2019s through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.”
\nJaime E. Liz\u00e1rraga is senior adviser and director of member services to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi<\/a>. (Sarah Silbiger\/CQ Roll Call)<\/p>\nDaily challenges<\/h3>\n
\nEmily Benavides<\/strong>, deputy communications director to Sen. Rob Portman<\/a>, R-Ohio: “I didn\u2019t come from a background where we were super politically active. \u2026 This was a totally new direction for my family, so I had to sort of scrape my own way and build my own network. It\u2019s challenging but I was lucky in that I was able to find other young Hispanic conservative women and we banded together and supported together, created our own community here in D.C. and thus were able to \u2026…
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"