Nydia Velazquez

Velázquez was born in the town of Limones in the municipality of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico on March 28, 1953. She grew up in Yabucoa in a small house on the Río Limones. Her father, Benito Velázquez Rodríguez, was a poor worker in the sugarcane fields who became a self-taught political activist and the founder of a local political party. Political conversations at the dinner table focused on workers' rights. Her mother was Carmen Luisa Serrano Medina. She was one of nine siblings born to the couple.

Velázquez attended public schools and skipped three grades as a child. She became the first in her family to graduate high school. She became a student at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras at age 16. In 1974, she received a degree in political science, magna cum laude, and became a teacher. While in college, Velázquez was a supporter of Puerto Rican independence; by the time she ran for Congress in 1992, Velázquez no longer addressed the issue, "saying that it must be left up to the Puerto Rican people."

In 1976, Velázquez received an M.A. in political science from New York University. She subsequently served as an instructor of political science at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao from 1976 to 1981. After returning to New York City, Velázquez was an adjunct professor of Puerto Rican studies at Hunter College from 1981 to 1983.

In 1983, Velázquez was special assistant to Representative Edolphus Towns, a Democrat representing New York's 10th congressional district in Brooklyn.

In 1984, Velázquez was named by Howard Golden (then the Brooklyn Borough President and chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic organization) to fill a vacant seat on the New York City Council, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Council. Velázquez ran for election to the council in 1986, but lost to a challenger.

From May 1986 to July 1989, Velázquez was national director of the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources' Migration Division Office. From 1989 to 1992 she was named by the governor of Puerto Rico as the director of the Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the United States. In this role, according to a 1992 New York Times profile, "Velazquez solidified her reputation that night as a street-smart and politically savvy woman who understood the value of solidarity and loyalty to other politicians, community leaders and organized labor."

Velázquez ran for Congress in the 1992 election, seeking a seat in the New York's newly-drawn 12th congressional district, which was drawn as a majority-Hispanic district. Velázquez won the Democratic primary, defeating nine-term incumbent Stephen J. Solarz and four Hispanic candidates.

In 1992, Velázquez defeated incumbent congressman Stephen J. Solarz in the primary and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New York's 12th congressional district, and became the first female Puerto Rican member of Congress. The sprawling 12th district encompasses parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Lower Manhattan. It includes such neighborhoods as Ridgewood, Maspeth, and Woodside in Queens; Bushwick, Williamsburg, Red Hook, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn; and part of Manhattan's Lower East Side. She also became the first Hispanic woman to serve as Ranking Democratic Member of the House Small Business Committee. The committee oversees federal programs and contracts totaling $200 billion annually. She also serves on the House Financial Services Committee.

In October 1992, during her first campaign for the House, an unknown person or persons at Saint Clare's Hospital in Manhattan anonymously faxed to the press Velázquez's hospital records which pertained 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. Velázquez 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.

Velázquez has been an advocate for human and civil rights of the Puerto Rican people. In the late 1990s and the 2000s, she was a leader in the Vieques movement, which sought to stop the United States military from using the inhabited island as a bomb testing ground. In May 2000, Velázquez was one of nearly two hundred people arrested (including fellow congressman Luis Gutiérrez) for refusing to leave the natural habitat the US military wished to continue using as a bombing range. Velázquez was ultimately successful: in May 2003, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility on Vieques Island was closed; and in May 2004, the U.S. Navy's last remaining base on Puerto Rico, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station was closed.

Velázquez, also known as "la Luchadora" ("the fighter"), married Brooklyn-based printer Paul Bader in 2000. It was her second marriage. In November 2002, Bader was controversially hired by New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson as an administrative manager in the Bureau of Law and Adjudications, joining Joyce Miller, wife of Democratic 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 2003, Hispanic Business Magazine honored her with its first "Woman of the Year" award, citing her support of minority small-business owners. As a Representative, Velázquez has focused on building a legislative agenda that lobbies to increase the opportunities for the nation's 47 million Hispanics, including the over 2.3 million Hispanics currently residing in New York City.

Among her firsts are: the first Hispanic woman to serve on the New York City Council; the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress; the first woman Ranking Democratic Member of the House Small Business Committee. Velázquez became the first woman to chair the United States House Committee on Small Business in January 2007 as well as the first Hispanic woman to chair a House standing committee.

On September 29, 2008, Velázquez voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. On November 19, 2008, Congresswoman Velázquez was elected by her peers in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to lead the group for the 111th Congress.

In 2009, Velázquez voted against the amendment Prohibiting Federally Funded Abortion Services. In the past year, Velázquez has supported the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations, the Unemployment Benefits Association, and the Unemployment Benefits Extension. Velázquez has also consistently voted in favor of bills attempting to strengthen women's rights, such as the Employment Discrimination Law Amendments, Equal Pay Bill and the Inclusion of Consolidated Appropriations.

Velázquez's 2010 campaign income was $759,359. She came out of this campaign with about $7,736 in debt. Her top contributors include Goldman Sachs, the American Bankers Association, the National Roofing Contractors Association and the National Telephone Cooperative Association.

In March 2020, Velázquez was diagnosed with a presumed case of COVID-19.