To an outsider looking in, Capitol Hill is a fascinating place. With its swirling political dramas, its historical importance, and the sheer grandeur of its setting, the Hill has always attracted the young, intelligent, and ambitious—including a growing number of Latinas.

Many Latina Hill staffers were attracted to the world of politics from the very beginning. At the age of 8, Yleem Sarmiento de Poblete, staff director for the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia and chief foreign policy advisor for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, helped Ros-Lehtinen win her first campaign for the state legislature in Florida. Cindy Jimenez, who is now an advisor to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, can hardly recall a time when she wasn’t involved in politics: “In elementary school I couldn’t wait to get to fifth grade, because that was the first year kids could be elected to the student council,” she laughs. Still others began their careers serendipitously. Linda Macias got her first job in politics back in 1971, when she accompanied her brother to the local unemployment office and a staff member encouraged her to apply for a job at the California State Capitol. She started out as a legislative assistant for a California Assemblyman, and over the next twenty-five years she ascended the ranks to become chief of staff for Congressman Joe Baca.

Other Latinas ended up on the Hill despite earlier disinclinations. “I was initially turned off by politics—I thought it was a shady kind of business,” says Felicia Escobar, a legislative assistant in the Office of Senator Ken Salazar. “But little by little, my exposure grew, and I realized that you can be a more powerful advocate for your community when you’re on the inside.”

The urge to make a difference in their communities is a major motivation for Latinas to work on the Hill. “The common thread with all of us is we all care about our community, and we are all committing our lives to making it better,” says Elisa Montoya, legislative counsel in the Office of Senator Ken Salazar. Patricia Rojas, who is a Democratic professional staff member on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, agrees. “I’ve always been a person who sees myself as a piece of a larger puzzle, and that has driven me to help those in my community most in need,” she says.

Yleem Sarmiento de Poblete at work with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen	Cindy Jimenez Advisor for Democratic Leader, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

Education is also something that Latina staffers value highly. Many of them chose college majors in political science, government, or law—traditional choices for those who aspire to work on the Hill. But as Marcela Urrutia can testify, choosing nontraditional majors doesn’t exclude people from successful Hill careers; in fact, diversity of knowledge and experience is valued. Urrutia, who is now the senior policy director for Hispanic affairs in the Office of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, studied literature in college. “I always had a love of writing, and writing is actually a big piece of what I do now,” she says.

Many Latinas supplemented their education with internships and fellowships, which often played an important role in landing them their first jobs on the Hill. Marisela Salayandia, a staff assistant on the House Committee on Homeland Security, participated in the University of Texas at Austin’s UT in D.C. Program, and she later returned to Washington as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Public Policy Fellow. Yara Lorenzo, a legislative correspondent in the Office of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, recalls an internship with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during her freshman year in college as an important stepping stone. And Rojas won a fellowship to the Women’s Research and Education Institute, which brought her to the capital and launched her Hill career.

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By Julia Young

[This article has been edited for www.latinastyle.com. For the full version, check out the January/February issue of LATINA Style.] 

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