The dean of the Florida congressional delegation will be honored in the Capitol on Wednesday with a portrait unveiling.
A painting of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., currently the chairwoman of the U.S. House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, will be included in the House Foreign Affairs Committee room. Ros-Lehtinen earned that honor when she chaired the committee from 2011-2013, making her the first woman to lead it.
“I’m humbled by this moment but the true credit goes to my family, friends, constituents, and colleagues who placed such trust in me,” Ros-Lehtinen said on Monday.
“I’m especially grateful to my constituents, who have honored me with the privilege of representing and advocating for our South Florida community,” Ros-Lehtinen added. “As a young Cuban refugee who didn’t speak a word of English, I could not have imagined that one day my portrait would hang in the halls of Congress. However, this portrait is a testament to all those, like my parents Enrique and Amanda Ros, who worked diligently for freedom in their native homeland of Cuba and around the world. This day is for them.”
Some of the leading figures in Congress including new U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., are scheduled to be at the unveiling on Wednesday night. So is former UN Amb. John Bolton, Cuban democracy activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez,” Holocaust survivor David Mermelstein and human rights activist Harry Wu. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., will participate with a taped message.
Ros-Lehtinen, the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban-American elected to Congress, came to Washington, D.C. in 1989, winning a special election after the death of longtime U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper, D-Fla. Public funds were not used for the portrait which came through private donations to the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
