Personality Spotlight: Hilda Solis

CHICAGO, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., the state's first female Latina state senator, is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to head the Labor Department.

Solis, 51, has been a member of the House since 2001, representing and area that includes parts of Los Angeles, unincorporated East Los Angeles and several other cities, Wikipedia said.

Solis was born in Los Angeles, one of seven children and the daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican parents.

She graduated from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona in 1979, and earned a master's degree in public administration at the University of Southern California in 1981. While working on her master's she served in the administration of former President Jimmy Carter in the Office of Hispanic Affairs. She later was an analyst with the Office of Management and Budget.

Solis was elected to the California Assembly in 1992, and after one term jumped to the state Senate, where she was re-elected to a second term.

In 2000, she was given the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Solis defeated incumbent Rep. Matthew Martinez in the Democratic primary in her first run for the congressional seat and went on to win the general election.

Solis, identifying herself as a Catholic, joined with 27 other Catholic members of Congress in sending a letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington to try to dissuade him from refusing to administer the sacraments to the congressional members because of their pro-abortion legislative voting.

She championed the Employee Free Choice Act.