Back in 2017, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

was working in a bar to help support her

family. On November 6th, 2018, Ocasio-
Cortez, at the age of 29, became the
youngest woman in history to be elected
to Congress. She won New York’s 14th
District. Ocasio-Cortez defeated the 10-
term Joseph Crowley, a who’d gone
unchallenged for 14 years until she
stepped in.

As Cardi B once said “I’m just a regular

degular smegular girl from the Bronx.” is
the perfect way to describe Ocasio-
Cortez. She was born in The Bronx, New
York City on October 13, 1989 to Blanca
Ocasio-Cortez and Sergio Ocasio. She
grew up in a Catholic household. She has
a younger brother named Gabriel Ocasio-
Cortez. Her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family while her mother was
born in Puerto Rico.

She attended Boston University and graduated in cum laude and majoring in
international relations and economics.

However, tragedy happened during her time in college. In 2008, while Ocasio-Cortez
was a sophomore at Boston University, her father died of lung cancer.

After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back

to the Bronx and took a job working 18-
hour shifts as a bartender and waitress to
help her mother—a house cleaner and
school-bus driver—fight foreclosure of their
home.

I admire Ocasio-Cortez to moving back to

help her family ends meet. To add to that,
she was a bartender. I don’t care what
anyone says, bartending is one of the
hardest jobs in the world. First you have to
deal with drunk people, being on feet during the whole shift, not guaranteeing when you
get to leave, and dealing with sometimes mean people. She understands millennials
because she is one.

Some fun facts about Ocasio-Cortez is that in the 2016 primary, she worked as an
organizer for Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign.
https://youtu.be/rq3QXIVR0bs

Above I have the link of her campaign video. The first thing she says in the video was
“Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office.” That intrigued me to listen to what
she had to say. “I was born into a wealthy or powerful family.” I remember thinking “Ok, I
can relate to that.” This is where I
knew I was going to love her. She
said “The rent gets higher,
healthcare covers less, and out
income stays the same.” LET ME
TELL YOU! That hit me in my
soul! That’s exactly how I feel now
because I am paying all the bills
by myself and I couldn’t have ever
expressed it like how she did. In
the whole video, it look the nitty
gritty of Bronx. I mean this in the
best way possible. She had
everyday people, doing everyday
things. I could relate to her when she had heels on and she had a pair of Tom’s and
slipped them on.
https://youtu.be/_dyVxMmmMZE
Above I have attached a link on YouTube from the NowThis News channel, it has one-
on-one interview. I literally almost started to cry because she stated she went to
Standing Rock. Being full blood Native American, this meant so much to me. I think one
of the reasons why I admire her so much is because she reminds me of me. She is a
woman of color, in her 20’s, first generation college graduate, worked in hospitality, and
just wants to better the world. She is simply amazing and she is everything I want to be.
I am going to attach more pictures below just because I love her so much :-)