Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a congresswoman for the Democratic Party in the United States Congress, having won the election for New York's 14th congressional district. She is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in the history of the United States, at the age of 29
In the legislative elections held on November 6, 2018, the seat for New York's 14th district was won by a wide majority of votes.
Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 13, 1989. She has a Puerto Rican mother and a father of Puerto Rican descent, also born in the Bronx. Ocasio-Cortez is a progressive and a member of Democratic Socialists of America. An advocate for universal healthcare and the Jobs Guarantee program, she supports ending the privatization of prisons and ensuring access to a public and free university education; she is in favor of gun control policies. Additionally, she aims to raise taxes on high-income individuals to 70% to fund her Green New Deal project, which seeks to address both climate change and income inequality through a large and costly economic reform.
Since her election, she has faced racist attacks from President Trump and his party due to her Latina heritage. In July 2019, referring to Ocasio and other Democratic congresswomen, he tweeted, “'Go back and help fix the totally destroyed and crime-infested places.'... 'It’s very interesting to see the 'progressive' Democratic congresswomen who originally came from countries whose governments are a total and complete disaster... and they aggressively tell the people of the United States how our government should be run.'” To which Ocasio responded, “Mr. President, the country I come from, and the country we all swear to is the United States,” adding, “He’s angry because he can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”
In May of that same year, her inclusion alongside Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-un as enemies of the American nation in a tribute video for Memorial Day, broadcast on a minor league baseball scoreboard, sparked significant controversy, which the congresswoman referred to as a message of hate that had brought her death threats.
In July 2020, she delivered a feminist speech in the United States Congress in which she denounced the misogynistic insults she received from Republican legislator Ted Yoho of Florida, who confronted her in the hallways of the Capitol, calling her "disgusting, crazy, and dangerous." Ocasio spoke about the normalization of the machista culture in American society and its political class. "We have all had to deal with this, in some way, at some point in our lives," she pointed out
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has recently made headlines in the Cuban community for calling on her supporters to boycott Goya products, the largest Latino food company in the United States, which enjoys great popularity among Hispanics in Florida. Its CEO, Robert Unanue, was invited to the White House as part of the launch of the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, where he spoke words of praise for the president that ignited anger among some Hispanic leaders, including Ocasio. She incited the boycott of Goya products through an ironic tweet stating, "Oh, listen, I'm googling how to make my own Adobo," referring to one of the brand's most iconic products. The hashtag used in the campaign was #Goyaway. Many activists, artists, and Hispanics have joined the campaign in support of the famous company, founded in 1936 by Unanue's grandfather, a Spanish emigrant.
