Sonia Chang-Díaz

Sonia Chang-Díaz with the Mayor of Boston , Thomas Menino

Sonia Rosa Chang-Díaz (born March 31, 1978 ) is an American politician and MP in the Massachusetts Senate , in which she represents the second constituency of Suffolk County . She is the first elected Hispanic or Latino female MP in this Parliament.

background

Chang-Díaz by her father Franklin Chang-Díaz , one of Costa Rica originating physicist and former astronaut of NASA , both Chinese and Spanish ancestors. He had attended the University of Connecticut and was enrolled in a federally funded program designed for low-income first-generation college students in the United States. When her political opponents accused Chang-Díaz of not being a person of color , Chang-Diaz described these allegations as “dishonest” and commented on the matter with the words: “Let me be very clear: I am proud of my Latino- Origin, my father immigrated to this country from Costa Rica ”. She is of the opinion that skin color and ethnic identity are unimportant for the voters and stated that, in her experience, "from the direct conversation with the voters in everyday life this is not what the voters are actually interested in".

Sonia Chang-Díaz was born shortly after her father completed his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She grew up in Newton , Massachusetts, where her mother was a social worker . Both parents were volunteers in the community.

Chang-Díaz graduated from the University of Virginia . Before becoming a full-time politician, she was a teacher in Lynn , Massachusetts and Boston .

Candidates for the Massachusetts Senate

In 2006, incumbent Senator for Suffolk County's Second Constituency, Dianne Wilkerson , failed to get enough signatures for the Democratic primary nomination in a timely manner so that the primaries were conducted with blank ballot papers, which voters voted for Had to enter the name of the candidate they wanted. Here Chang-Díaz campaigned and challenged Wilkerson in an electoral district where whites were a minority. This borough covered some downtown Boston neighborhoods, including the South End, as well as Roxbury , Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain . Wilkerson won the primary and was re-elected a Senator in the 2006 Massachusetts Senate election.

In 2008, Chang-Díaz challenged Wilkerson again, and both candidates were on the ballot for the primary election. Chang-Díaz won the Democratic nomination in the September primary election. On October 28, 2008, Wilkerson was arrested by the FBI on charges of corruption. Charges have been brought against her because she was videotaped as she allegedly stuffed a bribe into her brassiere as a reward for favors. According to the FBI allegations, Wilkerson took the money because she was promoting the licensing of a nightclub and helping to transfer public land to a federal agent who acted as a private contractor in an undercover investigation . Because of her arrest, Wilkerson was unable to run in the 2008 Massachusetts Senate election, and Chang-Díaz won that election on November 4, 2008. In January 2009, she was sworn in as a MP.