When Catherine Cortez Masto was sworn in to Congress on January 3 , she became the first Latina senator . A Democrat , the two - term former Nevada Attorney General assumed the seat previously held by outgoing nonage leader Harry Reid . Read on for nine fact about this consecrated freshman senator .
1. SHE COMES FROM AN IMMIGRANT FAMILY WHO WORKED THEIR WAY UP.
Cortez Masto ’s paternal grandfather , Edward Cortez , wasborn in Chihuahua , Mexicoand immigrate as a young man to the United States , where he fill Mary Tapia , of New Mexico . The two got married and started a bakehouse in Las Cruces , New Mexico . Edwardbuilt his own ovenfrom earthen bricks . In 1939 , Cortez Masto ’s father , Manuel “ Manny ” Cortez , was born , and in 1940 , Edwardwas naturalizedas an American citizen . He dish up in the army during World War II , and when he yield home , the Cortez family moved to Las Vegas . Edward shape in a bakery and Mary drop her days as a sales clerk , while Manny attended the local public schools .
After graduating from Las Vegas High Schoolin 1956 , Manny spent three years in the army before repay to Las Vegas and get hitched with Joanna Mussoin 1960 . Cortez Masto ’s baby , Cynthia , get along along two age later , and Catherine herself was born two yr after that . Meanwhile , Manny was attending Nevada Southern University as a pre - law scholarly person and workings nights parking cars on the Strip . He finally leave college and continued working on the Strip , but in 1969 , wanting to move up in the Earth , he produce a job working as an investigator at the District Attorney ’s office . In a few yr , he moved on to the Public Defender ’s bureau , where he was trained to administer polygraph tests .
Reflecting on her family ’s journey from an immigrant grandfather with a grade - schoolhouse training to a sire who became an important figure in Nevada ’s political and byplay biotic community , Cortez MastotoldMother Jones , “ That , to me , is the American Dream . ” She and her babe became the first in their family to calibrate from college . In an audience withFusion , Cortez Masto said , “ Can you imagine my granddad if he were live today and visit his granddaughter who was the lawyer superior general for eight years in the state now running to be the first Latina ever elected to the United States Senate ? That ’s unbelievable . ”
2. SHE’S HAD MANY ROLE MODELS.
Cortez Masto grow up in Las Vegas , watching her parent and grandparents act hard . “ Wow , my nan was toughened , ” shetoldLatina Magazineof her father ’s mother , Mary . “ You could n’t put anything past her . She was a sales clerk and went home to do work just as hard . I realized the work ethic , and I knew I had to play severely because of her . ” Cortez Masto ’s own female parent was a bookkeeper , while her father , as previously mention , work his way up from parking concomitant to county commissioner . Cortez Mastotold theReno Gazette - Journalin 2005 , “ Obviously , he ’s always been a function model . ”
Cortez Masto attend the University of Nevada , Reno , graduate with a unmarried man ’s in sciencein 1986 , then go on to law shoal at Gonzaga University in Washington country . She moved back to Nevada , passing the Browning automatic rifle test in 1990 and spending a year clerking for Judge Michael J. Wendell . The judge , who had been on the judiciary for two X , also dish up as a role model for Cortez Masto : “ He had enceinte judicial disposition , ” she told theGazette - Journal . “ I just memorize from him how to be an lawyer … how to deal with multitude . ”
She take her first step into politics in 1995 , joining the stave of Nevada ’s then - regulator , Democrat Bob Miller . She was intimate with popular political leader : Her father had been a Democrat during his time as county commissioner and he bring striking Democrats into his syndicate ’s life . “ Gov. [ Mike ] O’Callaghan was big than life and had a adult wallop on my family , ” she recount theGazette - Journal . “ My male parent went to school , and went into the Army with Congressman [ Jim ] Bilbray . Sen. [ Richard ] Bryan go to school with my parents . ” Cortez Masto found herself thriving in the political surround , and became Miller ’s chief of faculty in 1998 .
3. SHE MARRIED A SECRET SERVICE AGENT.
While serving as foreman of staff for Miller in the late nineties , Cortez Masto was return the assignment of coordinating the logistics of President Bill Clinton ’s visit to Las Vegas . The point person on the Chief Executive ’s side was Paul Masto , a Secret Service agentive role . She later recalled , “ He asked me out on a day of the month and he said , ‘ Like a good attorney , I asked you out for dinner party and you negotiated for lunch . ’ ”
4. SHE RAN FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL BECAUSE “IT WAS TIME TO STEP UP."
Cortez Masto spent 1999 to 2001 living in Washington , D.C. and cultivate as anassistant U.S. attorney , focusing on drug and dupe ’ rights case . In 2002 , she locomote back to Nevada , becoming assistant county manager of Clark County ( where Las Vegas is located ) , while her husband Paul joined the Secret Service ’s Las Vegas berth . In 2005 Nevada ’s Republican Attorney General Brian Sandoval was nominated for a federal court judgeship , make a vacancy , and Cortez Masto started to consider her future .
With the support of her parent and Nevada Democratic leaders like Harry Reid , she resigned from her problem with the county and start campaigning to become the Silver State ’s top prosecutor . “ There was never any [ political ] position I was concerned in other than being attorney general , ” Cortez Masto told theGazette - Journal . She had been watching Nevada conduct with amethamphetamine crisis , widespread domesticated violence , and prevalent elder ill-usage . ShetoldRemezcla , “ For me , those are country — peculiarly when it come to domestic violence prevention and intimate assault — that I had worked in before . I thought it was time to ill-treat up and take a leading role and steer the ship to bring attention to those issue and detect solution to the problems . That ’s when I resolve to run for Attorney General for the first time in 2006 . ” She proceed on to serve two serial term , the limit under Nevada law .
5. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE MADE HER PASSIONATE ABOUT PROTECTING SENIORS.
Cortez Masto had watched her own grandparents “ become mark of fraud , ” an experience she toldGonzaga University ’s law blogwas “ grievous . ” As a answer , she said , “ Elder protection became my first precedency as Attorney General . ” Upon strike office in early 2007 , she push the Nevada general assembly to give her berth legal power to look into elder faker and abuse cases . In May 2007 , the regulator signed into constabulary Assembly Bill 226 [ PDF ] , creating a particular building block within the Nevada Attorney General ’s office to prosecute offence against seniors .
6. SHE CREATED A TASK FORCE TO STUDY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.
From 2004 through 2012
, Nevada was the state with the highest charge per unit of woman off by men . As lawyer full general , Cortez Mastocreated a 15 - person teamto review the domesticated - furiousness human death pace and supply recommendations to reduce deaths . On the squad , she and members of her office worked alongside police military officer , representatives from the Division of Child and Family Services , and a extremity of the UNLV School of Social Work . In 2013 , they released a report recommend specific action for law enforcement , district attorneys , and local legislators in Holy Order to battle intimate partner violence . Since 2013 , the domestic homicide rate against womenhas droppedin Nevada , but it remains nearly double the national average .
7. SHE WORKED TO COMBAT SEX TRAFFICKING.
During her two condition as Attorney General , Cortez Masto insert over 40 state bills that were vote into natural law and signed by the Republican regulator . ShetoldEllethat her proud skill came in 2013 with the handing over of Assembly Bill 67 [ PDF ] , which delimitate the specific criminal offence of sexual practice trafficking ( replace previous statueson pimp ) and is aimed at penalise pimps . The bill lengthen prison sentences for those convicted , involve that they register as sex offender , and countenance victim of trafficking to bring polite action against the perpetrators . Governor Brian Sandovalsigned itinto jurisprudence in June 2013 . The same day , he also signed a companion bank note go down up a fund for victims of human trafficking . Masto ’s office also produced a serial oftrafficking - consciousness PSAsthat aired on television system in Nevada .
8. SHE’S BEEN ATTACKED FOR NOT SPEAKING SPANISH …
Though Cortez Masto became the first - ever Latina elected to the Senate , during the crusade friend of her Republican resister , Joe Heck , fence that she was n’t Latinaenough . A former political theatre director for Heck ’s campaignquipped on Twitterthat Cortez Masto ’s ethnicity was only relevant to her when applying for eruditeness or ladder for Senate , andquestioned whethershe speaks Spanish . Another former Heck aide criticized Cortez Masto ’s cause , call it“Hispandering at its o.k. . ”
Cortez Masto respond to the approach , tellingPolitico : “ It ’s a literary criticism for me and other Mexican - Americans . It is an flak on all of us who come in here and have ferment hard in Nevada to make it home . ” Cortez Masto does not speak Spanish fluently , though she can oftenunderstand it . Her mother ’s kinsfolk is Italian by heritage , while her father was a 2d - generation Mexican immigrant who only occasionally spoke to her in Spanish . Cortez Mastonoted toLatina Magazinethat when her father and his parent moved to Las Vegas in the 1940s , there were very few Latino families in the expanse . “ [ I]t was about being more American for them , ” she said , “ that is why my contemporaries does n’t speak as much Spanish . During that time , it was about assimilate . ”
9. ….BUT HER MEXICAN HERITAGE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF HER IDENTITY.
With senator Kamala Harris , Maggie Hassan , Tammy Duckworth , Dick Durbin , and Chris Van Hollen . epitome viaFacebook .
Cortez Masto name significantly with her Mexican heritage , and she debate that it makes her well capable to represent a state whose universe is28 % Latino . ShetoldRemezcla , “ I ’ve always feel , peculiarly as the Attorney General of the state , that the people that served in my business office should be just as diverse as the community of interests we are typify . I think that should be true of Congress . ” She alsoargues that , as someone with a different background than most the great unwashed in Congress , she brings “ a different view ” and promises to focus , in special , on passing comprehensive immigration reform and preach for Dreamers ( undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ) . “ We ’re work on a future for everyone , ” she toldRemezcla , “ and we ’re bring families out of the shadows . ”
