Nydia Margarita Velázquez Serrano (born March 28, 1953) is an American politician serving in the United States House of Representatives since 1993. A Democrat from New York, Velázquez chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011. Her district, in New York City, was numbered the from 1993 to 2013 and has been numbered the since 2013. Velázquez is the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in the United States Congress. Early life, education and career Velázquez was born in the town of Limones in the municipality of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, on March 28, 1953. She grew up in Yabucoa in a small house on the Río Limones. Her father, Benito Velázquez Rodríguez, was a poor worker in the sugarcane fields who became a self-taught political activist and the founder of a local political party. Political conversations at the dinner table focused on workers' rights. Her mother was Carmen Luisa Serrano Medina. She was one of nine siblings. Velázquez attended public schools and skipped three grades as a child. She became the first in her family to graduate from high school. She became a student at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras at age 16. In 1974, she received a B.A. degree in political science, magna cum laude, and became a teacher. In college, Velázquez supported Puerto Rican independence; by the time she ran for Congress in 1992, Velázquez no longer addressed the issue, saying that it must be left up to the Puerto Rican people. In 1976, Velázquez received an M.A. degree in political science from New York University. She served as an instructor of political science at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao from 1976 to 1981. After returning to New York City, Velázquez was an adjunct professor of Puerto Rican studies at Hunter College from 1981 to 1983. Political career In 1983, Velázquez was special assistant to Representative Edolphus Towns, a Democrat representing New York's 10th congressional district in Brooklyn. In 1984, Howard Golden (then the Brooklyn Borough President and chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic organization) named Velázquez to fill a vacant seat on the New York City Council, making her the first Hispanic woman to serve on the council. Velázquez ran for election to the council in 1986, but lost to a challenger. From May 1986 to July 1989, Velázquez was national director of the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources' Migration Division