Romana Acosta Bañuelos
| Romana Acosta Bañuelos | |
|---|---|
Official Portrait
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| 34th Treasurer of the United States | |
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In office December 17, 1971 – February 14, 1974 |
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| President | Richard M. Nixon |
| Preceded by | Dorothy Andrews Elston Kabis |
| Succeeded by | Francine Irving Neff |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 20, 1925 Miami, Arizona, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Martin Torres (divorced) Alejandro Bañuelos |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Romana Acosta Bañuelos (born March 20, 1925) was the thirty-fourth Treasurer of the United States. Appointed by President Richard Nixon on September 20, 1971, she served from December 17, 1971 to February 14, 1974.
Born into a poor family of Mexican-Americans, Acosta became the first Hispanic treasurer of the United States (1971–1974) and owner of a multimillion-dollar business, Ramona's Mexican Food Products, Inc. headquartered in Gardena, California.
Acosta, daughter of poor Mexican immigrants, was born in the mining town of Miami, Arizona, on March 20, 1925. In 1933, during the Great Depression, the U.S. government deported her family, and thousands of other Mexican-Americans, even though many of the deportees, like Acosta, had been born in the United States. The Acostas believed the deportation officials' statement that they could return as soon as the country's economy had improved, so they accepted the government's offer to pay for their moving expenses and left their home peacefully.
They moved in with relatives who owned a small ranch in the Mexican state of Sonora. Along with her parents, Acosta began rising early to tend the crops that her father and other male relatives had planted. She helped her mother in the kitchen as well, making empanadas that her mother sold to bakeries and restaurants to make extra money. Acosta later recalled that her mother, who also raised chickens for their eggs, "was the type of woman who taught us how to live in any place and work with what we have." She called her mother a resourceful businesswoman who presented a strong role model for what a woman could do economically with very little.
Acosta married in Mexico at age 16, not an unusually young age in that culture at the time. She had two sons, Carlos and Martin, by age 18, but her husband deserted the family in 1943. She returned to the United States with her children. Some reports speculate she worked in an El Paso, Texas, laundromat for a time, while others say she followed an aunt to Los Angeles. Most accounts describe Acosta arriving in Los Angeles, California with her children, unable to speak English and with only seven dollars to her name.
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