25 Facts About Polly Baca

Polly Baca was born on February 13,1941 and is an American politician who served as Chair of the Democratic Caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives, being the first woman to hold that office and the first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado State Senate and in the House and Senate of a state Legislature.

Polly Baca was the first to co-chair a National Democratic Convention.

Polly Baca was a member of the Colorado State Legislature for 12 years and was elected to the Colorado Senate in 1978.

Polly Baca was the founder and director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, as well as its president and CEO.

Polly Baca continues to help with issues on civil rights, political campaigns and consulting with companies and organizations on developing multicultural relations programs.

Polly Baca-Barragan was born in Weld County, Colorado, in 1941.

Polly Baca is the daughter of Jose Manuel Baca and Leda Sierra Baca, descendants of the Spanish and Mexican colonists of New Mexico and Colorado, who arrived there in the 1600s.

Polly Baca's parents were farm workers, but later her father worked for an ice storage company, while her mother worked in fishhook and potato chip factories.

When she was three years old, the Polly Baca family moved to Greeley, Colorado, a community that allowed segregated churches, theaters, and business establishments.

At three years of age, Polly Baca experienced segregation in church that contribute to her future political ideology.

Polly Baca graduated from Colorado State University, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Polly Baca plunged into campus politics, taking the vice presidency, and later the presidency, of the "Young Democrats" of the university and CSU; she was secretary for her freshman class.

In 1966, Polly Baca worked for the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks and was encouraged to help organize the Huelga Committee to support the farmworkers' movement.

Polly Baca was staying at the Ambassador Hotel in this city.

Polly Baca worked on civil rights campaigns, organized committees and she was the executive director of the Southwest Council of La Raza, which she received a $600,000 grant to address the education and economic issues of Mexican-Americans in urban areas.

Polly Baca participated voluntarily in Escuela deGuadalupe and Beginning Experiences and was chief executive officer of Sierra Baca Systems, a management consulting firm specializing in motivational presentations, multi-cultural leadership, and diversity training.

In 1974, Polly Baca-Barragan won Colorado's 34th district seat in the state's House of Representatives, and four years later she was elected to the Colorado State Legislature as the first Hispanic woman senator.

Polly Baca was the first minority woman to be elected to the Colorado Senate and the first Hispanic woman to serve in leadership in any State Senate in the United States.

Polly Baca was the President and CEO of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, founded 1964, for improve the quality of life for Latinos throughout Colorado with the belief that when you improve the lives of Latinos in Colorado, you improve the lives of all Coloradoans.

In 1994, Polly Baca was elected as special assistant to then President Bill Clinton and director of the United States Federal Trade Commission.

Polly Baca held again several positions in Colorado state Legislature and in the House representing Adams County and the state senate, as chief consumer advocate for the Clinton administration.

Polly Baca holds several honorary degrees from the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley and Wartburg College.

In 2011, Polly Baca started to serve as the State Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Polly Baca has appeared in a number of TV and radio programs such as ABC's Nightline and The NewsHour.

Polly Baca met her future husband, Miguel Barragan, a Chicano activist and former priest, in the National Council of La Raza in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1968.