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Speak Spanish? Maybe you work for Cuellar |
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By The Hill Staff
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Posted: 05/17/05 12:00 AM [ET] |
It isn’t a requirement to speak Spanish if you work in the office of freshman Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). But it can’t hurt.
In recent months, Cuellar has completed the hiring of this staff in his Washington office. Here they are:
William Peche, 36, is the legislative director. He admits he speaks Spanish on a conversational level only and isn’t fluent like some of the other aides. |
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patrick g. ryan |
Rep. Cuellar’s staff, front row: Sandra Abrevaya, Maria Young, Victor Torres; back row: Billy Peche,
Whitney Warrick, Jack Milek, Adriana Gallegos. |
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Peche grew up in San Antonio and graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He earned a master’s degree in political science from American University.
This is not Peche’s first job on the Hill — previously he was the senior legislative assistant and assistant communications director for former Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas).
Peche says he enjoys his work and has no exact plan for the future. In his spare time, he likes “just being outside. My wife and I like to go for long walks.”
Victor Torres, 24, who sits across the room from Peche, is legislative correspondent/grants coordinator. Originally from El Paso, he speaks Spanish fluently. He graduated from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Before he came to work in Washington in January, he worked for a state representative out of San Antonio who recommended him for the position.
“I’ve always wanted to move to Washington and work on the Hill,” he says. “I just wanted to make a difference and it seemed exciting.”
He still owns a place in Texas that he rents out.
Colin Strother, 31, is the chief of staff. Previously, he was the congressman’s campaign manager. Before that, he was the chief of staff for a state representative in Austin. He hails from Jasper, Texas, and attended Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, as well as St. Edward’s University in Austin. Ask him if he likes Washington so far and he says, “I like Texas. It’s a good place to go. Don’t go visit, or you’ll never come back.”
What does he do in his spare time? “I have no spare time,” says Strother. “If I had any, I would go somewhere with my wife.”
Sandra Abrevaya, 24, is Cuellar’s press secretary. She comes to the office from Chicago where she worked at a communications consulting firm. She moved here because, she says, she wanted to work for a lawmaker on Capitol Hill. “I think you get to work more closely with the policy and legislative agenda than you do working on campaigns,” she says. One of her most favorite moments here so far was in her first week, when she got to sit in on a meeting with President Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Podesta, and ask him questions.
Abrevaya graduated from the University of Michigan.
Maria Young comes to the office as a congressional fellow. She will work there for one year, doing special projects for the congressman. Young, 53, grew up in Villa Lopez, Mexico, and speaks Spanish fluently. She came to the United States 27 years ago. She graduated from the University of Chihuahua and worked as a schoolteacher. She spent two years at the University of Texas in San Antonio. She is also a civilian in the Air Force and before coming to the congressman’s office was working as an auditor for the Air Force.
At the moment, she’s working on a project concerning border violence, since Cuellar’s district borders Mexico. What does she think of her work?
“It’s fascinating,” she says, “absolutely.”
Jack Mellyn, 24, is the newest hire in Cuellar’s office. He speaks no Spanish and hails from Cleveland, Ohio. In January, he moved to Washington and began knocking on doors offering his skills for free. In February, he began working as an intern for the congressman, and was just recently hired as a legislative correspondent. In his spare time, Mellyn likes to ride his Suzuki motorcycle, which he just got fixed up. But then again, he says, “There’s no free time. I have a Hill job.”
Whitney Warrick, 23, is a staff assistant. A native of San Antonio, she met Cuellar on a break from Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University. She says Cuellar is a friend of the family.
Adriana Gallegos, 24, is the deputy press secretary. Gallegos comes from Albuquerque, N.M. She is a fluent Spanish speaker, and has to be, since she spends much of her time translating the media material that goes out of the office into Spanish. Gallegos says she grew up speaking Spanish (her mother is from Spain). She also majored in Spanish, part of a double major, at the University of New Mexico.
Before coming to Washington to work for Cuellar, she was a reporter for a TV station in Laredo, where she met her new boss during his campaign. |
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