Columba Bush
| Columba Bush | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 17 1953  León, Guanajuato, Mexico |
| Occupation | former First Lady of Florida |
| Predecessor | Anne Selph |
| Successor | None |
| Religious stance | Roman Catholic |
| Spouse | Jeb Bush (1974 - present) |
| Children | George P. Bush, Noelle Bush, Jeb Bush, Jr. |
| Parents | Jose Maria Garnica and Josefina (or Josephina) Gallo |
Columba Bush (born August 17, 1953) is the wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the sister-in-law of President George W. Bush.
Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. Her parents were Jose Maria Garnica, a migrant worker, and Josefina (or Josephina) Gallo. She met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León, where he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas.[1] The couple have three children: George P. Bush, Noelle Bush, and Jeb Bush, Jr.. She made headlines in June 1999 when she misled U.S. Customs officials about $19,000 (US) in new clothing and jewelry she brought into the country because she did not want her husband to know how much she had spent on a five-day Paris shopping trip.[2]
Bush's relationship with her mother was the subject of a brief profile in the book Mamá: Latina Daughters Celebrate Their Mothers by Maria Perez-Brown (ISBN 0-06-008386-7). Her parents divorced in 1963.
Activism
Bush has been active in promoting the arts. In 1999 she worked with Arts for a Complete Education/Florida Alliance for Arts Education (ACE/FAAE) to develop Arts for Life!, a program devoted to increasing the importance of art in the education system. She has also used her experience with her family's substance abuse issues to aid treatment and prevention programs such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). She has served as co-chair of the NIAAA initiative, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, and has served on the board of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
References
- ^ Gedda, George. "Bush has hemisphere on brain", Laredo Morning Times, 2001-02-14. Retrieved on 2006-10-21.
- ^ Becker, Jo. "Bush: Wife meant to hide shopping spree from me", St. Petersburg Times, 1999-06-22. Retrieved on 2005-05-27.
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