Hilda Solis Bio
Hilda Lucia Solis is an American politician serving on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the 1st district, where she also serves as Chair of Los Angeles County. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 25th United States Secretary of Labor from 2009 to 2013 in the administration of President Barack Obama. Before that, she represented parts of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009.
Earlier in her career, Hilda Lucia Solis served in both chambers of the California State Legislature, where she built a record on labor rights, environmental justice, and worker safety. She became the first Latina to lead a United States cabinet-level department and has continued to focus much of her work on workers’ rights, environmental equity, and the needs of working families across Southern California.
Early Life and Background
Hilda Lucia Solis was born on October 20, 1957, in Los Angeles, California. She was raised in a tract home in La Puente, California, as the third oldest of seven siblings. Her parents were immigrants who had met in a citizenship class and married in 1953: her mother, Juana Sequeira, came from Nicaragua, and her father, Raúl Solís, came from Mexico. Both parents were active in organized labor.
Her father had been a Teamsters shop steward in Mexico and, after immigrating to the United States, worked at the Quemetco battery recycling plant in the City of Industry, where he again organized for the Teamsters to gain better health care benefits. He later contracted lead poisoning from that work. Her mother worked for more than twenty years on the assembly line at Mattel once her children were of school age, was a member of the United Rubber Workers, and was outspoken about working conditions. The family emphasized education and the Roman Catholic faith.
Hilda Solis grew up within smelling distance of the Puente Hills Landfill and often visited the San Gabriel Mountains. She graduated from La Puente High School, where one counselor told her mother that she was not college material, though another encouraged her to apply. She was the first in her family to attend college, entering California State Polytechnic University, Pomona through the Educational Opportunity Program and earning a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1979. She later completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Southern California in 1981.
Path to US Politics
During her master’s program, Hilda Lucia Solis served an internship at the White House Office of Hispanic Affairs near the end of the Carter administration, where she edited a newsletter. After Ronald Reagan took office, she briefly worked as a management analyst at the civil rights division of the Office of Management and Budget, but soon returned to California. In 1982 she became director of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program, working with the Whittier Union High School District to help disadvantaged youth prepare for college.
Encouraged by friends, Hilda Lucia Solis ran for the board of trustees of the Rio Hondo Community College District in 1985 and won, then won reelection in 1989. She gained added political visibility in 1991 when Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, a longtime political mentor, named her to the Los Angeles County Commission on Insurance. She also served as chief of staff for California State Senator Art Torres, building the relationships that would support her move to Sacramento.
Hilda Solis Career
Early Career (1992–2000)
Hilda Lucia Solis won election to the California State Assembly in 1992 after California’s 1991 redistricting opened her 57th district. She served on committees dealing with education, labor, and environmental issues, and supported bills to expand college access for immigrants and to ban smoking in workplaces. In 1994 she won a seat in the California State Senate, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve in that chamber and the youngest member at the time.
In the State Senate, Hilda Lucia Solis authored seventeen bills to address domestic violence, chaired the labor committee, and held high-profile hearings on labor law enforcement after a 1995 sweatshop raid in El Monte. She sponsored a 1995 bill to raise the minimum wage that Governor Pete Wilson vetoed, then organized a successful ballot initiative the following year. In 1999 she secured passage of SB 63, the nation’s first environmental justice law, which was signed by Governor Gray Davis.
Breakthrough (2000–2008)
In 2000, Hilda Lucia Solis received the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation for her environmental justice work, becoming the first woman to win the award. That same year she challenged 18-year incumbent Matthew G. Martínez in California’s 31st congressional district, defeating him in the Democratic primary by 69 percent to 31 percent and winning the general election with 79 percent of the vote.
Upon arriving in the House of Representatives, Hilda Lucia Solis was named freshman class whip and earned a spot on National Journal magazine’s list of “Ten Freshmen to Watch.” She joined the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Natural Resources, and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, championing green-collar jobs and the Southern California portion of the California Wild Heritage Act. She was reelected by wide margins in 2002, 2004, and 2006, and ran unopposed in 2008, earning 100 percent ratings from several pro-labor groups from 2005 to 2007.
Democratic Era (2009–Present)
On December 19, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Hilda Lucia Solis as the next Secretary of Labor. After a lengthy confirmation process marked by questions about her ties to the pro-union group American Rights at Work and the disclosure of her husband’s tax liens, the United States Senate confirmed her on February 24, 2009, by a vote of 80 to 17. She became the first Hispanic woman to serve as a regular United States cabinet member, the first cabinet secretary of Central American descent, and the first Hispanic Secretary of Labor.
As Secretary of Labor, Hilda Lucia Solis pledged to be “a new sheriff in town,” added 250 investigators to the Wage and Hour Division, and suspended Bush-era immigrant guest worker rules tied to H-2A visas. She defended the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the 2012 election season and oversaw a record $280 million in back pay recovered for roughly 300,000 workers in wage violation cases. She resigned on January 9, 2013, ahead of President Obama’s second term. In 2014 she won a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was unopposed for reelection in 2018, and served as county chair from 2015 to 2016 and again from 2020 to 2021.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among the signature moments of Hilda Lucia Solis’s career was her 2000 Profile in Courage Award, the first given to a woman, and her 2009 swearing-in as the first Latina to lead a United States cabinet-level department. She also helped secure passage of the 1999 California environmental justice law, the first legislation of its kind in the nation, and in 2012 the Labor Department under her leadership collected a record $280 million in back pay for workers.
Hilda Solis Career Wins
Hilda Lucia Solis has compiled a long record of electoral victories and public service honors, beginning with her 1985 win for the Rio Hondo Community College District board of trustees and continuing through her most recent reelection to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Her wins span community college boards, the California State Assembly, the California State Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and the cabinet of the President of the United States.
Electoral Highlights
Hilda Lucia Solis won the 1992 Democratic primary for the 57th State Assembly district with 49 percent of the vote and the general election with 61 percent. She won her 1994 State Senate race with 63 percent and was reelected in 1998 with 74 percent. Her 2000 congressional primary victory over an 18-year incumbent by 69 percent to 31 percent was followed by a 79 percent general election win. She was reelected to the House in 2002, 2004, 2006, and ran unopposed in 2008, then won her Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors seat outright in 2014 and ran unopposed for reelection in 2018.
Other Wins and Achievements
Hilda Lucia Solis has received numerous honors for her public service, including the Profile in Courage Award in 2000, the inaugural Robert P. Biller Award for Exemplary Public Service from the University of Southern California in 2010, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities President’s Award for Excellence in 2011, the Champion for the Futures of Farmworker Children Award from the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs in 2012, the Imagen Foundation President’s Award in 2016, the Leadership Award at the American Latino Influencer Awards in 2019, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023. In 2022 she was appointed by the White House to the Board of Trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Hilda Solis Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Hilda Lucia Solis was raised in a household shaped by labor activism. Her father, Raúl Solís, organized for the Teamsters both in Mexico and at the Quemetco battery recycling plant in the City of Industry, and her mother, Juana Sequeira, was a longtime United Rubber Workers member who spoke openly about working conditions during more than twenty years on the Mattel assembly line. Both parents stressed the value of education and Roman Catholic faith, and Hilda became the first in her family to attend college.
Personal Life
Hilda Lucia Solis is married to Sam H. Sayyad, an automobile repair center owner she met while working in Washington, D.C. The couple lives in a modest house in El Monte, California, not far from where she grew up. Her public profile centers on her work and family background rather than other personal details.