Feisty Female Friday: Adelita
The FFF this week is Adelita.
Adelita is an American politician who is the US House Representative Elect for Arizona's 7th Congressional District. Adelita is the daughter of Raul Grijalva who represented the district until his death in 2025. She was elected to the U.S. House in a special election to succeed her father.
She is a native of Tuscan, the granddaughter of a bracero who came to the US from Mexico and is a graduate of the U of AZ with a degree in apolitical science.
A member of the Democratic party, Adelita was the youngest woman ever elected to the Tucson USD Governing Board. She received Advocate of the Year from the AZ School Counselors Association for her tireless advocacy to keep counselors in schools and has supported the TSD Mexican American Studies program. Adelita was also elected to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, the first Latina to hold the position, focusing on recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19. She served as Chair and Vice-Chair during her time on the board, working with the community to create a coalition to address housing, education, climate, water resiliency, and community safety. Adelita successfully pushed for the board to open all meetings to the indigenous Tribes.
She next launched her campaign for the seat vacated by the death of her father. Adelita believes that Congress should be halting the cuts to the federal government workforce, plans for a new copper mine on Native American lands, and should reinstate all grant dollars. Adelita received endorsements from many local and national leaders and won the Democratic primary and the special election by a 2-1 margin. She is the first Latina to represent AZ in Congress.
Despite the results not being in dispute, Speaker Johnson has refused to swear in Adelita, a move politically motivated many believe by a desire to protect those on the Epstein list given that Adelita said that she would cast the decisive vote to force the DOJ and FBI to release the complete Epstein files.
Adelita lives in Tucson with her husband Sol Gómez and their three children.