Becerra, Xavier, 1958-

<p>On January 24, 2017, Xavier Becerra was sworn in as the 33rd Attorney General of the State of California, and is the first Latino to hold the office in the history of the state.</p>

<p>The State’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Becerra has decades of experience serving the people of California through appointed and elected office, where he has fought for working families, the vitality of the Social Security and Medicare programs and issues to combat poverty among the hardworking families. He has also championed the state’s economy by promoting and addressing issues impacting job generating industries such as health care, clean energy, technology, and entertainment.</p>

<p>Attorney General Becerra previously served 12 terms in Congress as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. While in Congress, Attorney General Becerra was the first Latino to serve as a member of the powerful Committee on Ways And Means, served as Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and was Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.</p>

<p>During a career in Washington that spanned more than two decades, Xavier Becerra became one of the most influential Democrats in the House, serving in several leadership positions as the first Latino in House history to sit on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and as the second Hispanic American to chair the House Democratic Caucus. In 2017 he resigned from the House to accept the job as attorney general of California. “It has been a distinct honor to serve the people of Los Angeles and my country for more than 24 years. I am eternally grateful to my constituents for their tremendous counsel and support over those two decades,” Becerra wrote in his resignation letter to the House. “I leave my work in Congress with mixed emotions. The People’s House has been home to some of America’s greatest patriots and talent. I have learned from them, and been fortunate to have had a chance to add my grains of sand—as we say in Spanish—to build a better America.”</p>

<p>Xavier Becerra was born in Sacramento, California, on January 26, 1958, the third of four children of working-class parents Maria Teresa and Manuel Becerra. Growing up in a small home near the Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento, the family didn’t have much, “but we always ate well,” Becerra remembered years later. Manuel had been born in Sacramento, but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. Maria was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. Becerra’s parents, neither of whom had much formal schooling, married at the age of 18 and settled in California. To make ends meet, Becerra’s mother took a job as a secretary and his father built roads in Sacramento after working in the state’s vegetable fields. As a child, Becerra had a keen mind for science, and he excelled at nearby C.K. McClatchy High School. When a friend of his threw away a blank application to Stanford University, Becerra filled it out and got accepted. He majored in economics and, in 1980, became the first member of his family to earn a bachelor’s degree. He remained at Stanford to earn a law degree in 1984. Becerra and his wife, Dr. Carolina Reyes, met at Stanford. They have three daughters: Clarisa, Olivia, and Natalia.</p>

<p>Out of law school, Becerra moved to Massachusetts while his wife attended Harvard Medical School. After returning to Sacramento, Becerra worked as an aide to California state senator Art Torres, settling in Los Angeles to direct Torres’ district office in 1986. He later accepted a job as a California deputy attorney general working in the civil division. But in 1990, his state representative, Charles M. Calderon, moved to the state senate, and local leaders quickly encouraged Becerra to run for the open assembly seat.</p>

<p>Xavier Becerra (born January 26, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer, serving as the 25th United States secretary of health and human services. Becerra previously served as the attorney general of California from January 2017 until March 2021. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Downtown Los Angeles in Congress from 1993 to 2017. Becerra, a member of the Democratic Party, was Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus from 2013 to 2017.</p>

<p>Born in Sacramento, California, Becerra graduated from Stanford University and received his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School. He worked as a lawyer at the Legal Assistance Corporation of central Massachusetts, before returning to California in 1986 to work as an administrative assistant for state senator Art Torres. He served as a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice from 1987 to 1990, before he was elected to the California State Assembly, where he served one term from 1990 to 1992.</p>

<p>Becerra was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992. He represented California's 30th congressional district from 1993 to 2003, California's 31st congressional district from 2003 to 2013, and California's 34th congressional district from 2013 to 2017. He served as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus from 1997 to 1999, Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus from 2009 to 2013 and as a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.</p>