Díaz-Balart, Lincoln, 1954-

<p>Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart (born Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero; August 13, 1954) is a Cuban-American attorney and politician. He was the U.S. Representative for Florida's 21st congressional district from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. He retired from Congress in 2011 and his younger brother, Mario Díaz-Balart, who had previously represented Florida's 25th congressional district, succeeded him. He is currently chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute. After leaving Congress, he started a law practice and a consulting firm, both based in Miami, Florida.</p>

<p>Díaz-Balart was born in Havana, Cuba, to the late Cuban politician Rafael Díaz-Balart and Hilda Caballero Brunet. His aunt, Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of the late Fidel Castro. Her son, and his cousin was the late Dr. Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter, Waldo Díaz-Balart.</p>

<p>He was educated at the American School of Madrid in Spain; New College of Florida; and Case Western Reserve University, from which he earned a law degree. He was involved in a Miami private practice for several years before holding elective office.</p>

<p>A refugee of the 1959 Cuban Revolution with deep family ties to the island’s politics in the era before Fidel Castro, Lincoln Diaz-Balart was a leading congressional voice for reform in the Cuban government and for immigrants’ rights. Beginning with his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, he advocated for the fair treatment of legal immigrants and refugees and for the maintenance of vigorous economic sanctions against Cuba. “I’m friends with anyone who’s fighting Castro because that’s the supreme cause,” Diaz-Balart once said.</p>

<p>Lincoln Diaz-Balart was born in Havana, Cuba, on August 13, 1954, to Rafael Lincoln and Hilda Caballero Diaz-Balart. He and his brothers, Rafael, Jose, and Mario, were born into a family that had long been involved in Cuba’s government. Diaz-Balart’s grandfather, father, and uncle served in Cuba’s house of representatives, and his father was president of the senate under President Fulgencio Batista.2 Diaz-Balart’s aunt was briefly married to Fidel Castro and was the mother of Castro’s only recognized child. In 1959 Diaz-Balart and his family fled Cuba after their home was looted and burned by pro-Castro forces during the Cuban Revolution. They lived in New York, Fort Lauderdale, Venezuela, and Spain before settling in Miami. Lincoln attended the American School in Madrid, Spain, and graduated from the University of South Florida in Sarasota with a degree in international relations in 1976. He went on to study British politics in Cambridge, England, and earned his law degree from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1979. Diaz-Balart worked in private practice in Miami before serving as an assistant state’s attorney. He and his wife Cristina raised two sons, Lincoln and Daniel.</p>

<p>Diaz-Balart got his start in politics leading the Florida Young Democrats and running an unsuccessful campaign for the Florida legislature as a Democrat in 1982. But he began to identify with the Republican Party during the Ronald W. Reagan administration, co-chairing the Democrats for Reagan Campaign in 1984. He formally switched his party allegiance in 1985, citing what he described as Democrats’ lenient policy toward communism in Nicaragua and El Salvador. He was elected to the state house of representatives in 1986, and three years later he won a special election for a seat in the state senate. While in the Florida legislature, Diaz-Balart sponsored laws strengthening sentences for crimes against law enforcement officers, increasing penalties for drug-related money laundering, providing low-interest loans for home construction, creating a statewide program to combat substance abuse, and establishing disclosure rules for Florida companies doing business with Cuba.</p>

DIAZ-BALART, Lincoln, a Representative from Florida; born in Havana, Cuba, August 13, 1954; graduated from the American School of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 1972; B.A., New College, University of South Florida, Sarasota, Fla., 1976; J.D., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979; lawyer, private practice; member of the Florida state house of representatives, 1987-1989; member of the Florida state senate, 1989-1992; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Third and to the eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1993-January 3, 2011); not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Twelfth Congress in 2010.