Bethaida Carmen "Bea" González (1954- ) was the first Latina elected to the Syracuse (New York) School Board (1991) and Common Council (2001), and was a candidate for mayor of Syracuse in 2009.
Bea González was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico in 1954 but moved with her family to central New York when she was three years old. For nearly a decade, her migrant farmworker parents moved frequently; González estimates that she attended thirteen elementary schools. By the time she reached middle school, González’s father entered a construction laborers’ union and the family settled permanently in Syracuse. The first member of her family to receive a high school diploma, she received her B.A. in political science and Latin American studies from SUNY Binghamton and an MPA from Syracuse University. In 1984, González began working for Syracuse University as an academic advisor; since then, she has held various positions in the university’s administration including interim dean of the college (2004-2007) and dean of the college (2007-present).
Bea González became active in community and Latino politics in the 1980s; by the early 1990s, education had also become a priority. She participated in local committees and wards and was a member of the Association of Neighbors for Latino Advancement (ANCLA), Spanish Action League, and Latinos Concerned for Latino Advancement. In 1990, González served on the mayor’s Latino Task Force and the Minority Affairs Advisory Council for the city of Syracuse. More recently, she co-founded the Onondaga Latino Caucus.
In early 1991, Bea González´s service on the mayor´s Latino Task Force drew the attention of Mayor Thomas Young, who nominated González to the school board after the board’s president resigned. The first Hispanic to hold a citywide position, González was elected to the board later that year, becoming the first Latina elected to a citywide office in Syracuse. González served as a commissioner of education (school board member) until 1994, when she decided to take a hiatus from politics to focus on raising her son. She reentered politics in July 2001 when she was selected to fill the vacant position of Syracuse Common Council president, becoming the first Latina to serve on the Common Council. After beating her opponent in a democratic primary, González narrowly won a four-year term as council president in November 2001. She was reelected to her second and final term in 2005. In January 2009, she announced her candidacy for mayor of Syracuse.
From the guide to the Bea Gonzalez Papers, 1990-2008, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
