Alexandra Lúgaro Aponte (born June 10, 1981) is a Puerto Rican attorney, businesswoman, and politician who was a candidate for

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico () is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Elected to a 4 year-term through popular vote by the residents of the archipelago and island, ...

during the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

elections, finishing in third place both times. In 2016, running as an independent, Lúgaro obtained a total of 175,831 votes (11.13%). In 2020, Lúgaro ran as the candidate of the

Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (, generally abbreviated as MVC) is a Puerto Rican political party founded in 2019. It ran in the 2020 general elections on an anti-colonial platform, proposing a constitutional assembly to determine a final decision regarding the relationsh ...

Early life and education

Lúgaro was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She attended the High School of the University of Puerto Rico, graduating at the age of 15. At that age, she was admitted at the

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (; UPR-RP, or informally La IUPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus in the University of Puer ...

where she received a bachelor's degree in business administration, with minors in finance, marketing, and economics. Afterwards, she also completed a Juris doctor. In 2014, Lúgaro obtained a master's degree in Spanish Law from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

Career

Business

Lúgaro has been practicing law since 2006. Before the 2016 elections, she was the Executive Director of The Metropolitan New School of America and of América Aponte & Associates, a company that was founded by her mother. Both companies work diverse tutorial programs in conversational English. After the elections Lúgaro started working as Don Omar's business manager and later started her own 1 hour radio talk show named "Lúgaro Sin Miedo" which was one of her campaign slogans.

Political campaigns

On March 17, 2016, Lúgaro announced her intentions to run for

becoming the first person to do so independently. She was joined later in that statistic by businessman

Manuel Cidre Manuel Cidre Miranda (born 1953) is a Cuban-born Puerto Rican businessman and politician who currently serves as the 7th Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico since 2021, under governor Pedro Pierluisi. On December 1, ...

, who also decided to run independently. In her statement, Lúgaro announced an "emphasis in the areas of education and economic development" as her platform. She also highlighted her purpose of "facing off the bipartisanship that has predominated the country", which she qualified as the root of the island's current economic crisis. Through her campaign, Lúgaro managed to mobilize significant numbers of people, but most notably young voters. At one point,

David Bernier David Enrique "Quique" Bernier Rivera (; born January 21, 1977) is a Puerto Rican dentist and politician that has served in various roles in public service in Puerto Rico. Bernier first served as executive director of the Office of Youth ...

, from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) invited the supporters of Lúgaro and Cidre to vote for him. Both independent candidates rejected the offer, with Lúgaro noting how the traditional party candidates were "feeling the heat of a candidacy that threatens them". She also mentioned her support of Puerto Rican independence. In the

2016 elections Africa Benin Republic *2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 April 2016 Djibouti * 2016 Djiboutian presidential ...

, Lúgaro received a total of 175,831 votes for an 11.13% percentage. This placed her in third place behind Governor-elect

Ricky Rosselló Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Říčky, a village and part of Orlické Podhůří in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Ri ...

and Bernier, but above fellow independent candidate Cidre,

María de Lourdes Santiago Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

, and Rafael Bernábe. In February 2021, she announced her retirement from electoral politics. Several days later, she announced her new role as Director of the Center for Strategic Innovation at Foundation for Puerto Rico.

Controversies

Discrimination lawsuit

In June 2020, Lúgaro became involved in a political controversy after the 2016 judgement of a discrimination and

wrongful termination In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been termination of employment, terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one o ...

lawsuit against the company she worked for, America Aponte & Associates, became public. Although she was not a defendant in the lawsuit, the judgement contains a number of allegations against Lúgaro including that as the company's executive director she was aware of a pattern of discrimination against the plaintiff, Virginia Hernandez, and that Lúgaro didn't take any action to protect the plaintiff against

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

abuse coming from company owner America Aponte (who is also Lúgaro's mother). The

judgement Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In the context of a legal tria ...

also states that Lugaro took part in the firing of the plaintiff and that the firing constituted retaliation in response to the plaintiff stating her intent to file a discrimination lawsuit against the company if the xenophobic abuse didn't stop. Lugaro told the plaintiff that if she proceeded with the lawsuit she would be fired and that she would not find another job because she was Dominican.

Copyright infringement

In August 2020 Lúgaro admitted that she copied without permission a political ad from

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. She had to remove the ad from social media after being accused by the creator of the original.

Personal life

In 2010, Lúgaro gave birth to her daughter Valentina through

In vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an ovum, egg is combined with spermatozoon, sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the Ovulation cycle, ovulatory process, then removing ...

with an anonymous donor. This came as a result of her being diagnosed with severe

endometriosis Endometriosis is a disease in which Tissue (biology), tissue similar to the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, grows in other places in the body, outside the uterus. It occurs in women and a limited number of other female mammals. Endomet ...

. Lúgaro married Edwin Domínguez in June 2011. The ceremony was held in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. On December 22, 2015, she announced her divorce. In 2016, during an interview, she confirmed she is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lugaro, Alexandra 1981 births Living people Politicians from San Juan, Puerto Rico Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana politicians Puerto Rican atheists Puerto Rican party leaders 21st-century Puerto Rican women politicians 21st-century Puerto Rican politicians University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus alumni Complutense University of Madrid alumni Independent politicians in insular areas of the United States