Mildred Trouillot-Aristide (born 1963) is an American lawyer who married

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide (; born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theo ...

, the former President of Haïti, in 1996. Mildred Trouillot grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. Both her father, Emile, and mother, Carmelle, were natives of Haïti. He left Haïti in 1958, she in 1960. They found work in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where Emile worked in a steel factory. Carmelle worked as a laboratory technician. Mildred graduated from St. Barnabas High School,

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, and the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Carey Law, or Penn Law; previously University of Pennsylvania Law School) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Phi ...

. She practiced commercial litigation for the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

law firm of Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn, and Berman. She met Aristide at a lecture he gave in 1992. In 1994, she went to work for Aristide's government in exile in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

as a speechwriter, as well as doing legal work. They married on January 20, 1996, in a simple ceremony in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

. It was a controversial marriage in Haïti. Aristide was elected president while he was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest, and had given up the priesthood by the time he married Mildred. The couple has two daughters, Christine Aristide, born in November 1996, and Michaelle Aristide, born in 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trouillot, Mildred Living people 1963 births Date of birth unknown First ladies and gentlemen of Haiti University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni City College of New York alumni American people of Haitian descent Mulatto Haitians Lawyers from the Bronx People from Wakefield, Bronx