Milagros "Milly" Santiago is an American politician who served as alderman of the 31st ward of

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

from 2015 to 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

Milly Santiago was born in

Vega Baja, Puerto Rico Vega Baja () is a Vega Baja barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality located on the coast of north central Puerto Rico. It is north of Morovis, Puerto Rico, Morovis, east of Manatí, Puerto Rico, Manatí, and west of V ...

and moved to Chicago in 1976. She soon joined the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed ...

and attended

Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. NEIU serves approximately 5,000 students in the region and is both a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution and Asian American and Nat ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in 1986. Santiago then worked as a television journalist for

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

in Chicago and later as a news anchor for

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

, also in Chicago. Santiago left Univision and worked as 26th ward alderman Billy Ocasio's chief of staff in 1993. After returning to work for Telemundo as a reporter, she later worked as a communications specialist and manager for the State of Illinois starting in 2008.

Political career

Milly Santiago was elected the

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

of the 31st ward on April 7, 2015. She received 51% of the vote, defeating incumbent alderman

Ray Suarez Rafael Suarez, Jr. (born March 5, 1957), known as Ray Suarez, is an American broadcast journalist and author. He is currently host of the PBS series "Wisdom Keepers" set to premiere on the public network in June 2025. He was a visiting professor ...

. Santiago was supported by Congressman

Luis Gutierrez Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

and Cook County Commissioner

Jesús "Chuy" García Jesus ( AD 30 or 33) was a Jewish preacher and religious leader who most Christians believe to be the incarnation of God and Muslims believe was a prophet. Jesus may also refer to: People Religious figures * Elymas Bar-Jesus, a Jew in the ''Act ...

. Santiago lost reelection as alderman in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Controversy

Milly Santiago inserted herself in the middle of a controversy involving the

2016 World Series The 2016 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2016 season. The 112th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Chicago Cubs and the American Leag ...

featuring the Chicago Cubs vs the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs franchise offered Chicago aldermen the option of purchasing tickets at face value. However, the Board of Ethics determine this to be a gift over $50 due to the secondary market markup on the tickets. Santiago and some of her peers believed that they should be exempt from this because they are too poor to purchase tickets on the secondary market. As an alderman, Santiago makes roughly $116,000 a year. Santiago is quoted as saying "First of all, those tickets were not front-row tickets. They were all the way in the upper-deck. If I went like this, I would almost touch the ceiling. That’s how bad those tickets were," Santiago said, lifting her arm over her head. Ald. Milly Santiago (31st) said she is "a poor alderman" who can't afford to pay thousands of dollars for Cubs tickets purchased on the secondary market according to the ''Chicago Sun-Times''.

References

External links

Official Website of Milly Santiago

Chicago Tonight Profile of Milly Santiago

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santiago, Milly Living people Chicago City Council members American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Hispanic and Latino American city council members People from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico United States Army reservists Military personnel from Illinois Northeastern Illinois University alumni Puerto Rican Army personnel Women city councillors in Illinois 21st-century Illinois politicians 21st-century American women politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Puerto Rican people in Illinois politics

Early life and education

Political career

Controversy

See also

References

External links