Xavier Louis Suarez (born May 21, 1949) is an American politician who was the first Cuban-born Mayor of Miami and was a

Miami-Dade county commissioner The government of Miami-Dade County is defined and authorized under the Constitution of Florida, Florida law, and the Home Rule Charter of Miami-Dade County. Since its formation in 1957, Miami-Dade County, Florida has had a two-tier system of ...

Early life and education

He was born on May 21, 1949, in Las Villas, Cuba. Suarez attended the Colegio de Belén but graduated from

St. Anselm's Abbey School St. Anselm's Abbey School is an all-boys preparatory school for grades six through twelve in Washington D.C., United States. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The school sits on a 40-acre wooded campus in the Mic ...

in 1967.The International Jesuit Alumni Directory – Belen (Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., 2004) page 251 He earned a

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

from

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pen ...

in 1971, followed by a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

and

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Career

After completing his education, Suarez returned to Miami and was sworn in as mayor on November 13, 1985, succeeding

Maurice Ferré Maurice Antonio Ferré (June 23, 1935 – September 19, 2019) was an American politician who served six terms as the Mayor of Miami. Ferré was the first Puerto Rican-born United States mayor and the first Latino Mayor of Miami. He was an un ...

. Suarez was first elected mayor in 1985. He was re-elected in 1987 and again in 1989 for a four-year term. Suarez was highly regarded as mayor of Miami. As the mayor of Miami, Florida Xavier Suárez, declared "Yahweh ben Yahweh Day" on October 7, 1990, a month before Yahweh ben Yahweh was indicted. Suarez cited the construction of 1,500 affordable homes as one of his "proudest achievements" during his tenure. He was also given the name "pothole mayor" for his attention to city neighborhoods. He decided not to run again in 1993 in order to spend more time with his family. He returned to practice law in Miami before he decided to run again in November 1997 and was re-elected. However, on March 5 of the following year, Suarez was effectively removed from office on account of

voting fraud Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holder ...

. While Suarez was not personally implicated, the prosecuting circuit court judge cited the district as ''the center of a massive, well-conceived and well-orchestrated absentee ballot voter fraud scheme.'' People working for Suarez's campaign were found forging voter signatures, including at least one of a dead citizen. Suarez ran for numerous positions in Miami-Dade including

mayor of Miami-Dade County The following is a list of mayors of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Mayors See also * List of mayors of Miami (city) * Government of Miami-Dade County References {{Mayors of Miami-Dade County Mayors Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is ...

in 1996, mayor of Miami in 2001, Miami-Dade commissioner in 2004, a seat in the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopte ...

in 2006. Suarez was elected as a Miami-Dade County commissioner for District 7 on May 24, 2011, and was re-elected by a 44-point margin on August 30, 2016. In 2020, term-limited from his seat, Suarez ran for county mayor, finishing in fourth place behind former county mayor

Alex Penelas Alexander Penelas (born December 18, 1961) is an American attorney who is the former mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Education and personal life Penelas, an American of Cuban descent, attended St. Thomas University and graduated in 1981 ...

. During his time as mayor, Suarez also received attention for refusing to greet South African President

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

during his 1990 tour of the United States which included a stop in Miami. Suárez was in disagreement with Mandela's comments where he referred to Cuban President

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2 ...

as a "brother in arms" due to Castro's support for the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

Personal life

He was the ninth child and second son of 14 children of Manuel Suárez-Carreno, the first Dean of the School of Engineering at the (St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic University), and Eloisa Gaston. He is married to Rita and they have four children, the Republican (and current) Mayor of Miami Francis Xavier Suarez, Olga Marie Vieira, Anna Teresita, and Carolina Suárez. His sister, Lala, is the mother of

U.S. Congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Alex Mooney Alexander Xavier Mooney (born June 7, 1971) is an American politician serving since 2015 as the U.S. representative from . A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 3rd district in the Maryland State Senate from 1999 to 2011 and is ...

from West Virginia.

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Suarez, Xavier 1948 births American politicians of Cuban descent Hispanic and Latino American mayors in Florida Living people Villanova University alumni Harvard University alumni Mayors of Miami County commissioners in Florida Florida lawyers Florida Independents