My name is Idalia Lechuga-Tena and I am running for the New Mexico State Senate District 20.
Honorable Idalia Lechuga-Tena was the youngest female legislator and the first naturalized woman from México to serve in the New Mexico Legislature in the history of this great state. She represented Albuquerque’s District 21-The International District. She is a proud immigrant, who holds dual citizenship with the USA and México. Representing the United States, she is an International Ambassador for the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace. She is an entrepreneur, rancher, artist, avid violinist, community activist, animal lover, and philanthropist.
Idalia owns a consulting firm that offers services in International Business Expansion, Government/Political Affairs, and Marketing and PR in English, Spanish, French and Italian. She is also a rancher, and recently started a winery in partnership with her parents at their ranch in Namiquipa, Chihuahua, México.
Her degrees are in Economics, Political Science, and International Politics from the University of New Mexico, with international studies in several countries such as Chihuahua-Mexico, Pamplona- Spain, and Paris-France. Idalia is fluent in four languages: Spanish, French, Italian, and English. She has lived in México, Spain, France and Germany. She has also traveled to over sixty countries around the world.
She is a published McNair Scholar with the Research Opportunity Program at the University of New Mexico. Her electronic academic research book on “The Positive Effects of the Immigration Spectrum in the United States in the Economic and Political Sector, with a concentration in Latino Immigration” was translated into Spanish and French, and was presented in conferences at Universities throughout the USA, México, and Spain.
Idalia served in high-level government administrations. She is heavily involved in local and statewide politics, international groups, and in her local community as an activist and public servant. She currently serves on the following boards: MANA de Albuquerque as Vice-President of Community Relations and Government Affairs, Meals on Wheels of Albuquerque, Hispano Round Table, and is the President of La Mesa Community Improvement Association in the International District. She volunteers in the Hispanic Heritage Committee as a founding member, Recuerda César Chávez Committee, Glenwood Hills Neighborhood Association, and is the co-chair to the Johnny Tapia Project, which creates awareness on mental illness and addiction.
Idalia’s hobbies are international travel, opera, classical and mariachi music. She is an avid violinist, and played with the Albuquerque Philharmonic. She is a painter, dances flamenco and salsa, practices yoga, plays golf and tennis, and is a 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo. Idalia is married to attorney Marco Gonzales, a shareholder of the Modrall Sperling Law Firm. She loves spending time with her family and her blind Chihuahua dog, Kochinada.