Rubi Flores: Policy director, Congressional Hispanic Caucus

Rubi Flores, 30, is a concert pianist turned policy director who has landed at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) as it positions itself to fight the Trump administration on its mass deportation agenda and other issues key to Latinos.

An immigrant from Mexico who moved to the U.S. at age 10, Flores excelled not only at piano but at cello as well and aimed to make music her career. But as she advanced to college, some of the most competitive conservatories remained out of reach financially.

“It was one of the first times that the world told me no, and that made me evaluate, what are the circumstances to led me to not be able to have that dream?” she told The Hill. That question led to “opening up a lot of conversations in my mind of the inequities worldwide.”

“Undergrad, leadership positions, and things like this really make you think that, ‘Oh, I can change the world.’ And I wanted to change the world; I wanted to make it a little bit better,” she said.

College was also where Flores began to first engage in activism, and she set about achieving new dreams.

After a stint as a Fulbright scholar in Mexico, Flores interned at Fwd.us, where she tracked asylum policy across the globe. From there, she went to work on the Biden campaign as chief of staff to campaign manager Julie Chávez.

Now at the CHC, Flores said the group is evaluating how to best play to its strengths while in the minority, a role that has involved being an active voice in pushing back on President Trump’s immigration agenda, visiting detention centers and highlighting conditions, and filing amicus briefs in a bevy of litigation now before the courts.

Flores said being both an immigrant and a trans woman are crucial lenses for how she approaches her work, including how the party can protect both groups in an age where a larger share of Latinos than ever before backed the GOP when they voted for Trump.

On both issues, Flores said, “That’s my overall goal to make sure that we have positions that are winnable while staying true to our values and our efforts,” adding that programming for the caucus has discussed how to “inoculate themselves from a lot of attacks on from the right, and also how to just have an agenda that, while remaining popular, can defend the community.”