Mary Rose Garrido Wilcox: 1949—: County Official Biography

A fourth-generation member of a pioneering Mexican-American family, Mary Rose Garrido Wilcox in 2000 was re-elected to her third four-year term as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona. It is just the latest chapter in Wilcox's long career of public service, a career which began with nine years on the Phoenix City Council. Wilcox's contributions as a public servant have been matched by her zealous efforts on behalf of the Hispanic community. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Phoenix council and has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of her fellow Hispanic Americans since her childhood days in the predominantly Latino community of Superior, Arizona. As a girl, Wilcox was deeply influenced by the political activism of her parents, John and Betty Nunez Garrido, who were among the first generation of Hispanics unwilling to accept the discrimination that had so cruelly constrained the lives of those who came before them. With her husband, Earl V. Wilcox, who was raised in the heavily Hispanic barrios of southeast Phoenix, Wilcox owns and operates the New El Sol, an English-language weekly newspaper serving the Hispanic community.