Mexican Immigrant's Signatures Becomes an American Icon

By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - If money is power, Rosario Marin has a whole lot of it.

It's not her own cash, actually, but the nation's. As treasurer of the United States, the Mexican-born Marin sits atop the money heap, overseeing the makers of America's greenbacks and its coins - the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the U.S. Mint.

Marin's is not a household name, but her autograph, along with that of the treasury secretary, is carried on billions of U.S. notes, tucked inside the wallets and pocketbooks of many Americans. The treasurer and the treasury secretary are the only two people who get to put their signatures on U.S. dollars.

For Marin, who came to the United States from Mexico at 14 unable to speak English, it has been an amazing journey, with unexpected twists and turns.

As the nation's 41st treasurer, and the first born outside the United States, the 44-year-old Marin is the highest-ranking Latin American woman in the Bush administration and a key player in the administration's efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing bloc.

She is being floated as a possible Republican contender for a Senate seat from California in 2004.

"My dad was a factory worker. My mom used to help him by sewing at home. We had a two-room house in Mexico," Marin said in a recent interview. "There were five kids." A sixth child was born after the family moved to California.

Going to college at night and working during the day at a bank, Marin planned a career in business. "I was going to be the owner of my own bank," she said. "I had plans. I knew what my future was going to be."

But those plans changed with the birth of her first son, Eric, in 1985. He was born with Down Syndrome. Marin said she stopped working on a master's in business administration, quit her job at the bank, and she and her husband, Alex, sold their house.

"It was that turning point in my life," she said.

She eventually decided she wanted to help people with disabilities and their families. Her political career began when she went to work for GOP California Gov. Pete Wilson in 1992 in the Department of Developmental Disabilities. She held various posts in Wilson's administration for nearly seven years.

Marin first crossed paths with George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas and she the Republican mayor of Huntington Park, Calif., a heavily Democratic city that is largely Hispanic. She worked as an unpaid volunteer for Bush's presidential campaign.

After Bush won the presidency, Marin said she was floored when he tapped her to be treasurer.

Clad in a green and black suit - similar to the colors on U.S. dollars - and wearing coin jewelry from the U.S. Mint, Marin joked that she did not know much about the treasurer's duties. But she knew her name would appear on greenbacks, and she had an aim for the job: Promote financial literacy.

"I felt I would have the bully pulpit to go out there and do as much as I could to educate America about personal finances," Marin said. And she has, in countless speeches since taking office in the summer of 2001.

Marin is especially passionate about educating the poor - a group most likely to pay excessive interest rates on loans. She has worked to try to get lower-income people and others into the banking system, helping them to set up savings and checking accounts. Treasury officials estimate that one in 10 American households are in the ranks of "unbanked."

Mike Madrid, a political consultant at the San Antonio firm Guerra DeBerry Coody, wants Marin to run for the Senate from California in 2004, taking on incumbent Barbara Boxer. It's a race he acknowledges would be an uphill battle given the Democratic Party's stronghold, and would be expensive.

Madrid said Marin was well received when she recently spoke at the California GOP convention.

"She has extremely high name recognition in the Hispanic community and that is a natural edge," Madrid said. "People reach in their wallets, pull out dollar bills and look for her name."

As to her own political aspirations, Marin is noncommital. "I am incredibly flattered," she said. "But it is something that I have not sought."

Marin remembers her reluctance to come to the United States, worried she would miss her "quinceanera" party, a rite of passage for a girl turning 15. She didn't. Her parents took her back to Mexico to celebrate with family and friends.

"It rained ... my dress was all muddy," but she was still thrilled, Marin recalled. "One of my little dreams had come true."