Immigrant of the Day: Columba Bush (Mexico)

Columba Bush (born August 17, 1953) is the wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the sister-in-law of President George W. Bush. Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. Her parents were Jose Maria Garnica, a migrant worker, and Josefina Gallo.  Columba is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Columba met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León, where he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas. The couple have three children: George P. Bush, Noelle Bush, and Jeb Bush, Jr.

Bush’s relationship with her mother was the subject of a profile in the book Mamá: Maria Perez-Brown, Latina Daughters Celebrate Their Mothers (2004).

Bush has been active in promoting the arts. In 1999 she worked with Arts for a Complete Education/Florida Alliance for Arts Education (ACE/FAAE) to develop Arts for Life!, a program devoted to increasing the importance of art in the education system. She has also used her experience with her family’s substance abuse issues to aid treatment and prevention programs such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). She has served as co-chair of the NIAAA initiative, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, and has served on the board of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

KJ