# Daughter of Cubans, the first woman to lead the largest university in the US

**Date:** 03/11/2021

Madeline Pumariega has been since January the first female president of Miami Dade College (MDC), the largest university in the United States, which annually graduates 83% of students of Hispanic origin and 12% of African Americans.

She remembers her childhood in Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade County with a large Cuban population, which instilled in her the moral "principles" that she teaches to her 16-year-old daughter and the student community she leads.

"I always say that I am that girl from Hialeah, who carries it close to her heart, because I believe that growing up in an immigrant family taught me what it means to struggle, work hard, and be humble."

Pumariega says that the "most important" thing she learned from the "City that Progresses," as Hialeah is known for the great arrival of Cuban immigrants in the sixties and seventies, is "knowing who" she is and "where" she comes from.

She emphasizes that the story of her parents and many aunts and uncles who were political prisoners and lost all their businesses has "enriched" her learning.

Daughter of a banker and a teacher who came from Cuba to the USA "to rebuild their lives," Pumariega points out that the university has adapted its programs to the various massive migrations of Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, or Puerto Ricans for political or natural reasons, such as the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 or Hurricane María in Puerto Rico in 2017.

Both its president and faculty have immigrant roots, which help them understand the needs of their students, currently more than 100,000 from 167 countries and who speak 63 languages.

"We are the institution of the community, we reflect our community in everything we do," Pumariega emphasizes from her office on the Downtown Miami campus.

A location that includes the Freedom Tower, the emblematic building where Cubans who began fleeing the Castro regime arrived in the 1960s, including the Pumariega family, who still have present the family stories of that migration.

Pumariega replaced Eduardo Padrón at MDC, another Cuban immigrant who came to the USA as a child with his younger brother, but who came to lead the university for 25 years until his retirement in August 2019.

With him Pumariega worked for 20 years and learned values such as "putting students first," she says that before each decision she makes she thinks of that principle, among others as "a tribute" to Padrón.

Pumariega was also the first woman and the first Latina to lead the Florida University System (FCS), with 28 of these academic centers and 800,000 students.

The academic details that the university has adjusted not only to young students who want to pursue a university degree, but also to older ones, or those who must learn English or those who must "train quickly for a job" to survive in a new country.

She acknowledges the work of women and points out that 60% of the university student body in the country is female, but only 29% of academic centers are led by women.

At 60 years old, just turned in 2020, Miami-Dade College is a reflection not only of the various migrations to South Florida, but of the challenges of Latin America.

Pumariega notes that Miami-Dade College remains as a platform for major social, political, and economic discussions in Latin America or health challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, among others, hosting the only federal vaccination center in South Florida, where 4,000 people are being vaccinated daily.

"What makes us strong is that we all come from other places, and Miami Dade College has served as that place where everyone comes, you open the doors to have conversations, to carry out goals that help students, the community, and also give voice to those countries," she assures.