Alonso R. del Portillo

Alonso R. del Portillo (born Alonso Rafael del Portillo-Leyva in 3 June 1960 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban-American genealogist and former aide to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Mr. del Portillo left Cuba when he was 13 months old during the Operation Peter Pan transport in July 1961 and did not return to Cuba until exactly 33 years later in July 1994. In 1988, he started to work with then Florida State Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and when she was elected in 1989 to fill the US congressional seat of Claude Pepper he became her Assistant District Director. Later he became her immigration and State Department specialist.

From 1989-1996, he assisted more than 15,000 persons with problems with the US government, among them assisting the parents of singer Rey Ruiz emigrate from Cuba and assisted with the human interest paroles of the family members of Pedro Zamora, the AIDS activist and The Real World: San Francisco cast member who died one week after they arrived in 1994. He would later speak at his memorial service held on Miami Beach.

He is the eldest child of Alonso J. del Portillo-Tamargo and Zonia S. Leyva-Rodriguez . He attended St. Theresa School in Coral Gables, Florida and later graduated from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in 1978.He was married briefly to Ana Paula Collings, a Brazilian model, and is presently married to Dania Leyva .

He comes from a long line of lawyers, his grandfather, Alonso del Portillo Marcano, was a prominent Attorney-Notary in Cuba, as was his great-grandfather, Miguel Luis Tamargo-Bautista and great-grand-uncle, Domingo Tamargo (26th Cuban Secretary of Justice) . His cousin, Mauricio J. Tamargo, is lawyer and the is the 14th Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. His 11th great grandfather was Rodrigo del Junco the Spanish Governor of Florida in 1592 and he is 2nd great grand nephew of General Luis Marcano-Alvarez who fought in the Cuban War of Independence. He is also 3rd cousins to the Cuban-American politicians, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Miguel Angel Diaz de la Portilla, and Renier Diaz de la Portilla.

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