DeeDee Garcia Blase is a Mexican-American political activist, Air Force veteran and entrepreneur. She is the founder/former President of Somos Republicans as well as founder and current President of the National Tequila Party.

Born in Texas on 1971, her parents, whom eventually became business owners, moved to Idaho for agricultural reasons. Blase grew up Republican and still maintains many conservative views. In 2011, She switched her political party affiliation to Independent because of Republican’s rhetoric on illegal immigration.

After graduating from high school, her mother wanted her to attend Boise State University. Instead, Blase chose to join the U.S. Air Force against her mother’s wishes.

While with the Air Force, she served fours years of active duty and an additional four years non-active duty. She was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas.

After her tour of duty, she continued her education Kansas and eventually opened two communication retail outlets and a coffee café in Wichita. In Kansas, Blase started to get involved in activism by joining the American G.I. Forum, the National Latino Peace Officer Association and other organizations.

She also started Cindo de Mayo contests that encouraged young Hispanic females to take control of their education by applying to win scholarships for college.

In 2006, Blase sold her coffee shop and moved to Arizona. It was in Arizona, on September 2010, where she founded Somos Republicans. The group has become the largest Latino Republican organization in the United States.

Somos Republicans was created when anti-immigrant sentiment hit a fever pitch in Arizona. It grew to 14 chapters in various states by February 2012.

On November 2, 2011, Somos Republicans announced Blase would step down to focus on the National Tequila Party Movement.

The Tequila Party consists of Democrats, Independents and Republicans with a mission of getting out the Latino Vote for the purpose of promoting immigrant friendly politicians.

The organization, is a counter movement to the Tea Party Republicans. Like Somos Republicans, the Tequila Party aims to increase Latino voter participation in a non-partisan way.

DeeDee Garcia Blase, was the first person to initiate the recall of Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce. She cites Dr. Hector P. Garcia, founder of the American G.I. Forum, as one of her heroes. Blase is married to attorney Aaron Blase and has to two children

Notable Quote:

” I do not believe the mainstream media does an adequate job in portraying Hispanic patriotism. In fact, living in Arizona, I often see Hispanic people being demonized and portrayed in a negative light by isolationists.”

Follow me on twitter @EGMNRay

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