Columba Bush

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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 (or Josephina) Gallo. She met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León while he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas. (According to the Laredo Morning Times, she told her father she was going to the post office, and has never seen him since.^[1]) 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 brief profile in the book Mamá: Latina Daughters Celebrate Their Mothers by Maria Perez-Brown (ISBN 0-06-008386-7). Her parents divorced in 1963.

Contents 1 Customs incident 2 Arts activism 3 Sources 4 References

[edit] Customs incident

On July 24, 1999, Bush was detained by the U.S. Customs Service at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta after returning from a trip to Paris, France, on a Delta flight. On a mandatory declaration form handed out on the flight, Bush falsely stated that she had purchased only $500 worth of goods.

Customs agents then found some shopping receipts in Bush's purse, but she declined an opportunity to change her declaration. When Customs agents searched Bush's luggage and found the merchandise, she then confessed to the agents that she had lied on the declaration form because she did not want her husband to know how much she had spent.

Bush was fined $4,100 and returned to Tallahassee that evening with her purchases. The Bushes issued a written apology admitting to the incident late the next day.

[edit] Arts activism

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), on which she serves as the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free council's co-chair, and Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse board.

[edit] Sources

• Official biography
• Becker, Jo. "Bush: Wife meant to hide shopping spree from me." St. Petersburg Times. June 22, 1999

[edit] References