Luisa Gándara

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Luisa "Piti" Gándara Menéndez (April 30, 1954 – June 14, 2023) was a Puerto Rican politician and wife of former Governor of Puerto Rico Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. As Acevedo Vilá's wife, Gándara served as First Lady from 2005 to 2009. In 2013, Gándara was elected by the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) to fill the vacancy left by Jorge Colberg Toro as representative at-large in the 29th House of Representatives.

Luisa "Piti" Gándara was born on April 30, 1954.^[1][2] Her father was a public accountant and her mother was a florist. Gándara was the youngest of five siblings. She earned her high school degree from Academia Sagrado Corazón, studied at the Faculty of Pedagogy of University of Puerto Rico, and then completed a Master's degree at the University of Florida.^[3]

Gándara worked as a high school biology teacher and as a specialist in educational technology for IBM for 17 years.

Following the tradition of previous Puerto Rico first ladies, Gándara refrained from holding a remunerative job while a resident of La Fortaleza. As First Lady, she dedicated much of her attention to educational issues. She developed two reading programs: Lee y Sueña and Rincón de la Lectura. The first donated 60,000 books to children, while the second sparked the creation of 50 reading centers around the island.^[4] The programs received national recognition, including an Innovations Award from the Council of State Governments,^{[citation needed]} and an award from the Ibero-American Council in Honor of Educational Quality.^[5]

Active in her husband's successful congressional campaign in 2000^{[citation needed]} and his campaign for governor in 2004, Gándara was heavily involved in his reelection bid in 2008 and supported him during a federal trial against him.

In March 2013, Gándara presented her candidacy to fill a vacant slot at the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico.^[6] She was elected during an internal election within the party on March 13, 2013.^[7]

Gándara and Acevedo Vilá had two children: Gabriela, a Harvard graduate and producer in Los Angeles, California, and Juan Carlos, a University of Puerto Rico graduate and educator.

In 2011, Gándara confirmed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.^[8] She died on June 14, 2023, at the age of 69.^[9]

• Council of State Governments State Innovations Award^[10] for a reading program that she developed as First Lady
• Premio Iberoamericano Excelencia Academica 2008 (in Guayaquil, Ecuador) for promoting early childhood education