Bernardo "Betito" Márquez García is the Mayor of Toa Baja affiliated with the New Progressive Party (PNP). He was a member of the

Puerto Rico House of Representatives The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico () is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Senate, control the legislative branch of the go ...

from 2005 to 2013 representing District 10.

Early years and studies

Bernardo Márquez was born on the Barrio Pájaros Candelaria of

Toa Baja Toa Baja () is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the northern coast, north of Toa Alta and Bayamón; east of Dorado; and west of Cataño. Toa Baja is spread over five barrios, including Toa Baja Pueblo (the downtown area and ...

. During his school years, he was an avid sports athlete, distinguishing himself in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. Márquez completed his

Bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

and

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Business Administration at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

Professional life

Márquez worked as a college professor at the University of Puerto Rico and the

Interamerican University of Puerto Rico The Inter American University of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico''; often abbreviated to ''UIPR'' or ''Inter'') is a private Christian university with its main campus in San Germán, Puerto Rico. It also has ...

. He also worked as owner of the Selectos Supermarket, on the Barrio Candelaria Arenas.

Political career

Márquez was first elected to the

House of Representatives of Puerto Rico The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico () is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Senate, control the legislative branch of the go ...

at the 2004 general election, where he was elected to represent District 10. He was reelected in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Márquez chose not to run for reelection at the 2012 general election. In 2015, Márquez announced his intention to run for Mayor of

challenging longtime incumbent Aníbal Vega Borges. On June 5, 2016, Márquez defeated Vega Borges in what was classified by some newspapers as the "surprise of the primaries".

Personal life

Márquez is married and has three children. In 2020, one of his sons,

José Bernando Márquez José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, was elected to the

for the Citizens' Victory Movement party. He's currently the oldest of five brothers.His father died on December of 2022.

References

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External links

Bernardo Márquez Official biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marquez Garcia, Bernardo Living people New Progressive Party members of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico People from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico Year of birth missing (living people) University of Puerto Rico alumni University of Puerto Rico faculty 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico