Sylvia Tanguma

Affiliation

McAllen American Federation of Teachers & American Federation of Teachers Latino Issues Task Force

Biography

Sylvia Tanguma is the president of the McAllen Federation of Teachers, the largest teacher’s union in the Rio Grande Valley. Tanguma has served as president since December 2018. Prior to becoming president, she served as a member at-large with McAllen AFT. I was president for 15 months before going into lockdown in March 2020. She led her local through the covid lockdown strongly advocating to her school board, administrators and local government and state representatives for a safe and cautious return to school. I serve as secretary-treasurer for the Rio Grande Valley Central Labor Council and was just nominated and appointed to serve as a vice-president for the Texas AFL-CIO. I am also a proud member of the Latino Issues Taskforce as well as a member of the AFT’s PPC Committee. My passion is to advocate for racial equity and social justice. I am outspoken about injustices I see and openly advocate for women’s rights. I am very invested in improving our working conditions in McAllen ISD and will continue to work on achieving the best for our McAllen AFT members. In November 2020, the AFT awarded my local with a $25,000 grant through the Innovation Fund that was used to improve the air quality in the schools for McAllen ISD.