Anastasia Somoza

Anastasia Somoza (born She also has an older brother and younger sister, and was born and grew up in Manhattan where her mother Mary, an immigrant from Ireland, was an advisor to mayor David Dinkins and governor Mario Cuomo on disabled children. Her father Gerardo immigrated from Nicaragua with his mother when he was 12; he is the son and grandson, respectively, of Nicaraguan presidents Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza García.

Somoza began her disability rights advocacy at nine years old, appearing on a 1993 televised townhall with president Bill Clinton where she asked that her twin, who cannot speak and uses a computer to communicate, be allowed in a mainstream classroom as she was. Somoza spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, emphasizing the agency of disabled people and criticizing Donald Trump, who had ridiculed a disabled reporter the previous year. and her speech later appeared in a Clinton campaign ad, contrasting her comments with Trump's attack. Somoza was then working for the disability organization the Shield Institute, and served as a campaign surrogate for the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Personal life Somoza became friends with comedian Amy Poehler after Poehler responded to a letter from the Somoza family and apologized for a 2008 Saturday Night Live sketch in which she mocked Somoza and her twin sister.