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Jarrett Barrios
(1968 - living) U.S.A.

Jarrett Barrios

Politician

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Barrios, a Florida-born of Cuban descent, and a Harvard- and Georgetown-educated attorney, came to the State House after working and networking his way through the Massachusetts Democratic, gay and lesbian, and Latino political communities, among others. He and his partner, Doug Hattaway own a house in Cambridge. It was Hattaway, in fact, who won Barrios the dubious honor of Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr's attention in June after the representative, following what he called "the spirit of the law," entered Hattaway's income as "spousal income" on the financial-disclosure forms that all elected officials file. The right-wing Carr, who would normally rant about someone's hiding income, had a field day with Barrios's voluntary disclosure.

"I'm an obvious target for him," said Barrios over coffee one morning last month at his familiar haunt, Carberry's. "I'm an ethnic minority. I'm a sexual minority. I have too many things he loves to bash. There's too much hate in that man to resist for very long going after someone like me."

In fact, being one of only three Latino members of the House has put Barrios in more awkward situations than being gay has. "I have a colleague, José Santiago, another Latino, who is five foot six -- he weighs a little more than me and has a mustache and he's eight shades darker than me," says Barrios, who stands well over six feet tall. "Basically, what I'm saying is we look nothing alike. Can I tell you how many times I've been called José by my colleagues?" Even though he hails from politically correct Cambridge, Barrios takes the mistakes with a sense of humor. "Who am I to judge? I always confuse some of the old Flahertys and Walshes," he says with a chuckle.

Barrios recently appeared at a statewide educational conference for Latino students, where he was the last speaker after the governor and several other non-Latino elected officials. As he often does, he began his speech in Spanish before switching to English, which immediately won the crowd. But the program was running long, and after a few minutes, the MC passed Barrios a note asking him to wind up his remarks. The crowd didn't like it.

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