Columba Bush

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Columba Bush (born August 17, 1953) is the wife of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the sister-in-law of President George W. Bush.

Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. She married Jeb Bush, whom she had met in 1971 in León while he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program, on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas. The couple have three children: George P. Bush, Noelle Bush, and Jeb Bush, Jr.

Customs incident

On July 24, 1999, Bush was detained by the U.S. Customs Service at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta after returning from a trip to Paris, France, on a Delta flight. On a mandatory declaration form handed out on the flight, Bush falsely stated that she had purchased only $500 worth of goods.

Customs agents then found some shopping receipts in Bush's purse, but she declined an opportunity to change her declaration. When Customs agents searched Bush's luggage and found the merchandise, she then confessed to the agents that she had lied on the declaration form because she did not want her husband to know how much she had spent.

Under federal law, customs agents could have fined her up to the full dollar amount of the purchases and confiscated the merchandise; however, Bush was only fined $4100 and returned to Tallahassee that evening with her purchases. The Bushes issued a written apology admitting to the incident late the next day.

Arts activism

Bush has been active in promoting the arts. In 1999 she worked with Arts for a Complete Education/Florida Alliance for Arts Education (ACE/FAAE) to develop Arts for Life!, a program devoted to increasing the importance of art in the education system. She has also used her experience with her family's substance abuse issues to aid treatment and prevention programs such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), on which she serves as the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free council's co-chair, and Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse board.

In 2005, the Arts program took another huge step into the new millennium with the hiring of art expert Sara Turner. Turner has been instrumental in all aspects of the program, including but not limited to: painting acquisition, events coordination, and most of all, picture hanging. In 2006, Turner was promoted to full time arts liaison and is now one of the highest paid "arts liaisons to the First Lady" in the State of Florida.

Sources

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