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Dulce Fuller says she learned the importance of liberty from her father, a general surgeon who left his native Cuba for the United States in the 1940s.
"I am completely a product of my upbringing. My father just loved this country and embraced it completely," the Birmingham resident and business owner says. "I think I have his passion for freedom and limited government."
Following the Cuban revolution, more of her extended family left behind friends and homes to come to this country, Fuller says.
"They each, in their own way, made their escape," she says. "They came with literally the clothes on their back. They had to start over."
Fuller tells that story by way of explaining what motivates her to work on behalf of freedom and limited government in Michigan, including supporting the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. A member of the Mackinac Center's Detroit-area Board of Advisers since 2004 and a longtime generous donor, Fuller joined the Center's Board of Directors in April.
On Oct. 14, 2010, Fuller and her husband, Ted, served as co-chairmen of "An Evening with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy," a program featuring guest speaker L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County executive. Over 200 people attended this first-time event at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham.
Fuller also is chairman of the Southeast Michigan Committee for Heritage, part of The Heritage Foundation's community-based network of business and civic leaders, as well as owner of the Birmingham boutique Woodward & Maple Inc.
The Mackinac Center program and similar gatherings are important ways for people who share the values of liberty, limited government and self-reliance to come together in Michigan, Fuller says.
"I say that we have to make some noise," she says. "We are altogether too polite. It's exciting to me to see these Tea Party activists. It's marvelous that we're finding our voice and our mettle."
