 ASPIRA's national office is in Washington, D.C. and it has affiliates in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.Former ASPIRA club members, or ASPIRANTES, as they are known, include ACLU's Anthony Romero, former Bronx Borough President and New York City democratic mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer, Illinois politician Billy Ocasio and actor Jimmy Smits.ASPIRA was founded in New York City in 1961 by Dr. Antonia Pantoja to combat the exorbitant dropout rate among Puerto Rican high school youth.