A resurfaced high-school yearbook image and a conservative media campaign by a state republican lawmaker triggered renewed scrutiny over the U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s longstanding self‑identification as a “Bronx girl.”
The photograph, shared publicly by State Assemblyman Matt Slater (R‑Yorktown), shows Ocasio‑Cortez as a freshman at Yorktown High School, a public high school in Westchester County about 40 minutes north of the Bronx, where AOC’s family moved when she was five.
The congressional representative, who had been in a social media feud with President Donald Trump over his choice to take military action against Iran without congressional approval, touted her Bronx roots in a post on X last week, telling President Trump, “I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.”
The post prompted a backlash from Slater, who said that the yearbook photo disproved the Bronx congressional representative’s “tough girl” from the Bronx persona.
@AOC if you're a BX girl then why are you in my Yorktown yearbook? Give it up already. https://t.co/2GpPoiypUf pic.twitter.com/le9C7x1as1
— Matt Slater (@slater4ny) June 24, 2025
“@AOC if you’re a BX girl then why are you in my Yorktown yearbook? Give it up already.” Slater said in a response to Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s social media post.
This is not the first time Ocasio-Cortez’s biography has come under scrutiny. Since her surprise congressional win in 2018, political opponents have periodically questioned her branding as a working-class Bronx native. However, the timing of this latest flare-up—paired with a visual artifact like a yearbook photo—helped it gain traction quickly on social platforms.
Ocasio-Cortez was born in Parkchester, to working-class parents. Her mother was from Puerto Rico and worked cleaning houses and her father owned a small business in the Bronx, according to her official biography. After moving north to Yorktown for a better education, AOC said she “traveled regularly to The Bronx to spend time with her extended family.”
The representative returned to the borough and lived in the family’s Parkchester apartment after graduating from college ahead of her historic run for office in 2018.
The renewed buzz around AOC’s “Bronx girl” authenticity prompted fact-checking outlet Snopes to look more closely at how the elected official has portrayed her relationship to the borough over the years. Snopes found an archived version of a 2018 campaign website biography page which highlighted a 40 minute “commute” between school and family in the Bronx without expressly stating that AOC and her immediate family lived in Yorktown.
Ocasio-Cortez has said that her political views were shaped by witnessing the inequality of the Bronx and Yorktown firsthand.
In response to posts on X about the value of her childhood home in Yorktown currently being over half-a-million dollars, AOC responded that she wasn’t keeping her history a secret.
“I’m proud of how I grew up and talk about it all the time!” Ocasio said in a post on X. “My mom cleaned houses and I helped. We cleaned tutors’ homes in exchange for SAT prep. Growing up between the Bronx and Yorktown deeply shaped my views of inequality & it’s a big reason I believe the things I do today!”
Similarly sized homes in Parkchester range from just over $350,000 to over $650,000 according to Zillow.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined to comment.
