Orange County Chairman Mel Martínez, a child of the traumatic Cold War-era Operation Pedro Pan, will be named the next secretary of housing and urban development today, sources close to President-elect George W. Bush say.

Martínez is a 54-year-old Cuban American who holds the highest-ranking government job in Orlando and played a key role in support of Bush by working as co-chairman of his Florida campaign.

According to Republican sources, at least two other Cabinet choices are expected to be named today as well -- Don Evans, Bush's national campaign chairman, to be commerce secretary, and Californian Ann Veneman, former director of that state's Food and Agriculture Department, as agriculture secretary.

Martínez flew to Washington to meet personally with the president-elect and then flew back to Texas with his wife, Kitty, and Bush, on Tuesday to take center stage when the appointment is announced in Austin. Martínez has been quoted as saying he was ``surprised'' that he was even under consideration for the post.

Martínez, who backed Bush as far back as April 1999 as a member of the GOP's Florida Association of Republican Mayors, is the first Cuban American to be named to a Cabinet position. He is the fifth Hispanic to be named to serve at that level in recent administrations.

He was elected as Orange County's chief executive two years ago after a close and hard-fought race, rose to prominence as leader of a special commission on growth management set up by Gov. Jeb Bush, and as a GOP activist was one of the 25 electors who cast their votes for Bush this week. Jeb Bush said his brother asked him for his opinion about Martínez a week after the November election.

``He's a wonderful person, he's incredibly talented and a great friend,'' the governor said. ``We campaigned a lot with Mel. He's a co-chairman of the campaign and George knew him.''

Martínez was one of several Cuban Americans who successfully pushed for the pro-embargo plank in the party's platform over the objections of some Republicans who want to make it possible to trade agricultural and medical products with Cuba. The 2000 platform calls for active American support for Cuban dissidents and the continuation of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 which is bitterly opposed by Fidel Castro's government.

But although he remains an implacable foe of the Castro regime, his experience in Orlando has allowed him to reach out to other ethnic groups, acquiring the sort of political skills that will come in handy in Washington.

``When I get 70 percent of the black vote as a Hispanic elected official, that makes a very different statement about the climate here,'' he said in a Herald interview earlier this year. ``There's not the hostility that exists in Miami.There's more of a partnership or a cordial sort of working relationship with other groups.''

He added, ``I have affection for Miami. . . but I have over the years watched the problems and seen how negative that can be for the community.'' Martínez, born in the central Cuba city of Sagua la Grande, came up the hard way.

He arrived alone in 1962 in the United States at the age of 15 as one of 14,048 children airlifted out of newly communist Cuba by their fearful parents. He spent time in Camp Matecumbe in South Dade and another camp near Jacksonville before finding a home in Orlando with two American foster families. He is impassioned about that experience.

When he took the oath as Orange County's leader, he pointed to his foster parents -- Walter and Eileen Young, and June Berkmeyer Brewer -- and said, ``They taught me that ordinary people, through selfless acts of kindness, have an extraordinary impact on the lives of so many others. That is what being a community is all about.''

He drew parallels between his own situation as a child and that of young Elián González in March when he appeared before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to make a case for allowing the boy to stay in the United States.

Martínez told the senators he was not reunited with his parents -- his father was a veterinarian -- until four years after he left Cuba, when they were allowed to leave Sagua la Grande to join him in Orlando.

``This great and blessed land has given me the chance to fulfill the promise of America,'' he said. ``I hope and pray Elián González also will be permitted to live a life of freedom and opportunity.''

In December 1999, Martínez picked up the tab for the two days the boy and his Miami relatives spent at Walt Disney World near Orlando. ``I can identify with him,'' a clearly moved Martinez said at the time. ``I came here alone without my family. I was lonely, scared, confused, homesick.''

Martínez's star rose quickly after he settled in Orlando.

He graduated from Orlando Junior College in 1967, earned a bachelor's degree from Florida State University in 1969 and a law degree from the same school in 1973. He began practicing law in 1973, but quickly became involved in governmental affairs.

Martínez has been a member of the board of directors of United American Bank, president of the Orlando Utilities Commission, and chairman of the greater Orlando Aviation Authority and a member of the Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority.

His only experience with housing issues came when he was chairman of Orlando's Housing Authority from 1984 to 1986. In his two years as county chairman, Martínez strived to streamline government, improve transportation services, and create clean neighborhoods. He earned high marks for dealing with problems of crowded schools, helping the private sector open new healthcare clinics and making possible the expansion of the city's parks system.

Martínez has three children. His father has passed away but his relatives include his mother and his brother.