Your Guide to Latino Politics in New York, Puerto Rico and Beyond November 5, 2014
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THE END OF THE ROAD
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that has accompanied them—particularly the work of my perspicacious colleague Gerson Borrero, the series’ editor—deepened my knowledge of myriad issues of which I had only a superficial grasp and schooled me in areas of grave concern about which I was utterly ignorant, such as the horrific epidemic of suicide among young Latinas, which Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda addresses in his deeply personal article on page 34 of this issue. Taken as a whole, I believe this series has gone to the heart of what it means to be Latino in New York, and revealed how foolhardy it is to reduce this immensely diverse and ideologically varied ethnic group to a monolithic bloc, as the media so often does. Now that we have finally reached the conference, I am more excited than ever about what it can and will be. Latinos are already the nation’s largest minority, and it is demographic destiny that their political influence will increasingly measure up to their numbers. Already the SOMOS conference is no longer simply a forum for a minority group to have its voice heard; it is a platform that, if used effectively, will shape the lives of every New Yorker, regardless of race, creed, or color. I was pleased to read in Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s op-ed on page 35 of his intention to collaborate with Assemblyman Félix Ortiz, the chair of SOMOS, to broaden the reach of the conference to involve individuals around the state who cannot afford to go to San Juan or never thought to do so. SOMOS is and must be for everyone. While this issue may bring the Road to SOMOS series to a conclusion, it is certainly not the end of City & State’s commitment to covering Latino politics in New York, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and beyond. The close of this year’s SOMOS conference will merely be the beginning of the road to the next one.
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Distribution Czar Dylan Forsberg EDITORIAL
SOMOS Series Editor Gerson Borrero editor@cityandstateny.com Editor-in-Chief Morgan Pehme mpehme@cityandstateny.com Managing Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com Buffalo Reporter Chris Thompson cthompson@cityandstateny.com Policy Reporter Wilder Fleming wfleming@cityandstateny.com Associate Editor Helen Eisenbach
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city & state — November 5 , 2014
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his special issue marks the conclusion of City & State’s Road to SOMOS/El Camino a SOMOS series. Over the past three months we have endeavored to jump-start the conversation in which you now have the opportunity to participate in an effort to elevate the seriousness and importance of the discourse, as well as to bring attention to rich areas of potential focus that might otherwise be overlooked or underappreciated. The Road to SOMOS has been an eye-opening journey for me personally, beginning with the City & State team’s trip to Puerto Rico in early September to lay the groundwork for our coverage. The opportunity to sit down and speak at length with Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla, former Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón, Senate President Eduardo Bhatia, ex–Lieut. Gov. Kenneth McClintock and the current mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, was in essence both a crash course and a master class in the island’s politics. Through this experience I found out precisely what one should anticipate learning whenever one delves respectfully into the issues facing any government—that they are far more nuanced and complicated than they appear from a distance, and that the battle lines on every side are held by able and impassioned warriors. The education I received on the mainland side of our coverage was no less illuminating. Reading the treasure trove of op-eds and reported pieces contributed to City & State by elected officials, leading academics and prominent activists—all of whom took the time to weigh in on what this year’s fall SOMOS conference should seek to accomplish—truly provided the window to the past, present and future of Latino politics in New York it was our aspiration that the Road to SOMOS series would uncover when we conceived of it. As I hope they have done and will do for you, these opinion pieces, and the reportage
Chief of Staff Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com
CONTENT S
CONTENTS 4
SOMOS Special Issue — November 5, 2014 8......
11.....
POLITICS OF THE CARIBBEAN: A RECAP OF CUOMO’S RECENT CAMPAIGN TRIP
by Gerson Borrero
FOR UPSTATE LATINOS ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL. FOR NOW.
by Susan Arbetter
14....
city & state — November 5, 2014
18....
HOW WE GOT HERE: A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO SOMOS
by Gerson Borrero
A DREAM DEFERRED: THE FORGOTTEN PROMISE OF LATINO EMPOWERMENT
by Howard Jordan
21....
THE BEACON OF OPPORTUNITY AND PROGRESS
by Gov. Andrew Cuomo
22.... 23.... 24.... 25.... 26.... 28.... 30....
BEYOND THE DREAM ACT
by Angelo Falcón
32....
“WE WILL BE HEARD” by Assemblyman Félix Ortiz
OUR ROAD TO EMPOWERMENT
by Assemblyman Marcos Crespo
33....
by Rep. Nydia Velázquez
A (PARTIAL) BLUEPRINT TO ASSIST LATINO YOUTH IN NEW YORK
34....
by Juan Cartagena
MARRIAGE EQUALITY MUST BE A FOCUS OF SOMOS
by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
CULTURE, CONVERSATION AND CAMARADERIE
by Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
HELPING LATINO CHILDREN BEGINS WITH FIGHTING POVERTY
35.... 36.... 38....
FOLLOWING IN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY’S FOOTSTEPS
by State Senator José Peralta
SOMOS MUST ADDRESS LATINA SUICIDE EPIDEMIC
by Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda
EXPANDING SOMOS BEYOND A CONFERENCE
by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
Q&A WITH SAN JUAN MAYOR CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ SOTO Q&A WITH PUERTO RICO GOV. ALEJANDRO GARCÍA-PADILLA
A Rundown of San Juan Restaurants from Bon Appétit Magazine
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NOVEMBER IS
O
These are examples of the special events during CUNY Month at our 24 colleges, graduate and professional schools. – Chancellor James B. Milliken
pen houses, admissions and financial aid workshops, sports tournaments, lectures, performances, book talks, and panel discussions—most of them free—with world-class faculty, high-achieving students and honored guests.
NOV. 6-NOV. 16
NOV. 9
A WAKE OR A WEDDING Baruch College Thurs-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. $30-$60
NOV. 11-NOV. 20
VETERANS DAY Exhibition College of Staten Island 2:30-4 p.m. Free
NOV. 16
TEDxCUNY Macaulay Honors College 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free
NOV. 11
JEFF MADRICK IN CONVERSATION WITH PAUL KRUGMAN The CUNY Graduate Center 6:30 p.m. Free
CUNY GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAMS FAIR Lehman College 2-6 p.m. Free
AUTHOR JEFFREY RENARD ALLEN with Leonard Lopate Queens College 7 p.m. $20 or CUNY Student ID
NOV. 12
NOV. 13-DEC. 8
NOV. 14
NOV. 16
KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE
New York City College of Technology 12:30 p.m. Free
THE FACES OF ISLAM Photography Exhibition LaGuardia Community College Free
FINANCING TERRORISM Juan Zarate John Jay College of Criminal Justice 3 p.m. Free
NOV. 17
NOV. 19
NOV. 20
Kristallnacht anniversary
WRITING CENTER EVENT: ED HIRSCH Hunter College 7 p.m. Free
FREEDOM SUMMER Film City College of NY 6 p.m. Free
HOSTOS REPERTORY COMPANY: YOUNG HOSTOS Hostos Community College 7 p.m. Free
NOV. 21
NOV. 21
JOHN LEGUIZAMO: “LATIN HISTORY FOR DUMMIES” College of Staten Island 8 p.m. $35, $30
CUNY GRADUATE STUDIES FAIR Hyatt Grand Central 2-7 p.m. Free
A CHRISTMAS CAROL Borough of Manhattan Community College 1:30 p.m. $25
NOV. 11
NATIONAL ACROBATICS OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Lehman College 4 p.m. $45-$25, $10 for kids 12 and under
NOV. 20
NOV. 23
NOV. 10
WALTER MOSLEY UNBOUND AND UNRESTRICTED City College of NY 6:30 p.m. Free
THE VOCA PEOPLE Queensborough Community College 3 p.m. $35
NOV. 22
GOTTA DANCE! Kingsborough Community College 8 p.m. $30-$35
NOV. 24
CONTEMPO II Brooklyn College 7 p.m. Free
We Chose CUNY!
Fulbright Scholars Melody Mills, Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College and Prof. Daniel Di Salvo, City College
#cunymonth cuny.edu/cunymonth facebook.com/cunyedu CUNY TV-Channel 75
Great Colleges, Great Deals on Gear at theCUNYstore.com CUNY Month ad City & State.indd 1
11/3/14 2:01 PM
SPECIAL ISSUE • KICKOFF COCKTAIL • SOMOS HUB 26th ANNUAL SOMOS EL FUTURO FALL CONFERENCE • November 5-9, 2014 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2014
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Conference Registration Golf Tournament Registration / Reception
Lobby Brisas del Mar Room
7:00 AM 7:30 AM 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM
- 3:00 PM - 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Golf Tournament Golf Tournament On-Site Registration Conference Registration City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Golf Tournament Awards Event Welcoming Reception with NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver City & State SOMOS Kickoff Cocktail with San Juan Mayor Honorable Carmen Yulin Cruz
Buses leave at 6:30 AM Tournament begins at 9:00 AM
8:00 AM 9:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:00 AM
- 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Ponce de Léon A Room
10:00 AM 10:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:00 PM 2:00PM 2:00PM 2:00PM 2:00PM 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 10:00 PM
- 11:30 AM - 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Breakfast / Arecibo Tour Conference Registration City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Evolution of Data Communications Networks NY Past Economic Distress & Economic Development Strategies VS Puerto Rico Present Environment & Economic Development Strategies Puerto Rico to NYC: Gentrification, Displacement, & the Right to Remain Shared Journeys: Israel’s experiences & what they mean for New York Lunch - Mobilizing the Hispanic Vote / Hispanics Running for Office City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews The Value of Diversity on Corporate Boards Affordable Housing: Issues and Opportunities for Puerto Ricans & the Diaspora on the Island Empowering Latinas: A Discussion with Comptroller Yesmín M. Valdivieso Affordable Health Care for Latinos in NYS La Fortaleza Reception City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Chairman’s Reception | Co-sponsored by Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute Get Out the Vote Reception
8:00 AM 9:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:00 AM 10:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM
- 10:15 AM - 3:00 PM
NYC LCLAA Labor Breakfast Conference Registration City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Arecibo Tour Education Hopes & Challenges: Charter Schools & Common Core The 4 Ingredients of Latino Business Success Caño Martin Peña: A distressed community Puerto Rico Medical Tourism: An Option to Boost the Economy? Entre Nosotras Luncheon City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Civil Rights: Same Sex Marriages Economic Development MWBEs Immigration: Children & Vulnerable Populations Education - Delivering Opportunity Destileria Cruz Reception City & State SOMOS HUB Interviews Reception - PR Turismo Company / Paseo La Princesa
Ponce de Léon A Room
- 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
- 11:30 AM - 11:30 AM
-
3:30 PM 3:30 PM 3:30PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM
- 10:00 PM -
-
3:30 PM 11:30 AM 11:30 AM 11:30 AM 11:30 AM 2:00 PM
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3:30 PM 3:30 PM 3:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:00 PM
- 10:00 PM
10:30 AM - 1:00 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2014
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2014
Farewell Brunch - Veterans recognition -- Borinqueneers
2nd floor Museo de Artes de San Juan, Transportation 7:00 PM in lobby
2nd floor Ponce de Léon B Room Ponce de Léon C Room Horizon Room San Juan Bahia Room Ponce de Léon A Room 2nd floor Horizon Room Ponce de Léon C Room Almendros Room Ponce de Léon B Room By invitation only 2nd floor Ponce de Léon A Room Penthouse Suite
2nd floor Ponce de Léon B Room Ponce de Léon C Room By invitation only Horizon Room Ponce de Léon A Room 2nd floor Almendros Room Ponce de Léon B Room Ponce de Léon C Room Horizon Room San Juan Bahia Room 2nd floor Transportation leaves at 5:30
The Scaffold Safety Law Protects Latino and Immigrant Workers
The construction industry is full of dangerous jobs. Smaller companies often have particularly unsafe workplaces – they tend to be non-union and lack the necessary training, proper equipment, and respect for workers’ reports about unsafe conditions. Workers of color disproportionately face construction dangers because they work in construction in relatively high numbers, they are concentrated in smaller, non-union firms, and they are over-represented in the contingent labor pool. Our review of 2003-2011 OSHA investigations of construction site accidents involving a fatal fall from an elevation revealed that Latinos and immigrants are disproportionately killed in fall accidents: • In 60% of the OSHA-investigated fall from an elevation fatalities in New York State, the worker was Latino and/or immigrant, disproportionately high for their participation in construction work. • In New York City, 74% of fatal falls were Latino and/or immigrant. • Narrowing further, 88% of fatal falls in Queens and 87% in Brooklyn involved Latinos and/or immigrants. • 86% of Latino and/or immigrant fatalities from a fall from an elevation in New York were working for a non-union employer.* *Center for Popular Democracy, Fatal Inequality, October 2013
Scaffold Safety Coalition
For further information, straight facts and the 12 things you need to know about the scaffold safety law, please visit:
w w w. S c a f f o l d S a f e t y L a w. c o m
THE ROAD TO SOMOS / EL C A MINO A SOMOS
CUOMO’S CARIBBEAN TRIP WAS POLITICAL. SO WHAT?
8 GERSON BORRERO
city & state — November 5, 2014
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t seems that Andrew Cuomo can’t catch a break in some circles. “Ah,” you say. Seriously, the sitting governor of New York decides to take a political trip to the Caribbean and, of course, somehow his critics and leading opponent in the Nov. 4 election find this condemnable. Palo si boga, palo si no is what we call this in Español—“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” for the monolingual readers. I’m not shilling for the governor here. The man has more than his share of limpia sacos (lackies) around him and in the Democratic Party to do that; he doesn’t need me. It’s just that from the moment I received the heads-up call from a top Cuomo aide confirming the trip to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, I was told—without asking—that “it’s a political trip.” To put this Caribbean trip in context, I wrote a column a few days after last November’s SOMOS conference about the governor
Gov. Cuomo shakes hands with Danilo Medina, the president of the Dominican Republic, during his recent trip to Santo Domingo.
skipping out on the event—a move many observers dubbed a snub of the Latino community. The fact is, at that time the governor didn’t have anything new to add to what was already being discussed or dealt with in Albany, and thus opted to not attend. When I was reporting that piece, Assemblyman Félix Ortiz, who chairs SOMOS, told me on the record that the governor had called him the day before he was to appear and informed him of his decision not to do so. Ortiz wasn’t insulted. He
understood. Others didn’t. As a result of some of the negative publicity that ensued, there was serious talk in Cuomoland about the governor taking a trip to Puerto Rico to make amends. On several occasions in early and mid-2014—including a week or so before the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City—a trip to the island was discussed internally by the administration, according to a well-placed source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. So while the trip on Oct. 17 has
generally been criticized and vilified by the tag team of Republican gubernatorial nominee Rob Astorino and Bronx Democratic State Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr., and has provided good quotes and some fun for political reporters, fundamentally those criticisms were baseless. Full disclosure here for those who don’t already know: I, as City & State’s representative, along with colega Zack Fink, NY1’s Albany reporter, were the two reporters originally invited to join the governor for the Dominican cit yandstateny.com
Willis Avenue Bridge Manhattan to the Bronx, New York
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge Queens to the Bronx, New York
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Brooklyn to Staten Island, New York
Linking communities. Connecting cultures. www.parsons.com
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Republic leg of the whirlwind lessthan-24-hour trip. We initially were also asked to do the very challenging job of pool reporting while in the D.R. Zack and the extremely talented technical whiz and photographer Davide Cannaviccio did a great job. I, on the other hand, because of an unforeseen and unexpected development that changed what we had agreed to, fell short. Eso es lechuga para otra ensalada. (That’s a story for another column). Back to the Cuomo trip. As has already been reported, Gov. Cuomo was accompanied by state Sens. Adriano Espaillat and José Peralta, New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez and former Assemblyman Guillermo Linares—who is expected to be elected on Nov. 4 to the same seat he vacated in 2012, and whose daughter, Mayra, the now-convicted Gabriela Rosa beat to succeed him— when the governor met with current Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina and former Presidents Hipólito Mejía and Leonel Fernández. By meeting with these three Dominican political leaders, Cuomo was able to avoid the appearance of
having a preference for the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana [Dominican Liberation Party] (PLD) or the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano [Dominican Revolutionary Party] (PRD). Both Medina and Fernández are members of the PLD—though political insiders inform me that there is some rivalry between the two, and most think that Fernández is running a shadow presidency that undermines Medina. On the other side, Mejía, quite a character in Dominican politics, was elected as the candidate of the PRD, but recently split from the PRD and formed the Partido Revolucionario Moderno [Modern Revolutionary Party] (PRM). Are you still with me? Of even greater political significance is that by meeting with all three presidents, Cuomo demonstrated respect and understanding for the internal politics of the D.R. and acknowledged the views of Dominicans in New York, who overwhelmingly favored the PRD in their homeland’s last elections. Also added to Cuomo’s itinerary was a meeting with the PRD’s current leader and an already declared candidate for president in
2016, Miguel Vargas Maldonado, which demonstrates that Cuomo was getting all the intel he needed to avoid any potential political minefields he could otherwise have found himself walking into during the few hours he spent in Santo Domingo. At the Palacio Nacional, which houses the Dominican Republic’s executive branch, there were conversations in private between the governor and President Medina about trade agreements into which New York State and the Dominican Republic could possibly enter. However, at the press conference afterward, Cuomo made it clear that he would depend on the efforts of the state’s Dominican legislators to lead the fight for these initiatives. In other words, if these electeds want the governor’s overture to spawn results that will benefit Dominicans stateside and back home, they will have to work it. The small press contingent left Santo Domingo aboard the governor’s private plane. Yup, we hitched a ride for the one-hour flight to San Juan. Yes, we did talk with the governor, but it was off the record. The governor’s visit to Puerto Rico
was even shorter than the breakneck Dominican stop. Cuomo met in private for about an hour with Gov. Alejandro García Padilla at La Fortaleza, the P.R.’s equivalent of the Palacio Nacional. Then the two politicos, accompanied by Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., Félix Ortiz and Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo walked the streets of El Viejo San Juan that took them to Hotel El Convento, where the political event was held. There was no pretense in the hall. This was an unequivocal show of support for Cuomo’s re-election by the island’s governor and the local Democratic Party. These political trips can be unpredictable. This could’ve turned out to be a stinker for Gov. Cuomo. Instead, he received embraces from the elected officials of two of the most politically active Latino communities in New York State. Still, it remains to be seen if those abrazos in the D.R. and P.R. will translate to votes on el cuatro de noviembre.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared in City & State on Oct. 24.
The Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats of Manhattan (GLID) along with Manhattan’s Esteemed LGBT elected officials: Assembly Member Deborah Glick
Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell State Senator Brad Hoylman
NYC Council Member Rosie Méndez
NYC Council Member Corey Johnson
city & state — November 5, 2014
Announce our unified support in the effort to pass Marriage Equality in Puerto Rico. In recognition of NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s recent call for action in City & State Magazine, we pledge our allegiance to this cause and ask for our allies across New York State to do the same. We also congratulate Council Member Rosie Méndez on organizing an unprecedented panel discussion on Marriage Equality at SOMOS - which will be held on Saturday September 8th at 2:00pm at the Condado Plaza Hilton.
The Empire State Pride Agenda salutes Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito for taking a stand against Puerto Rico’s ban on marriage equality and her long record of support for the LGBT community. Necesitamos igualdad para todos.
We applaud Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, Puerto Rican LGBT civil rights attorney Ada Cónde Vidal, and Lambda Legal for defending our right to marriage equality in Puerto Rico, in front of the United States District Court in Puerto Rico and appealing to the First Circuit Court in Boston. We wish the plaintiffs the best of luck in moving the great Commonwealth of Puerto Rico pa’lante!
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THE ROAD TO SOMOS / EL C A MINO A SOMOS
FOR UPSTATE LATINOS, ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL. FOR NOW.
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he story comes out with a chuckle. “I remember when a Latino elected official from upstate was offered help from a powerful downstate Latino politician,” says Michael Fondacaro. “The response was, ‘Yeah, I appreciate it, but no thanks. Wouldn’t do me any good to stand next to a New York City Democrat.’ ” Fondacaro is editor of Noticias y Notas, a weekly newsletter for the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities of upstate New York and New England outside of Boston. He’s been tracking the growth of Latino political power in upstate New York for over a decade, assisting the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, or NALEO, with data. He scours between 600 and 2,000 websites every few months looking for newly elected officials who may have Latino heritage. He then sends the raw data to NALEO, which confirms the data or not. Some of his findings are unexpected. While only 42 people of Latino heritage are serving as elected officials in upstate New York—for the purposes of this article, “upstate”
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Republican Assemblyman Peter Lopez is the only Latino members of the Legislature from upstate. includes counties north of New York City except Putnam, Rockland and Westchester—geographically they cover the gamut from urban counties (Erie, Onondaga, Monroe) to suburban ones (Tomkins, Broome, Oswego), and even rural counties (Alleghany, Chautauqua and Clinton). “It’s just like Tip O’Neill said,”
says Fondacaro. “You’re out there in the community, and people know you, and people obviously like you.” He begins rattling off names, offices and towns like a kid in baseball fantasy camp. “Jessica Zambrano, she is the town supervisor in Cicero. Look at the Village of Brockport. Connie
Castaneda was the second Latina elected mayor or head of municipality. The first was Celia Vázquez, who was elected mayor of the Village of Hancock in Delaware County. At one point there were three Latino elected officials in Delaware County,” says Fondacaro excitedly. Still, despite these examples, the political power held by Latinos does not reflect their growing numbers across the state. According to José Cruz, associate professor in the political science department at University of Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and director of the Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (CELAC), the basic explanation for the mismatch between population growth and power has to do with location. “It’s just too dispersed,” he explains. “You know, we’re growing, but we’re still a small minority of the upstate population.” Fondacaro prefers to see the glass as half-full. “It’s just a matter of time until political power catches up,” he says. In an academic paper titled “How the Other Third Lives: A Focus on
city & state — No ve m b e r 5, 2014
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SUSAN ARBETTER
city & state — No ve m b e r 5, 2014
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Upstate New York,” researchers from the Lewis Mumford Center at the University at Albany used data from the 2010 U.S. Census to break down demographics throughout upstate New York. What they found was that the growth of the Hispanic population in upstate cities has been more dramatic than the national average. In one case, the four counties that make up the Capital Region, the growth was 80 percent greater than the nation as a whole. Here are some key stats: • New York State is 58.3 percent white and 17.6 percent Hispanic. • 11 percent of Hispanics now live upstate. • Between 2000 and 2010, every market in upstate New York has seen growth in the Hispanic population, with one exception, the Malone micropolitan statistical area, which borders Canada. While the greatest numbers of Latinos live in upstate New York’s largest cities, they make up the largest percentage of the minority population in medium and small cities including Amsterdam (26.2 percent), Jamestown (8.8 percent) and Watertown (5.6 percent). So the numbers are there, but parity in representation is not. “And ideally,” says Cruz, “there ought to be parity.” But even in places of unusually strenuous growth like Albany, that’s hard to come by. “In areas like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, there are Hispanic neighborhoods within those cities,” says Fondacaro. “The Latino community in Albany is more spread out. But we will eventually see a Latino member on the Common Council. It just has to happen.” Cruz thinks one reason for the lack of parity is that there is only one elected state legislator of Latino descent in upstate New York: Assemblyman Pete Lopez, a Republican. “So,” Cruz asks, “what kind of political relationships are we going to build between Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse?”
UPSTATE/DOWNSTATE DIVIDE
P
olitical power can grow exponentially when the right alliances are forged. But
connecting the downstate Latino power base with the diffuse upstate one has been difficult. “The issues are different, and there is no incentive for downstate Latinos to reach out because of the nature of our representative system, which is geographically based,” says Cruz. “What’s the incentive that someone from Rochester or Syracuse has to form an alliance with someone like, I don’t know, José Serrano, on questions of education, housing? The incentives are not necessarily there.” Assemblyman Pete Lopez (R-Schoharie), who represents a rural swath of eastern New York to the west and south of Albany, agrees. Lopez explains that downstate Latinos are more liberal than he is, and that upstate is a good fit for his more conservative brand of politics. “There I was with family in inner city Bridgeport, in the 1980s. We were at a family barbecue. And to be honest, the conversation was markedly conservative,” remembers Lopez. “We focused on family values, on the dignity of work, we focused on the importance of being self-sufficient. So in that culture, in the culture that I’ve been raised in, my father’s culture, the whole premise is conservative by nature.” While Lopez is supportive of immigration reform, including fast-tracking citizenship, he is not a supporter of the DREAM Act, which would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded tuition assistance. “We want people to be citizens,” says Lopez. “We are not interested in fostering a culture of individuals who remain in the shadows, or who are treated like second-class citizens.” To Lopez, the issue is personal. “My daughter is in the Air Force. Airman Lopez is defending the country. And yet Airman Lopez is in massive debt because she didn’t have all the resources available and had to take out loans for her educational studies. So one would beg the question, what about the dream of Stephanie Lopez, airman in the U.S. Air Force, U.S. citizen?” On this issue, Lopez is not in sync with the majority of other elected Latinos in New York, but he likely echoes the sentiments of his district: In June, Siena asked voters if they
supported the DREAM Act. Thirtyseven percent of New York City residents said they strongly agreed on the issue with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is for the bill. Only 11 percent of upstate residents did. While the Latino community isn’t homogenous and the growth of the Latino community in upstate New York hasn’t been uniform, Fondacaro says there have been several attempts by the downstate power base to reach out. “The late great [state Sen.] Olga Méndez would come upstate to campaign. [New York State Labor Commissioner] Peter Rivera also has an interest in upstate outreach. [Assemblyman] Félix Ortiz also has an interest,” recalls Fondacaro. “It’s to their credit that they’ve done that. It’s an acknowledgement that the community is growing.” While it may not benefit him politically, Assemblyman Lopez says he enjoys connecting with downstate Latino elected officials, even though most are Democrats. “When it comes to Latinos in government, it also has been for me a way to break down barriers between upstate and downstate. When they come from downstate, and they meet ‘Assemblyman Lopez,’ there’s an instant bond there,” says Lopez. “What I really enjoy about it is that it allows me to have conversations about things that matter without the tension. The upstate-downstate tension drops away. And we’re hugging each other and talking about family and focusing on common values.”
CITIZENSHIP IS KEY
T
here is one issue that binds the Latino population throughout the state, both north and south of the Tappan Zee. “Citizenship is crucial,” explains Professor Cruz, “because [the lack of it] really depresses the electoral power of Latinos, substantially.” But in order to increase the franchise and incorporate more Latino and non-citizen immigrants into a pool of voters, he says, the initiative would have to come from the top, meaning the governor’s office. “If there was a more systemic and determined leadership
exercising that area, I think that would produce a difference. But I don’t think that’s a priority for the governor right now.” It’s also not a priority for the majority of upstate New Yorkers. “In the past, Eliot Spitzer tried to do something about that. He wanted to give undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses. Seventy percent of New Yorkers were against that,” remembers Cruz. “Now municipal ID cards in New York—that has, surprisingly, become viable. Again, that’s just in the city where a constituency is greater, and the terms around which this initiative has developed have been pretty much acceptable to a majority of people. But I don’t think the same thing would resonate as well [upstate], where sentiment toward immigrants is different.” Asked what he meant by different, Cruz explained, “There is a great deal less sympathy [for undocumented immigrants] outside the large concentrations.” Additionally, says Cruz, both nationally and internationally there is a growing wave of especially strong anti-immigrant sentiment. “We [the United States] are not really the exception to that pattern. We are seeing that happening in a lot of places throughout the world,” says Cruz, referring to news out of Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. “But of all nations,” he stresses, “we should have the least unsympathetic attitude toward immigrants.” While there may be resistance to the rise of Latino power, as the community’s numbers continue to swell, its priorities will have to be embraced by white officials if they are to get re-elected … or not. “It’s just a matter of time,” Fondacaro emphasizes once again. History and demographics suggest he is absolutamente correcto.
Susan Arbetter (@sarbetter on Twitter) is the Emmy award-winning news director for WCNY Syracuse PBS/NPR, and producer/host of the Capitol Pressroom syndicated radio program.
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HOW WE GOT HERE
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO SOMOS
city & state — November 5, 2014
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W
hile not exactly the road to Damascus, the Road to SOMOS hasn’t been the yellow brick road, either. Since the early part of the 1980s, Puerto Rican politicians—who were, from 1937 until 1997, the only Latinos elected to the New York State Legislature—have been traveling steadily down this rocky path originating in Albany and its high cliffs of dysfunction. Throughout their years in government, what Puerto Ricans have aimed to do is carve out of a space for themselves in the center of power in the Empire State, joined more recently by other Latinos. Achieving that end, they thought, would finally win them acknowledgement of their ever-growing political poder. This quest has been a constant challenge, equaled in difficulty only by their simultaneous pursuit of respeto, parity and inclusion within their adopted Democratic Party. By the early 1980s, New York Puerto Rican lawmakers no longer found it satisfactory just to be the elected representatives of their downstate districts. The seven state legislators then in office—Angelo
(from l to r) Dennis Rivera, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Nydia Velázquez, seen here with Robert Kennedy Jr. (second from right) at a July 2001 Vieques protest, are all influential figures in the history of SOMOS.
Del Toro (D-East Harlem), Héctor Díaz, José Rivera, José Serrano, (all Democrats from the Bronx) and Victor Robles (D-Brooklyn) in the Assembly, and Olga Méndez (D-East Harlem) and Israel Ruiz (D-Bronx) in the state Senate—were determined to convince their colegas in the Capitol and the power brokers within their own party that they were more than just tokens, beggars and annoying stepchildren in the state’s political system. Every one of them was, after all, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, representing not only his or her constituents and their personal ambitions but also the future of Latinos in New York. Yet not everyone took these Latinos seriously back then. (Some would argue that even today they aren’t given equal respect.) And why should they have? Though dynamic free-thinking leaders within their own communities, on a statewide level for the most part these electeds were unwaveringly loyal Democrats who most of the time placidly went along without expecting or getting much in the way of rewards. They traditionally waited their turn, despite the fact that their party’s largely unappreciative cit yandstateny.com
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city & state — November 04, 2014
ALBANY
hierarchy excludes them from leadership positions in the New York State Democratic Committee. During that time, however, even as most state officials brushed off the rise of Latino power as insignificant, there was a willingness among some savvier
State Sen. Olga Méndez
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political leaders to at least listen to the clamor of these budding discontents. People like then–Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink and, to a lesser degree, Gov. Mario Cuomo, indicated that they took the Puerto Rican lawmakers somewhat seriously. According to a source from the first Cuomo era in Albany—who spoke on background, as all Cuomo insiders, past and present, seem to do most of the time— Fink in particular helped advance the lot of Latino electeds in New York State. “Fink never gets the credit for listening to what Puerto Ricans wanted and moving toward meeting those needs,” the source said. As much recognition as the late Speaker may deserve in this regard, his embrace of Latinos did not translate into concrete action. And it would be a mistake to romanticize Señor Fink as a magnanimous leader selflessly giving Puerto Ricans their due at long last. A shrewd politician, he recognized that Puerto Ricans were increasing in number— between 1970 and 1990 New York’s Hispanic population would grow by approximately one million people— and began paying attention to them. One need only read Fink’s March 6, 1997, New York Times obituary to get
a sense of how the Speaker operated: “Hard-edged, determined and brash, with the gruff intonations of Brooklyn deeply imbedded in his voice, Mr. Fink managed during his seven-year term as Speaker in the early 1980s to turn the maverick members of the Democratic Assembly’s majority into a unified political force that leaders in both parties must reckon with to this day.” (In an echo of 21st century Albany, the obit further stated, “Mr. Fink also forged a powerful alliance with the Republicans who controlled the Senate, repeatedly leading the Legislature to block the policy initiatives of two governors in favor of its own agenda.” Shocking!) Despite his prescience, Fink didn’t have much time to do a lot about it; he declined to seek re-election in 1986. Fortunately, his successor, Mel Miller, who also hailed from Brooklyn, had the foresight to build on the relationship Fink had begun to cultivate. It was Speaker Miller who would become the first statewide leader to fully engage in a dialogue with some of the aforementioned Puerto Rican elected officials of the era and eventually begin to make space on the political stage for them and their priorities. A recollection of how exactly this happened can be found in the pages proceeding this article, in an exclusive op-ed for City & State written by then–legislative staffer and Albany insider Howard Jordan, who is now a professor at Hostos Community College. As Jordan remembers, “Speaker Mel Miller was clearly receptive to the idea. For years he had heard Puerto Rican legislators privately complain about the underrepresentation of Latinos among elected officials, in state government jobs and within the circles of power. ‘If we work together, this is one way we can help the Puerto Rican community,’ Miller remarked. Within a year, one of the largest Latino legislative caucuses in the country was born.” The official history of these early days from SOMOS New York’s website fills out Jordan’s account: “Before the 1987 legislative session closed, [the trailblazing Puerto Rican legislators’] arduous work along with their passion, professional and personal commitment to the Hispanic community resulted in the creation of the New York State
Assembly and Senate Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Task Force. It was created and distinguished from the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus, for its intent was that it would be agenda-driven (of course [its] agenda was a Hispanic agenda for New York State). Thus, membership was not limited to Latino elected officials but was determined by the demographics of the respective districts. If 20% or more of the constituents of an Assembly or Senate district are Hispanic, the Assembly person or Senator are automatically eligible to be a member of the Task Force. The New York State Assembly allocated $1 million to the Task Force, and by 1988 the first Somos Uno annual weekend conference was held in Albany, New York. The following year the conference name was changed to Somos El Futuro, and since 2008 it has been simply SOMOS.” The first chair of the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Task Force was Angelo Del Toro. He was followed by, in order, Héctor Díaz, Roberto Ramírez, Peter Rivera, Carmen Arroyo and Félix Ortiz, the current chairman. Some of those chairs have been somewhat successful, though the majority of them have been plagued by the poor or non-existent documentation of each conference’s takeaways or the lack of a follow-up agenda for legislation change, bills to be introduced or a strategic plan for expanding the Task Force and SOMOS’s reach.
The island’s governor had already ignored the will of the people in Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary on March 20, 1988. In that primary, which was derided as a “beauty contest,” Jackson beat Dukakis 32 percent to 26 percent. Despite this outcome, Dukakis was awarded the island’s 54 delegates, who were selected the same day as the popular vote in a separate contest that pit the slate backed by Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood party, the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), against the governor’s ruling party, the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD). Hernández Colón’s slate won. At the time Jackson was asked about the shenanigans in Puerto Rico, and this is what he responded: “Suffice it to say that it is radically inconsistent in a democracy for the people to go in one direction and the delegates to go in another direction. … For the popular vote to go in one direction and delegates to go in another direction is instructive about the political climate in the country.” When shortly thereafter Hernández Colón came to New York in an effort to deliver the vote of the diaspora to Dukakis too, the reaction from the Empire State’s Puerto Rican elected officials was swift and unmistakable. The lawmakers were not subtle in condemning what they deemed to be a disrespectful intrusion
THE ROAD TO SAN JUAN In 1988, just as New York’s Puerto Rican elected officials were struggling to assert their clout, they were stunned by the decision of then– Puerto Rico Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón to endorse Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis for president. The reaction from the Puerto Rican members of the Legislature, along with New York City Councilmen Fernando Ferrer, Roberto Rodríguez, Luis Olmedo and Rafael Castañeira Colón, who had all united to endorse the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was vociferous. The criticism of the Puerto Rican governor for meddling in New York’s presidential primary without any local consultation rumbled all the way to La Fortaleza, the official residence of the governors of Puerto Rico in El Viejo San Juan.
Puerto Rico Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón
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and to Hernández Colón’s credit, once the public pushback exploded, he immediately sought the counsel of Velázquez, his point person in the Big Mango. As confirmed by another person who was in the room when the call from Hernández Colón came in to the Migration Division’s office at 23rd Street and Park Ave South, it was Velázquez’s suggestion to the governor that he invite all of the state’s Puerto Rican elected officials back to the island as a way to begin to calm the stormy waters and make amends. These behind-the-scenes negotiations and the resultant trip, which other, non–Puerto Rican New York políticos wound up joining, are what led to the annual SOMOS fall conference in San Juan. It was not a mere junket put together by the Puerto Rican clan in Albany. The entire tab for that first trip was picked up by the government of Puerto Rico. There was a formal dinner at La Fortaleza, and Velázquez now says, “It helped [Hernández Colón] understand that pandering wasn’t the way to deal with us here in New York City.” Since then, the SOMOS fall conference has been held in Puerto Rico every year—except for 2012, when all of New York’s downstate elected officials needed to help their districts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Thus, though initially a cause of great friction, the dispute between Hernández Colón and the Big Mango’s Puerto Rican electeds ultimately brought about a strengthening of the relationship between the political leaders of the diaspora in New York and those on the island—and for a time, a newfound respect for the importance of stateside Puerto Ricans in the island’s political process. While this special relationship has had its up and downs since, the initial SOMOS conference illustrated the great potential in Puerto Ricans on both the island and mainland banding together in common cause. Now, all these years later, with both communities grappling with economic crisis and a host of other shared concerns, the importance of renewing this relationship is greater than ever—and the possibilities that could result from doing so are all the more plentiful and expansive. So if you happen to see former Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón while attending this year’s SOMOS fall conference, you might want to say: ¡Gracias, Gobernador!
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into their affairs by the head of their homeland’s government. Another person incensed by the governor’s intervention was a young and emerging puertorriqueño labor organizer from Aibonito by the name of Dennis Rivera. Back then Rivera, who since 1977 had made New York his home, was devoting all his time to the Jackson for President campaign. I still remember well how hard Dennis worked for Jackson and how influential he was in getting his fellow compatriotas to back the reverend, despite their not having supported his presidential bid just four years earlier. To date, the Jackson campaign marked the only occasion that every Puerto Rican elected official in New York State coalesced behind and endorsed the same candidate for any position in any election. That distinction includes Hermán Badillo, the first Puerto Rican to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, who ran serious campaigns for New York City mayor in the Democratic primaries of 1973 and 1977, to mention just two of the times he sought the job; and Fernando Ferrer, the Democratic Party’s 2005 nominee for mayor against Michael Bloomberg, the incumbent. That fact speaks volumes about Jesse Jackson’s relationship with Puerto Ricans in 1988. Back to the chaos. The angry Puerto Rican políticos were not the only ones who were livid at Gov. Hernández Colón. “I wanted to resign,” Nydia Velázquez, now a congresswoman, recently told City & State, recalling that tense and embarrassing episode. At the time, Velázquez was the director of the Migration Division of the Department of Labor of Puerto Rico, a position based in Manhattan. (She had had already served nine months in the New York City Council, by this point, having been appointed to finish the term of Luis Olmedo, who had been convicted of corruption charges.) The following year, 1989, this post became the Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the United States, a cabinet-level department in Puerto Rico, and Velázquez became its first secretary. Most observers believe that Hernández Colón had not set out to antagonize the stateside Puerto Rican elected officials when he endorsed Dukakis for president in April of 1988 over Jackson, Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee and Paul Simon of Illinois—
A DREAM DEFERRED
SOMOS EL FUTURO AND THE FORGOTTEN PROMISE OF LATINO EMPOWERMENT
HOWARD JORDAN
city & state — November 5, 2014
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F
or Puerto Ricans in the white marble halls of Albany, our time had finally come. There I sat in New York State Assembly Speaker Mel Miller’s office at 270 Broadway on a chilly afternoon in March 1987. I was among a group of Puerto Rican legislators discussing the SOMOS Uno (We Are One) conference. This was to be a statewide gathering of Puerto Ricans and Latinos that would finally put our community on the map. For years, the Latino community had been referred to by the mainstream media as “a sleeping giant,” only to be largely ignored and cast aside. This group of pioneering Assembly members—Angelo Del Toro (who died in December 1994), Héctor Díaz, José E. Serrano, along with me (representing Bronx Assemblyman José Rivera)—were discussing with Speaker Miller and his communications director, Eric Schneiderman, details of the formulation and organization of what would emerge as the premier annual expression of Latino influence in New York State: the SOMOS El Futuro conference. Speaker Mel Miller was clearly receptive to the idea. For years, he had heard Puerto Rican legislators privately complain about the underrepresentation of Latinos among
elected officials, in state government jobs and within the circles of power. “If we work together, this is one way we can help the Puerto Rican community,” Miller remarked. Within a year, one of the largest Latino legislative caucuses in the country was born. As time has passed, the origins and motivations for the conference have been recast from those of the wellintentioned Assembly members who came together on that day to, at times, deceit, manipulation and political intrigue. One interpretation is that SOMOS was a deliberate strategy by Albany power brokers to weaken the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus (BPRLC), now called the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, by splintering the Puerto Ricans from this organization that was rapidly becoming more “militant” in its approach to challenging then-Gov. Mario Cuomo and the Albany power elite. Truth be told, BPRLC was never the “militant” group that revisionists have invented. It was, in fact, in many respects just as conformist in its approach as what later became the SOMOS El Futuro group. The expansion of SOMOS El Futuro beyond its genesis in New York State to Puerto Rico has largely been attributed to political friction that emerged in 1988 as a result of Puerto Rico Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón’s decision to endorse Michael Dukakis in the Democratic primary for president, whereas New York City’s Puerto Rican legislators supported Rev. Jesse Jackson. Gov. Colón sought to repair this fissure with the stateside Puerto Rican community, making nice by offering to sponsor the conference on the island and cover its initial expenses. Regardless of whether you believe this account, the SOMOS El
Futuro Task Force was undoubtedly the brainchild of East Harlem Assemblyman Angelo Del Toro, who was then chair of the New York State Assembly’s Social Services committee, in conjunction with Bronx Assemblyman Héctor Díaz, who provided Del Toro with assistance and support in this endeavor. Del Toro had previously held the chairmanship of the BPRLC because he enjoyed the support of two influential AfricanAmerican legislators: Deputy Speaker Arthur Eve (D-Buffalo), whose father was Dominican, and Assemblyman Al Vann (D-Brooklyn), who was the former chair of the group but who saw backing Del Toro as his opportunity to do “our Latin thing.” East Harlem State Sen. Olga Méndez (who died on July 29, 2009), the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the New York Senate and to a state Legislature anywhere in the United States, had already abandoned the BPRLC because she perceived that Puerto Ricans were being treated as junior partners in these multi-racial legislative caucuses.
Del Toro came up with an innovative idea, which he later explained to me. The BPRLC was composed largely of black and Puerto Rican legislators, with limited white participation. The state’s gerrymandered districts tended to segregate districts in the state between either black/Latino or white majorities, and even if you were a white legislator with a large AfricanAmerican constituency, rarely were you an integral part of the Caucus. But what if, Del Toro envisioned, the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Legislative Task Force—since Latinos are an ethnicity and not a race—would allow white legislators to become exoticized “Latinos”—people of color—a distinction they could not receive from the black caucus? Under Del Toro’s original formulation, if 15 percent or more of the constituents of an Assembly or Senate district were Latino, the Assembly member or senator who represented it was automatically eligible to be a member of the Task Force. Among those who were accepted as an “honorary Latino”
(From left) Former Assemblyman Angelo Del Toro, Harry Jordan, former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Sol Wachtler, former Assembly Speaker Mel Miller and this article’s author, Howard Jordan
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according to this criterion was Italian Assemblyman Vito Lopez of Brooklyn. This conception of a more expansive Puerto Rican/Latino Legislative Task Force worked like a charm, and the first SOMOS conference was a resounding success. It drew thousands of people from across the state, along with Puerto Rican politicos enjoying the support of white and black legislators looking to embrace this growing demographic. But 27 years after its inception, what has happened to this would-be “political juggernaut” that offered so much promise for Latino political empowerment in the state of New York? Intra-group divisions, corporatization and self-interest have at times replaced what began as a purposeful, poignant political agenda and a mass mobilization of Latinos to demand proportionate power in Albany and their rightful piece of the pie from the elite chambers of government. Following its triumphant start, SOMOS emerged as a template for empowering Latino legislators not just in New York State but across the country; however, soon thereafter, in 1989, intra-Latino warfare erupted. Robert Calderin, the first executive director of the SOMOS conference and a member of Assemblyman Díaz’s staff, along with a group of private businessmen of questionable reputations, attempted a coup to wrest control of the conference from Del Toro in order to privatize it and generate a profit from its operation. The ensuing battle nearly destroyed the budding conference. Del Toro held his ground and appealed for intervention from Speaker Miller, who, based on death threats made against Del Toro, offered the assemblyman state police protection and exerted his considerable influence to recognize the Del Toro faction as the only legitimate representative of the SOMOS conference. But the damage was already done. For the rest of the decade, the SOMOS conference was never the same. Interest in the conference diminished, and it devolved into one of the many conferences where baile, botella, y barraja (dancing, drinking and gambling) are the unofficial agenda. Attendance dwindled and, as time has passed, the SOMOS conference has become little more than a post– Election Day political junket. Our nuevo political leaders now seem more comfortable hobnobbing with
Gov. Andrew Cuomo than insisting he pass the financial assistance component of the DREAM Act or immigration reform, or challenging police brutality or mass incarceration in communities of color. They endorse meaningless or trifling actions and activities within the Latino community, giving them the SOMOS El Futuro brand in a form of marketing, while delivering few real resources or results to the people they represent. More troubling is how these Latino politicians hypocritically propose legislation knowing full well they lack the necessary support to turn these proposals into law. Perhaps the most recent expression of this accommodationist posture is the embrace by Latino legislators of Gov. Cuomo on his recent campaign trip to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Kneeling before the political throne of King Cuomo, they bowed their heads in surrender with not even a pretense of opposition to some of the anti-Latino policies preserved and advanced by the increasingly conservative governor. These emissaries of SOMOS El Futuro were so castrated politically that they even permitted Puerto Rico’s governor, Alejandro García-Padilla, to take the liberty of endorsing Cuomo on behalf of all Puerto Ricans in New York State. Talk about the blind leading the blind. The SOMOS legislators in essence have faded into irrelevancy. Straight after his general election victory last year, Mayor de Blasio attended the conference in Puerto Rico pledging his support to the Latino community, all the while ignoring the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation’s protestations that the mayor had inadequate Latino representation within his own administration in City Hall. Many of our Latino legislators, while more prepared academically than their previous counterparts, lack the community connection of their forerunners and are removed from the day-to-day realities of our barrios. Some are second-generation legislators, anointed by political machines that were never linked to the community’s struggles in the first place. The constant complaint heard in our community is that “No tienen corazón” (“They lack heart”). So disenchanted have community folks become with SOMOS El Futuro that when asked whether they will attend this year’s conference, some jokingly remark, “No, thank you. I don’t drink.” Others say SOMOS El Futuro
(We Are the Future) has evolved into “SOMOS Ninguno” (We Are Nobody). This accommodating class of electeds is made up of so many compradors that even a homophobic, pro-life senator like Rubén Díaz Sr. has demonstrated more heart than the rest of his Democratic colleagues. In protest, the controversial Bronx pol chose to break with banana republic politics and endorsed Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Rob Astorino. He thereby openly rejected the subservient politics of his son, Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., who, as co-chair of the 2014 Cuomo re-election team, opted to stay the course of blind allegiance to the Democratic party. In this cavern of darkness a glimmer of hope still exists in the SOMOS youth student programs that prepare young people for leadership positions and train them in the process of good government. But these efforts pale in the broader context of legislators sunbathing in Puerto Rico, dancing salsa, and chanting “Somos leal” (“We are loyal”) in blind allegiance to the Democratic permanent government that controls our state’s capital. One need only hark back to the 2012 conference when the Civil Service Employees Association and major unions were taken aback by the cowardly posture of the Latino legislators and pulled out of the conference, accusing many of the lawmakers of “betrayal” for not supporting their legitimate demands for pension reform. Who came to the rescue and offered to cover the $72,000 conference funding shortfall? Gov. Cuomo and former Mayor Bloomberg—demonstrating once again who are the “white ventriloquists” pulling the strings of these SOMOS legislators. So what happened to the original cast of political leaders I spoke about at the outset of this piece who orchestrated the creation of this Puerto Rican/Latino institution? Mel Miller was removed from office on a federal fraud conviction, which was overturned on appeal. Eric Schneiderman went on to become a state senator and is currently New York State’s attorney general. José E. Serrano was elected in 1990 to represent what is now the 15th Congressional District in the South Bronx, the poorest district in the United States. Twenty-four years later he is still in office. Héctor Díaz went on to become the Bronx County Clerk,
retired, and today is the president of Acacia, a network of Latino-focused health providers with more than $160 million in annual revenues. José Rivera, whom I represented at that historic meeting, is in his second stretch as an assemblyman. At one point he was chair of the state Legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, the president of the Black and Latino Caucus of the New York City Council and chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party, a position he held for six years. When I reflect on that meeting we held in Speaker Miller’s office on that memorable day 27 years ago and the sense of hope that it represented, I cannot help but express my profound disappointment in what SOMOS has become. The potential power that was in the palm of our hands has faded into oblivion and by every yardstick the Latino community is in a serious political and financial crisis. Can SOMOS El Futuro be salvaged and return to its noble beginnings? Does this year’s conference in Puerto Rico offer hope? Change would require the legislators who spearhead SOMOS, like Brooklyn Assemblyman Félix Ortiz, to re-engage the conference in the politics of protest and to adopt an oppositional resistance strategy that challenges the citadels of power, rather than embracing them. Our legislators must become more than they are at current, and zealously take up the defense of the grassroots Latinos stuck at the bottom of New York State’s economic well. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi: Our Latino leadership, if they are devoted to the empowerment of our barrios, must let “the power of love overrule the love of power.” Can this be done? Sí, se puede. Howard Jordan is an educator, attorney, journalist and political activist. He is a tenured professor in the Public Policy and Law Unit of the Behavioral & Social Sciences Department at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx. In the late 1980s and ’90s he served as legislative assistant to former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s Advisory Committee on Hispanic Affairs and later as executive director of the New York State Assembly Task Force on Immigration, a 25-Assembly member commission addressing regional immigration issues. He is also the host of The Jordan Journal, a radio show that airs Fridays from 3–5 p.m. on WBAI 99.5 FM. cit yandstateny.com
THE BEACON OF OPPORTUNITY AND PROGRESS
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ew York is an amalgamation of talent—a single, vibrant community built over generations by cultures, values and ideas from every corner of the globe. This is the foundation of SOMOS El Futuro—the passion, ethic and aspirations of the Hispanic community that is reflected in public service. Throughout the past four years, my administration has been an advocate for these principles, and I am proud of what we have accomplished. Economic growth was job number one when we took office, and today we are incentivizing minority- and women-owned businesses unlike any government in America. Four years ago, the State utilized MWBEs for just 10 percent of all of its contracts. In a state whose population is more than 50 percent women and 35 percent minorities, a 10 percent representation of businesses is nearly a social injustice. In my first year in office, we incentivized MWBE establishment, and increased the State utilization of contracts by 150 percent—to a total of 25 percent of all contracts. The cit yandstateny.com
incentive outperformed even my own expectations: In just three years, the number of certified MWBE businesses increased by more than 2,000 and the percentage of contracts exceeded 25 percent. That’s astounding progress, but it would be foolish for us to be surprised; New York was itself built by the hard work and innovation of immigrants. I also believe that New Yorkers should be appropriately compensated for hard work. For some whose income is tied to the minimum wage, the only way to improve the standard of living and reduce poverty is by raising it. That is why we increased the minimum wage over three years from $7.25 to $9.00 to better align it with the cost of living. Thousands of New Yorkers are better off as a result. But we also have to fight for those with no jobs. No matter the rate, unemployment disproportionately affects inner-city youth and minorities. It’s not just a New York problem, it’s a national problem. That’s why we launched the NY Works program, in order to tackle unemployment at
its core. The concept of NY Works is simple: provide targeted job training for unemployed and disadvantaged youth, who are often living in urban areas, and then offer incentives for businesses to hire them. It’s been a huge success: in the first year of NY Youth Works, 1,270 businesses hired nearly 13,000 at-risk young people. Because it proved itself, we led a $10 million expansion of NY Youth Works to empower even more young people—promoting them to become contributing members of society. In order to be effective, government has to recognize that progress requires momentum. Our team knows that— and because of what we’ve been able to do over the past four years, New York is on the move again. The arrows are pointed in the right direction, but we must continue to do better. That’s why New York should set an example for the nation and move forward with the Dream Act. It’s why my administration is challenging the MWBE community to continue to flourish by increasing the number of required State contracts awarded to
MWBEs to 30 percent—the highest in America. And it’s why I continue to believe that those who need help most should receive not just training, but support and encouragement, all which together play an integral role in giving young people the boost they need to succeed through NY Youth Works. During my visit to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic last month, I had the opportunity to meet some of the warmest people, who truly made me feel at home. These places are still home in the hearts of many New Yorkers and the more we work together, not just as neighbors, but as one community, the more enriched our state will become. New York would not be the place it is—the continued beacon of opportunity and progress—without the contributions of the Hispanic community from across the globe. Let’s continue to embrace this exceptionalism together.
Andrew Cuomo is the 56th governor of New York.
city & state — November 5, 2014
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ANDREW CUOMO
BEYOND THE DREAM ACT
LATINO LEADERS LACK LEGISLATIVE IMAGINATION JUST AT THE MOMENT THEY MUST THINK BIG
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ANGELO FALCÓN
city & state — November 5, 2014
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n light of the extreme discontent with President Obama among Latinos over his latest delay and broken promises in addressing the issue of deportation relief, how New York State approaches immigrant issues from a legislative standpoint has become more important and urgent than ever. It was from that perspective that I tuned in with great interest to WABC-TV’s Tiempo Latino public affairs program last Sunday, which featured as its guests State Sens. José Peralta of Queens and José Serrano, who represents parts of both the Bronx and Manhattan. Together Peralta and Serrano have served over a quarter of a century in elected office and, as prominent Democratic legislators in New York, they struck me as a good barometer to gauge the mood of the Latino political class in regard to Obama’s standing as “Deporter-in-Chief.” In many ways, on the national level the Latino community and immigrant advocates now find themselves at a major crossroads, as they come to terms with the limits of their reform efforts
and grapple with whether there needs to be a fundamental reassessment of their political strategy. Surely Peralta and Serrano, two leaders with the power to help shape this discourse, would have some useful things to say on the subject. However, as the show’s host, Joe Torres, probed them on these issues, it became clear that both senators were clueless. Fully captive to the Democratic Party’s narrow narrative, they made excuses for the president and blamed the Republicans for everything. Asked if Obama’s current problems with Latinos over his deportation policies would put pressure on New York State to act on immigration issues, they didn’t seem to grasp the connection. They also didn’t appear to draw any correlation between the current impasse on immigration reform in Congress and the crisis of unaccompanied children at the border. It was almost as if they had undergone some sort of political lobotomy. As for what they intended to do, the senators focused the conversation on the financial aid portion of the New York DREAM Act, which they expressed confidence the Legislature would finally pass when it returns to session in January. While this portion of the DREAM Act is unquestionably important, the problem with making it the centerpiece of a reform agenda in Albany is that it is too limited and uninspired. Even if it does pass—an outcome the state’s Latino legislators have repeatedly failed to achieve— it would affect a relatively small portion of New York’s undocumented residents and not address the needs of the vast majority of this population, most of whom are in far greater need of financial, legal and other assistance.
As Serrano, Peralta and New York’s other 17 Latino state legislators prepare for the upcoming session and assemble in Puerto Rico in November for the winter SOMOS El Futuro conference of their Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Legislative Task Force, one hopes that they can collectively come up with a legislative agenda that can excite and mobilize the more than 3 million Latinos in the state. New York has the great potential of leading the nation in developing pro-immigrant policies that can help move the needle on the type of reforms needed in our federal system. Now is the time for Latinos and immigrant advocates to raise the ante with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature on immigration reform. Let us not settle for a nap when we can have the full dream. With the governor running for re-election, Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. as his campaign co-chair and Democrats fretting about whether they will control the state Senate, Latino elected officials and community leaders must seize the moment and leverage this confluence of interests to develop an aggressive, comprehensive reform agenda, and pressure the governor and the Democratic Party to embrace it. On the immigration reform issue alone, there is a great need at the state level to go well beyond the DREAM Act. There is, first of all, the intriguing proposal by State Sen. Gustavo Rivera to extend a “state citizenship” status to the undocumented, which would provide eligible non-citizens with a number of significant rights and responsibilities, such as the ability to vote and hold civil office. In addition to Rivera’s bill, there is an urgency for other measures that would:
• Provide immigrants access to driver’s licenses and state IDs • Increase resources for the enforcement of labor standards for low-wage immigrant workers, ESL classes, job training, naturalization services and legal services to the undocumented • Protect immigrant communities by limiting the state’s cooperation with the federal Secure Communities program, which enables local police abuse of immigration enforcement • Enact a farmworkers’ fair labor practices act that would grant collective bargaining rights to farm laborers and provide for an eight-hour workday, along with other basic labor protections • Ensure that the undocumented have access to healthcare to the fullest extent permitted under federal law • Eliminate unnecessary barriers in the way of immigrants receiving professional licenses and certification • Adopt humane approaches to addressing the influx of unaccompanied minors to New York State. Peralta’s and Serrano’s failure to even bring up any of these myriad reform proposals reveals a serious lack of legislative imagination on their parts and exposes a disconnect between themselves and the communities they serve that is, well, frightening. Perhaps somewhere along City & State’s Road to SOMOS they may find some enlightenment. If not, City & State may have to change the name of its series to “The Latino Road to Perdition.”
Angelo Falcón is the president of the National Institute for Latino Policy. cit yandstateny.com
“WE WILL BE HEARD”: SOMOS’ GOALS ARE ACTION-ORIENTED
A REPUBLICAN TALE
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am proud to serve as chair of the New York State Assembly/ Senate Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force. In that capacity, it is my pleasure to again work closely with SOMOS El Futuro on this fall’s conference. Every year, SOMOS hosts major conferences in the spring and fall. This year’s San Juan meeting promises to be our best yet. Elected officials and government leaders, business professionals, labor leaders, academics and activists make the trip from New York to San Juan in November not only to be at one of the year’s premier civic events but because we want to make a positive difference for the Hispanic people and the larger community. By the end of the meeting, we will have formulated policies to help make New York the leader in education, healthcare, housing and jobs and economic growth. After San Juan, we will work hard in Albany and across the state to enact these recommendations into law and to establish them as models for the entire nation. The fall conference also promotes the opportunity to bridge economic and community development among territories by sharing best practices and replicable models, as well as opening doors to market businesses with the potential of expansion and growth. Many different people serve in state and local government, all with the goal to guide public policy. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio were able to work together with the state Legislature to enact universal pre-K in less than one year, with vital help from Hispanic leaders and so many others. Change can happen if we meet the challenge. SOMOS’ goals are very direct and action-oriented: We want to train our youth, create political empowerment,
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develop civic coalitions, shape our education system, advocate for better housing, reform the immigration system, pass the DREAM Act and provide scholarships, internships and apprenticeships. Our fall conference, for the second consecutive year, encourages Puerto Rican students to participate in our internship exchange program. There are 3.4 million Hispanics residing in New York State, and we have a strong message. We are proud professionals who have earned a place at the table, and we will be heard. We are diverse, but we are united. We want a seat in the boardrooms of America, and we will accept nothing less. We want leadership roles in our political parties, and we will accept nothing less. We want our youth to share in the opportunities of education and jobs, and we will accept nothing less. We want our seniors protected and cared for, and we will accept nothing less. We are united in our message and have strength in our voices. I urge my fellow New Yorkers to help us harness our energy and become a part of the process. We will gather information, formulate ideas and policies and move forward our agenda in Albany. We have come a long way, but we must move forward with the challenges ahead. We will be heard. We will accept nothing less. Now that the busy election season has ended, people will turn to SOMOS to begin strategizing for the 2015 legislative session. We want you to join us! Félix Ortiz, a native Puerto Rican, has served in the New York State Assembly since 1995. He is a past chairman of the SOMOS conference and the current chair of the New York State Assembly/Senate Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force.
You may not know who Oscar García Rivera Sr. was—and some Democrats want to keep it that way. It was this native of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico who in 1937 made history by becoming the first puertorriqueño to be elected to public office in the continental United States—as a Republican. That’s right, Oscar García Rivera Sr., a politician, lawyer and activist, was elected as a Republican to represent Manhattan’s East Harlem, a.k.a. El Barrio, as a member of the New York State
Assembly with the support of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Manhattan DA Thomas Dewey, among others. In June 1938, Rivera was refused renomination by the Republican Party, but was re-elected on the American Labor ticket and served in the Assembly through 1940. During Rivera’s term in office, he emphasized issues of child labor, protective laws for workers, labor services, and anti-discrimination legislation. Puertorriqueño y republicano.
23 SHADES OF BLUE
You’ve probably seen thousands of Puerto Rico’s single star flag being proudly waved on Fifth Avenue every June during the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. The flag plays center stage as Puerto Ricans celebrate their culture, heritage, music, artists and history. What most people don’t know is the history of the flag. The Puerto Rican flag was first used on Dec. 22, 1895 by a group of 59 Puerto Ricans, led by Dr. Julio J. Henna, who gathered at “Chimney Corner Hall” in Manhattan to organize a political group affiliated with the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which advocated for the independence of Puerto Rico
and Cuba from Spanish rule. The flag was soon adopted as a national symbol. In 1898 the flag became the mark of resistance to the U.S. invasion, and in the 1930s it was adopted by the Nationalist Party. When Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth of the United States on July 25, 1952, it was officially adopted as the national flag. Despite the flag’s ubiquity, the blue triangle that surrounds the lone white star often varies in its shade and tone, and does not match the lighter sky blue color of the flags flown at La Fortaleza, the official residence of the governor of Puerto Rico, and other governmental buildings on the island.
city & state — No ve m b e r 5, 2014
FÉLIX ORTIZ
OUR ROAD TO EMPOWERMENT
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ
city & state — November 5, 2014
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OMOS El Futuro is a critical platform for legislators to gather, discuss timely issues that impact our community and develop plans for the future. Last year I had the honor of joining a women’s empowerment panel, moderated by Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, along with Mecca Santana, New York State’s chief diversity officer; Julissa Gutierrez, the northeast director of civic engagement at NALEO; and Monika Mantilla, CEO of Altura Capital. The forum allowed these women—all leaders in their own right—to share their life experiences climbing the career ladder. One takeaway from this conversation was that, regardless of the diverse accomplishments of many in the audience and on the panel, Latinas and women of color, including myself, encountered similar social and financial obstacles throughout our lives. All of us found that Latinas are never handed opportunity; we must carve it out for ourselves. This includes not only pursuing our own personal dreams but also lending a hand to others in our community so they may also climb the ladder of opportunity. Whether it is working to lift women and children out of poverty, ending
violence against women, mentoring young women to attend college or helping an entrepreneur finance her small-business dream, women are on the forefront of positive change in the larger Hispanic community. If more Latinas were politically engaged and elected to office, we could shoulder and push an equitable women’s agenda. Wage discrimination between the genders is well documented. Women still earn 77 cents on the dollar to men, while Latinas earn just 55 cents, compared with white male workers. That is why increasing access to higher learning, economic opportunities, quality child care and education for our children is vital. Career and workforce opportunities are essential to improve women’s living standards, the economy and the social fabric of communities. SOMOS is a platform to promote job creation, self-sufficiency and strengthen the economy. SOMOS El Futuro is more than just a state level discussion on Latino
issues; it reconnects boricuas living on the mainland to the issues affecting Puerto Rico residents. With its well educated bilingual population, strategic Caribbean location, and its significance as a gateway to the U.S. and neighboring countries, Puerto Rico has the ingredients to be an important part of the global economy. Yet for decades economic disinvestment hindered the island’s competitive edge. For these reasons, I am encouraged there will be a presentation highlighting the island’s trade hub potential. Another panel will discuss the community and water channel of Caño Martín Peña, a community adjacent to San Juan’s main financial district. This area is home to approximately 25,000 people living in substandard housing conditions whose children are exposed to polluted waters and toxic environmental conditions. SOMOS is the right platform to discuss how to secure resources to execute the
proposed remedial action plan. As the Puerto Rican and Latino population grows, so does its potential to become one of the electorate’s most influential segments. With 28 million Latinos eligible to vote by the time of the 2016 presidential election, Hispanic voters are expected to be instrumental in future national elections. We must use this growing political strength to further empower our communities, create economic opportunity and continue the march toward equality and justice. If you feel the same commitment I do and are driven by the same sense of duty to advance this cause, now is the time to make your voice heard. SOMOS is a powerful platform to express these passions, cultivate new leadership and exchange the ideas that will shape our future. I invite you to join the discussion. Nydia Velázquez represents New York’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Velázquez (center) at the SOMOS panel she participated in last year on women’s empowerment cit yandstateny.com
THE ROAD TO SOMOS / EL C A MINO A SOMOS
A (PARTIAL) BLUEPRINT TO ASSIST LATINO YOUTH IN NEW YORK
he Latinization of New York continues unabated. It is incontrovertible that the future of New York City—and to a large extent all of New York—is Latino. The seminal reports on Latino youth by the Community Service Society in 2010 documented that Latinos are the youngest ethnic group in the city. Nearly 40 percent of Latinos are under the age of 25, and a quarter of them are even younger—under the age of 16. However, two separate obstacles to the advancement of this critical demographic exist by virtue of New York State law. The problems they engender may seem to affect Latino youth with opposing contradictory profiles: those who are at risk of incarceration and those who are gifted and headed to the best high schools of the city. But the reality is that those are blurred lines, less linear and more undulating. In both of these areas New York State is an outlier that blindly pursues practices that have long been discarded in other states. That fact alone should mobilize the Legislature to act. Instead, the future success of Latino youths is compromised by laws and policies that on the one hand exclude their entry into New York City’s most prestigious specialized high schools, and on the other treat 16- and 17-yearolds as adults in criminal courts and in prison facilities. What is needed is the political will to enact true reform. This
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York. Enacted inexplicably with little debate in the 1970s at a time when the demographics of New York City schools were (ironically) turning more black and brown, New York Education Law, Section 2590-h(1)(b) set the stage for five additional schools to be grouped under this provision during the Bloomberg administration. The Legislature can provide true leadership here and stop the marginalization of Latino youth: Amend Section 2590-h(1)(b) to allow for a more comprehensive admission policy and stop this injustice. The path to academic excellence in New York is also fraught with institutional practices from a criminal justice system that already produces racially skewed outcomes. As any Latino raised in New York State knows, selective enforcement by police knows no bounds and ensnares gifted Latino youth as well. For years New York State law has treated 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in criminal prosecutions. It has housed them on Rikers Island with adults to await detention and sentenced them as minors to serve time with adults in state prisons, thus exposing them to prison violence, sexual abuse and higher risk of suicide. Meanwhile, behavioral neuroscience has proven that the human brain continues to develop in terms of maturity and rationality through age 25. The impulsiveness of American youth today is obvious to any parent of a teenager. And it has finally become obvious to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has cited these scientific advancements to justify its findings of unconstitutionality in regard to both the capital punishment and lifewithout-parole sentencing of minors. And yet New York State still insists on excessively sentencing minors and exacerbating the travesty of mass incarceration that is so profoundly damaging to our society. Forty-eight other states have reformed their laws by now; only New York and North Carolina persist in perpetrating this
injustice. Recent figures show close to 50,000 16- and 17-year-olds are arrested each year in the state, three-quarters of them for misdemeanors, and all of them potentially jailed with adults and prosecuted in criminal courts as adults. Latinos are disproportionately ensnared: Over 70 percent of the children arrested are black or Latino; over 80 percent of those incarcerated are black or Latino. “Raise the Age” efforts have been made repeatedly over the last several years, but they all require legislative action. This is where the Legislature must lead decisively. Ensuring an orderly path toward raising the age of criminal liability is necessary, as are corollary proposals to end the current detention of youth in adult facilities, an expansion of family court jurisdiction, and a careful look at the collateral consequences that accompany the misguided criminal policies of today. A true Latino youth agenda would encompass myriad vitally necessary reforms including better schools, summer employment, GED access, suicide prevention, community policing and quality healthcare, among others. However, the simple two-point agenda expressed in this article would go a long way toward bringing New York State up to speed with the more humane, thoughtful policies that virtually every other state has embraced. This year’s SOMOS conference can be a watershed moment in securing a fairer future for Latino youth. Let our lawmakers and elected officials make this two-pronged fight a focal point of their discussion in Puerto Rico, so that when they return to Albany next session they can finally bring this injustice to a swift and definitive end. There is no time to lose. The casualties of our failure to act are our children. Juan Cartagena is president and general counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF.
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city & state — November 5, 2014
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JUAN CARTAGENA
is a challenge that the SOMOS El Futuro conference should address—and do so right now. The city’s coveted specialized high schools (Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science and five others) are so exclusive that they offer admission on the narrow basis of only one test. The student can be tops in his or her middle school; it doesn’t matter. The student could have stellar letters of recommendation, meaningful community service, or have survived unspeakable trauma at home. All irrelevant. Only one’s performance on the day the Specialized High School Admissions Test (“SHSAT”) is administered determines entry. The nation’s top colleges, known worldwide for their excellence, do not operate this way. Not Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Yale or Harvard. The discriminatory results of this practice have been evident for years. Latinos in 2012 were 22 percent of all SHSAT test takers but only received 7 percent of the offers to enroll in the city’s top high schools. AfricanAmericans fared worse, making up 22 percent of applicants yet getting only 5 percent of the offers. The test has no cutoff score for admission, has never been validated for its predictive value and flies in the face of the best thinking of psychometrics. Equally important, the policy runs counter to the best admissions policies in higher education that promote affirmative action. And yet it is still defended by the elite schools and many of their alumni, even Latino and black alumni. This marginalization of gifted Latino youth is now the subject of a Title VI discrimination claim being litigated by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and others. Unknown to many New Yorkers, however, is that the discriminatory reliance on the exclusive SHSAT test law for the three original elite public high schools is enshrined in New
MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO
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OMOS El Futuro holds different meanings for many in government and politics. For some, it’s an opportunity to visit the beautiful island of Puerto Rico and learn more about the vibrant culture of New York’s largest Latino population. For others, the conferences and panel discussions offer an in-depth look at some of the issues at the forefront of debate in our country. For me, SOMOS is all these things and more— it’s personal, especially after the recent court decision to continue to ban marriage equality on the island. The battle for marriage equality is one that SOMOS attendees know very well. It was just a few short years ago that we fought for and won marriage equality for New Yorkers under the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. I was proud to stand with the governor and other advocates because marriage equality is a fundamental human right to which all New Yorkers should be entitled. No one should be denied the right to marry who they love because of who they are or where they live. Sadly, if you live in Puerto Rico, you don’t have the same right to marry. This is why a few months ago I flew to the island to officiate a same-sex wedding. It was my hope that by performing the wedding ceremony we could help spark important discussions and debate around marriage equality in Puerto Rico. While one wedding ceremony is just a simple act, the message was loud and clear among those who attended: It’s long past time to bring marriage equality to Puerto Rico. That is why the recent decision made in federal district court was
so disappointing. Last week, U.S. District Judge Juan Pérez-Giménez dismissed a challenge to Puerto Rico’s gay marriage ban. He did this on the basis of legal points that federal courts have repeatedly rejected during the last 16 months. Indeed, this news shows that despite all the advances of freedom and equality we’ve made in New York and across the country, they can still be taken away in an instant. The road to equality in New York was long and difficult, and yet through unwavering advocacy, organizing and activism, justice finally prevailed for our LGBTQ community. As Puerto Rico mobilizes to continue the struggle, SOMOS can serve as a powerful forum to mobilize New Yorkers to help in the fight. From la Gran Manzana to la Isla del Encanto, boricuas and LGBTQ activists remain undeterred. For years we have together fought to raise awareness of horrible hate crimes against our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Puerto Rico Para Tod@s and Lambda Legal, organizations I have long supported, will appeal Pérez-Giménez’s decision. This struggle is civil, human and right. It is also a tradition, as much as some people perceive otherwise. Many Puerto Ricans, who historically know what it is like to be treated as second-class citizens, understand that segmenting our community into tiers of mistreatment is wrong. This is why institutions like the National Puerto Rican Day Parade have long embraced our LGBTQ familia while organizations such as the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater have provoked dialogues not simply around tolerance but equality. New York and Puerto Rico share a common and unique bond. Historically, we as Puerto Ricans in the diaspora have faced challenges in how we can use our ties to New York City and the mainland to build up our communities and fight for our shared causes. The fight for marriage equality in Puerto Rico is also a fight for New Yorkers. We should take this fight up next month at SOMOS.
FLYING HIGH Two years ago, high-wire walker Nik Wallenda (left) captivated New York and the rest of the nation by becoming the first man to walk over the Niagara Gorge in 116 years, but perhaps his most personal feat of derring-do involves the San Juan Condado Plaza Hotel, where this year’s SOMOS conference is taking place. Wallenda’s great-grandfather, Karl, the patriarch of the famous daredevil family, fell to his death in 1978 at the age of 73, attempting to cross from one of the hotel’s ten-story towers to the other without a safety net, an accident the Flying Wallendas attribute to improper wiring support. To honor his greatgrandfather, the “biggest inspiration behind everything I do,” Nik and his mother, Delilah, recreated their relative’s walk in June 2011—they took off from opposite towers and met in the middle—successfully bringing some closure to an event of great emotional significance to their family.
NATURAL SYMPHONY If you take a stroll out at night in Puerto Rico, you are almost certain to hear the soothing, rhythmic call of the coquí— the common name for several species of small frogs endemic to the island. So ubiquitous is the coquí that it has become a symbol of Puerto Rico itself, and puertorriqueños sometimes express the strength of their connection to the island by saying, “Soy de aquí como el coquí” (“I’m as Puerto Rican as a
coquí”). Attending the island’s premier, world-renowned music extravaganza, the Pablo Casals Festival, the late, great Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera pointed out that the two-note serenade of the onomatopoeticallynamed coquí—it’s call makes the sound “co – kee!”—forms a perfect seventh musical interval. Remarked Ginastera, “It is the only natural song that I know of.”
Melissa Mark-Viverito is the Speaker of the New York City Council. cit yandstateny.com
EXTRAS
MARRIAGE EQUALITY MUST BE A FOCUS OF SOMOS
Somos el Futuro would like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s fall conference to benefit the Hispanic Leadership Institute and the Hogar San José de la Montaña. Your continued support of the Hispanic community of New York state makes this event a success every year. In particular, we would like to thank Time Warner Cable, Herbalife, Anheuser-Busch, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the Uniformed EMT’s, Paramedics, & Inspectors of FDNY, the Puerto Rican Senate, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, FedEx, AT&T, DaVita, the New York City LCLAA, Altria Client Services, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, Walison Corp., the New York Immigration Coalition, Sunovion, the Coca-Cola Company, the New York Yankees, Wal-Mart, Airbnb, Cablevision, CMSW, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Get Out the Vote, and Ecowords for sponsoring this event. www.somosnewyork.org
CULTURE, CONVERSATION AND CAMARADERIE: THE CHARMS OF SOMOS 28
RUBÉN DÍAZ JR.
city & state — November 5, 2014
E
ach year we come together after the general election to participate in the “SOMOS El Futuro” conference. We come together not merely as Latinos but as elected officials and community and business leaders from all walks of life, to discuss the future of our city, our state and our nation. I have grown up with SOMOS El Futuro, having attended this gathering since I was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 1997, right through to my time as Bronx Borough president and continuing to this year. This conference is more than a getaway. It is a chance for us to convene not just for the purpose of recognizing our shared Latino heritage but to discuss our vision for the future of this city and this state. I have always enjoyed sharing the company of Latinos from all over New York State at SOMOS El Futuro. One may not typically think of places
like Syracuse, Dunkirk, Hempstead or Elmont as growing Latino communities, but they are. Through my years in attendance, SOMOS El Futuro has given us a chance to meet, swap stories and build relationships we otherwise might be unable to, and that bonding remains one of my favorite parts of this conference. SOMOS El Futuro also gives myself and other elected officials a chance to show off the progress and successes of our districts and communities. This is especially important to me as the leader of the New York State county with the largest percentage of Latino population. We have a great story to tell. We have seen considerable development in the Bronx since I first took office in 2009. We have helped to develop $600 million in housing and to create more than 14,000 new jobs. Such numbers were unheard of in our borough, even just a decade ago. That is the promise of the “New Bronx.” Indeed, we have seen considerable white-collar development come to the Bronx, as well, and we welcome it. The Hutchinson Metro Center, our borough’s premiere office space, continues to expand. The healthcare industry, which employs so many doctors and executives, nurses and technicians, remains our borough’s largest employer. Hospitals and healthcare facilities in our borough are expanding, not closing. We have been incredibly aggressive
in our efforts to find people work. In August my office, in partnership with the State Department of Labor and the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC), announced a new jobs initiative, New York Works, which connects Bronx job seekers directly with local employers looking to hire. Already this initiative has paired dozens of Bronxites with available jobs, and has shown itself to be a real success in just a short period of time. Initiatives such as this should be examined for expansion to other counties, and SOMOS El Futuro is a great place to start that conversation. As we discuss our agenda and our shared heritage, we will also celebrate
our culture. When I was in the state Legislature, I hosted some of the best concerts SOMOS El Futuro has ever seen. This included a “hip-hop meets salsa” concert, which used different style of music to bridge the gap between generations. This conference has been an important event since it was founded, and remains so today. From substantive conversation to salsa concerts, SOMOS El Futuro is one of the pre-eminent gatherings of thought leaders in the nation, and I am proud to lend my voice to the conversation. Rubén Díaz Jr. is the borough president of the Bronx.
Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. (right) at a past SOMOS conference with former Democratic District Leader Kenny Agosto in 2010 cit yandstateny.com
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014 LOCATION: New York Institute of Technology Auditorium on Broadway
BRIEF:
City & State convenes leaders in State and City government to discuss the tech trajectory of New York City.
THEMES
• Tech Town: How is New York City using technology and data for large scale projects such as Universal Pre-K, Municipal Identification, and large public construction projects managed by city entities and agencies? • Wired NYC: How is Mayor de Blasio and his administration working to enhance access to high speed internet across the five boroughs? • Tech in Education: How is New York ensuring technology literacy of students? How can New York make better use of technology solutions to improve how we teach and learn?
AGENDA
8:00am Registration and Breakfast 9:00am Opening Remarks by City & State and Co-Hosting Sponsor Representative 9:30am City & State interviews Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer 9:45am City & State moderates a panel of leaders in government and business on the most pressing issues facing NYC’s tech community.
INVITED PANELISTS: Rachel Haot, Chief Digital Officer, New York State Minerva Tantoco, Chief Technology Officer, New York City* Anne Roest, Commissioner, NYC Department of information Technology & Telecommunications* More Panelists TBA * Confirmation Pending For more information on programming and sponsorship contact Jasmin Freeman at 646.442.1662 or Jfreeman@CityandStateNY.com
events.CityandStateNY.com
THE TASTING MENU
THE QUICK LUNCH
MARMALADE
EL JIBARITO
Though this Old San Juan restaurant receives many accolades for its haute cuisine, it doesn’t mean chef Peter Schintler doesn’t have fun with the menu. Opt for one of their prix-fix options to sample sushi paella, popcorn shrimp (grilled shrimp with ancho-chili spiced popcorn, pictured) and truffled tiny white bean soup. The lighthearted vibe continues with the “global warming” cocktail: a giant Earth-shaped ice cube infused with chili that slowly melts into a Corralejo Reposada Margarita, raising the heat bit by bit. — 317 Calle Fortaleza 787-724-3969 marmaladepr.com (Credit: courtesy Marmalade)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT A RUNDOWN OF SOME OF SAN JUAN’S BEST RESTAURANTS BY BON APPÉTIT MAGAZINE
THE SHOT-AND-A-BEER DIVE
city & state — November 5, 2014
LA TABERNA DE LÚPULO
This is a beer geek’s dive. With 200 beers on tap and in bottles (including the local brew Medella, naturally), bartenders who know their hops from their malts, and a chill crowd, this low-lit spot is a must for anyone craving a dive atmosphere with something more than just Budweiser. — 151 Calle San Sebastian 787-721-3772 (Credit: facebook.com/tabernalupulo)
THE LEISURELY BREAKFAST
PATIO DEL NISPERO
THE MIDNIGHT SNACK
EL CHURRY
Open well past midnight on most nights, the mobile El Churry satisfies with meaty sandwiches, wraps, hamburgers, quesadillas, soups, salads and frozen yogurt. Can’t decide? Go with their most popular menu item: a mixto sandwich of skirt steak and chicken. — Roosevelt Avenue at Interamericana in Isla Verde 787-525-2552 elchurry.com (Credit: courtesy El Churry)
In Old San Juan, there’s no shortage of historic buildings with stunning interior courtyards. But the one inside of Hotel El Convento is home to Patio Del Nispero, a perfect place to enjoy a long breakfast. Named after the giant fruit-bearing tree (called nispero in Spanish) that’s taken root in its center, Patio Del Nispero serves a daily morning repast of fresh fruit, juices, omelets, and crepes. With this gorgeous setting, you might just want to stay here for lunch. — 100 Cristo Street 787-723-9020 elconvento.com (Credit: courtesy Hotel El Convento) cit yandstateny.com
BON APPETIT CONDÉ NAST PUBLICATIONS
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El Jibarito offers some of the best Puerto Rican comfort food, or cocina criolla, in San Juan. Named after the folklore Puerto Rican farmer who cultivates the land, El Jibarito’s menu serves up all the classics, from spicy alcapurrias, plantain tamales, yucca mofongo with a rich garlic sauce, meat stews, and even a Navidad rice special for those looking to celebrate Christmas year round. Just make sure to come here during the week; this place is packed on the weekends. — 280 Calle Sol 787-725-8375 (Credit: Flickr user BrentOzar)
THE MEZZANINE AT ST. GERMAIN
An old world cocktail salon if there ever was one, The Mezzanine at St. Germain offers a bevy of freshly squeezed fruit cocktails, tasty tapas, and various local brews. But it’s the unique “coffee cocktails” that reveal this hotspot’s true wizardry. For the intrepid, there’s the Pharmaceutical Stimulant, an eye-opening mix of 100-percent agave premium tequila reposado, chocolate bitters, and espresso. Or, start the day right with the Morning Fizz, a boozy iced coffee complete with espresso, vodka and vanilla liqueurs. — 156 Calle Sol 787-724-4657 stgermainpr.com (Credit: The Mezzanine at St. Germain)
THE HOLE-IN-THE-WALL
CAFÉ MANOLIN
An Old San Juan establishment for decades, Café Manolin caters to those wanting a quick bite to eat before work or at lunch. The simple menu offers mofongo (mashed plantains fried with various fillings); meat pies, fried chicken—all of which come with rice, beans and the extra option of tostones (fried fritters) and plantains. Daily specials are also offered, like “Serenata de Bacalao con Viandas,” a cod dish that every Puerto Rican grandmother makes. — 251 San Justo 787-723-9743 cafemanolinoldsanjuan.com (Credit: courtesy Café Manolin)
THE ETHNIC STANDOUT
JOSÉ ENRIQUE
cit yandstateny.com
THE WILD CARD
VACA BRAVA
No, Vaca Brava isn’t Spanish for “heart attack,” though one look at their menu might suggest otherwise. Every dish at this BBQ spot comes super-sized—from the El Tendedero, a clothesline of various meats strung together, to the giant Brontosaurus ribs. And while not everyone’s this crazy of a carnivore, Vaca Brava must be doing something right: they recently expanded from their original location in the mountainous Barranquitas to this second spot in Old San Juan. — 253 Recinto Sur 787-723-3700 restaurantvacabrava.com (Credit: courtesy Vaca Brava/Facebook)
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THE HOT NEWCOMER
1919 RESTAURANT
After being a James Beard semi-finalist last year, José Enrique is finally getting the recognition he deserves. And it’s no wonder that the wait for a table at his eponymous restaurant can approach the two-hour mark: Prepare to be wowed with their house-made hot sauce, mignon empanado (yes, that’s filet mignon empanadillas), fried fish, carne guisada (beef stew with plantain tostadas), longaniza (homemade Spanish sausage), ensalada tropical, cangrejo (crab in fried pastry cups), coffee flan, tembleque (a Puerto Rican coconut pudding)...and pretty much everything else on the menu. — 176 Calle Duffaut 787-725-3518 joseenriquepr.com (Credit: courtesy Jose Enrique)
This oceanside spot serves up refined plates made from local ingredients. Showstoppers include chef Juan Jose Cuevas’ warm heirloom tomato broth spiked with chili and mellowed by shitake mushrooms and spinach, and a wild king salmon that’s accompanied by an earthy pimentón sauce. — 1919, 1055 Ashford Avenue 787-724-1919 1919restaurant.com (Credit: courtesy 1919 Restaurant)
city & state — November 5, 2014
THE MIXOLOGISTS’ LAB
HELPING LATINO CHILDREN BEGINS WITH FIGHTING POVERTY
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MARCOS CRESPO
city & state — November 5, 2014
S
imon Bolivar, the 19th century South American statesman and military leader, once said, “Nations march toward greatness at the same pace as their educational systems evolve.” Today, in the early years of the 21st Century those observations should serve as a road map for and a warning to our state and nation in its policy decisions impacting the education of our youth. The growth of Latino communities in New York and the nation has reached a critical mass that will place Latinos as the largest ethnic group in the nation in less than 30 years. Previous decades of growth were treated with indifference and educational policies were established that neglected to enact proven strategies for success. This neglect has created significant problems that now permeate our educational and social structure systems. The numbers speak volume as to the failure to adequately educate our children: In New York City, 40 percent of our children do not graduate from high school in four years. In other urban areas across our state the number is closer to 50 percent. Only
1 in 10 Latino youth will attend college and about 50 percent will graduate within six years. Policies that unrealistically require children with limited English language skills to pass the English Regents and other high-stakes tests in order to graduate; the lack of resources for school districts to hire bilingual education staff; overcrowded classrooms and overcrowded schools where the lunch period starts at 9 a.m. to accommodate all students; and school facilities that use converted bathrooms and trailers filled with toxic substances for classroom space are the legacy of educational policy failures that have robbed many of our brightest youth from productive and successful jobs and lives. In the midst of these educational failures, we now have a situation where poverty and income disparities are an additional burden to the educational attainment and academic achievement of our children. The federal government just released data that shows that 3 percent of the U.S. population owns 54 percent of all the wealth in our nation. A few months ago, the U.S. Conference of
Mayors warned that wage and income inequalities have become systemic and persistent while leaving middleincome families in a free fall as higher income households become wealthier each day. The U.S. Census now tells us that income disparities in the United States are greater than in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, two of the poorest nations in our hemisphere. These are not abstract, intangible numbers. The childhood poverty rates in our communities are clear reminders of the work that lies before us. In Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Newburgh and Schenectady the Latino child poverty rates are over 47 percent. Just a few years ago, Latino children endured the highest poverty rate in the nation. With Latino children in America numbering 6.1 million, this dismal distinction marked a stark reality for our communities as for the first time in U.S. history the country’s single largest group of poor children is not white. We all know that poverty is a key indicator of educational success. We cannot begin to improve the lives of our children or their academic attainment without addressing the
issue of poverty. Over 900,000 children in New York State suffer daily from food insecurity and over 2.3 million of our fellow New Yorkers rely on emergency food assistance like food pantries, soup kitchens and food stamps each year. The implications for our larger society and our economy are grim if these trends continue. As policymakers, we need to hold these statistics up as banners in our march toward a more egalitarian society. We must work diligently to resolve the twin problems of poverty and low educational achievement. Time is not on our side as the sheer force of rapid Latino population growth and our community’s disproportionate poverty and academic failure will make practical solutions unachievable. If we fail, halfway through this century, the United States will rank first in the world as the nation with the largest number of Latinos living in poverty.
Marcos A. Crespo represents the 85th Assembly District in the Bronx and is the chair of the Assembly’s Taskforce on New Americans. cit yandstateny.com
FOLLOWING IN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY’S FOOTSTEPS
T
he Somos El Futuro conference provides an opportunity at the conclusion of the election cycle for state elected and government officials to collectively assess the lay of the political landscape and plan accordingly for the January start of the new legislative season. With beautiful Puerto Rico providing the tropical backdrop and virtually every Hispanic elected official in New York on hand for the conference, the focus of those assessments invariably is on initiatives important to Latinos and the politics of turning those proposals into policy. At this year’s conference the initiative at the top of the agenda of Latino state elected officials will be the DREAM Act, a proposal to provide state-financed college tuition aid to undocumented immigrants. That’s because there is universal support for the proposal across the Latino community; it’s smart public policy and the politics seem to be aligning in a way that can help make the DREAM Act a reality in 2015. During the last legislative session, the Assembly passed the DREAM cit yandstateny.com
Act for the second year in a row. The Senate voted in favor of the bill 30 to 29, just two votes shy of the chamber majority needed to carry the day. That was in an election year. In an off year, we expect to be in a position to enact the DREAM Act, regardless of the outcome at the polls on Nov. 4. The support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein opens the door to enacting the DREAM Act through the next budget process. And, of course, the results of the general election could end up delivering enough Senators supportive of the DREAM Act to enable enacting the bill legislatively. But as the Senate’s prime sponsor of the DREAM Act, I’m not one to underestimate the lengths to which Republicans will go to undermine my bill. After all, it was just a few months ago that two Republican senators widely regarded as likely supporters of the DREAM Act were mysteriously absent when it came time to vote.
Again, keep in mind that the bill fell just two “yes” votes short of passage. Republican gamesmanship has also extended to disseminating misinformation about the impact of the bill and those who would benefit from it, the DREAMers, as they have come to be known. In my mind, the most important point for the public to understand is that DREAMers, like the Statue of Liberty, came to America early in life. They don’t know any country other than the United States. Their hearts are here and so are their futures. They are as American as Lady Liberty herself. And they’ve gotten to know their Uncle Sam pretty well, too: The Social Security Administration each year keeps more than $13 billion in social security contributions from undocumented immigrants. At the state level, undocumented immigrants in 2010 paid more than $700 million in sales, excise and property taxes. So much for how the undocumented don’t pay taxes. Then there is the cost of the DREAM Act. Setting aside that $20 million amounts to the proverbial
drop in the five-gallon bucket that is the state budget. It is important to remember that investing in the higher education of young people is an investment in our state’s future. Indeed, it is an especially lucrative investment that, after paying for itself within a few years, yields financial gains on the order of 300-400 percent. Individuals with bachelor’s degrees, for instance, will pay more than an additional $60,000 in state taxes over their working lifetimes—more than three times the maximum Tuition Assistance Program award, according to an analysis by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Somos El Futuro will be a valuable vehicle for making these arguments. But more than a high-profile public forum at which to argue the case for program proposals, Somos El Futuro marks the start of the behind-thescenes politicking that is needed to turn Latino legislative priorities in Albany into policy. José Peralta, the first Dominican-American elected to the New York State Senate, represents the 13th Senate District in Queens.
city & state — November 5, 2014
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JOSÉ PERALTA
SOMOS SHOULD ADDRESS EPIDEMIC OF LATINA SUICIDE
34 LUIS SEPÚLVEDA
city & state — November 5, 2014
W
hile the SOMOS el Futuro conference is often looked at as a time of celebration and a break from work, it is also an opportunity for Latino elected officials to look at issues that specifically affect our communities. Among Latinos, one of the issues that we often ignore is the issue of mental health. Though it may be a difficult issue to discuss, there is no better time to highlight it than during a conference focusing on the Latino community. My mother suffered from mental illness and ultimately, in 1975, committed suicide. Mental illness affects individuals from all walks of life. For some the symptoms are easily discernible. Others may go undiagnosed for years. However, when properly treated, many of these illnesses are far more manageable. Throughout the years, public awareness of conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder has increased. Unfortunately, the prevalence of untreated mental illness is far higher within the Latino community.
While instances of mental illness among whites and Latinos occur at roughly equal rates, the rate of treatment for the two groups is alarmingly dissimilar. According to the Surgeon General, only one in five Latinos suffering from mental illness consult a general healthcare provider. Just one in ten will actually seek out a mental health specialist. This disparity between the rates of diagnosis and treatment can be attributed to both economic limitations and cultural attitudes toward mental illness. The epidemic of suicidal behaviors among Latina adolescents specifically is a tragedy in the Latino community throughout New York State. There are too many young Latinas who are seriously contemplating or attempting suicide. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on risk behaviors among high school students in the U.S., published in June 2014, shows that 23.4 percent of Latina teens in New York have seriously considered suicide and 15 percent have attempted suicide. This problem has been neglected by our government since 1995 when for the first time the CDC showed that Latina adolescents had the highest rates of suicidal behaviors compared to African Americans, Asians and whites. Growing up in New York as a young Latina isn’t always easy. These young women must often endure the stresses associated with immigration, school, poverty, broken families, bullying, and discrimination. Far too often young Latinas feel like they have nowhere to turn when they are struggling. For many of these young Latinas it is difficult to find help because of
serious issues with mental health services in New York, a problem that particularly impacts the Hispanic community. There are a considerable number of outpatient mental health clinics in New York that have closed down because of deficits created by the rate changes for outpatient mental health clinics instituted by the New York State Office of Mental Health more than three years ago. As an elected official and proud Latino, one of my goals is to address these issues that affect us severely and to start us on a path that will allow those in need to receive the care they deserve. In January 2013, when I joined the New York State Assembly, I collaborated with Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr. to introduce legislation impacting mental healthcare. The bill, known as the Behavioral Health and LongTerm Care Act, would ensure that adults with mental health or substance abuse issues get their needs met. It would require the commissioners of the Office of Mental Health, the Department of Health, and the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse to develop a comprehensive yet streamlined set of services designed to address these needs. The agencies would be tasked with creating a behavioral health and long-term care plan that would coordinate healthcare provider services, increase alternatives to nursing homes, and support family caregivers. It would also require that they make recommendations for coordinating funding for these programs. The state must restore fiscal stability for mental health clinics to continue to provide services to New York State residents and avoid costly
visits to psychiatric emergency rooms and inpatient psychiatric units. We also need to have outpatient mental health clinics with culturally and linguistically competent mental health professionals to help Latina teens and their families. Programs I have worked with in the past, like Comunilife’s Life Is Precious initiative, are particularly important. We need to expand programs like this one in order to reduce the incidence and prevalence of suicide among Latina teens. More than 150 Latina teens have participated in Life is Precious and many of them are now in college. One suicide of a Latina adolescent is one too many! We must act now to prevent the death of young Latinas, who could be the future leaders of our state. I urge those in my community who need mental health services not to ignore these serious concerns. Family members of those suffering from mental health issues must be understanding and not place undue stress on the afflicted. Total support is what is needed. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts or feelings help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800273-8255. We must do all we can to tackle mental illness. We are a strong people physically, mentally and spiritually. Let us take up this important fight for our community next month at SOMOS.
Luis Sepúlveda is a member of the New York State Assembly from the Bronx. cit yandstateny.com
EXPANDING SOMOS BEYOND A CONFERENCE
ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN
T
he upcoming fall 2014 SOMOS El Futuro Conference presents an opportunity for all New Yorkers who are concerned about equal rights and social justice to renew their commitment to these essential ideals and to embark on new efforts to bring them closer to reality. The goals SOMOS espouses— political empowerment, civic engagement, advocacy on issues of fairness—are critically important to Latinos all over our state. SOMOS is a great vehicle for airing the concerns of New York’s Hispanic communities, informing elected officials and the business community about people’s
aspirations, priorities and frustrations, and then translating those needs into action. As Attorney General, I have been an active participant in SOMOS, co-hosting a welcome reception at the annual Albany spring conference, presenting workshops and organizing discussions on critical issues. I believe those programs have had a positive effect on public policy by fostering dialogue and educating participants about ways to address the needs of the community. However, I believe there are even greater opportunities for engaging Latino New Yorkers—and the elected officials who represent them. As attorney general, I have crisscrossed the state, holding town hall meetings and workshops in cities, towns and suburbs. There is no better way to learn about people’s concerns, experiences and struggles firsthand than to visit their neighborhoods and speak with them one-on-one. That is why SOMOS’ chairman, Assemblyman Félix Ortiz, and I are forming a new partnership to reach out into communities across New York State and bring the great work of SOMOS directly to the people. We will be expanding and
broadening our long-standing collaboration, with the able participation of the Hispanic Legislative Task Force, which has produced the many important informational and educational panel discussions that we have presented at previous SOMOS conferences. Those programs brought together policy experts, law enforcement officials, community outreach professionals and legislators to discuss areas of great concern to the Hispanic community, including illegal guns, gangs and drugs; the National Mortgage Settlement and what it means for New Yorkers, particularly Latino homeowners, who lost two-thirds of their median household wealth when the housing market collapsed in 2008; the critically important issue of language access and protecting the rights of people with limited English proficiency at the ballot box, in law enforcement, in healthcare and in education; and labor rights, reflecting my office’s focus on low-wage workers, immigrant workers and tipped employees—making sure all workers get an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. But as important and enlightening as these presentations were, their
effectiveness was limited because many members of the public do not have the time or the financial resources to travel to conferences. So we will be taking the conference out into the community. Our expanded partnership will bring the resources, expertise and services of SOMOS to cities and towns throughout the state. We will connect legislative leaders with their constituents around New York and serve as a conduit for assistance and empowerment. We will give Latino New Yorkers, in their own neighborhoods, the opportunity to make their voices heard and to access SOMOS’ resources. After the November conference is finished, we plan to meet to develop a calendar of events. And then, we will create programs to engage directly with people in the Latino community on the most important issues of the day. By working together, with a new, broader vision, we can expand SOMOS’ important mission, moving together into the future.
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Eric T. Schneiderman is the attorney general of New York State.
EXTRAS
Pura Belpré (1899–1982) never ran for or held elective office. However, she is part of Latino history in New York City. In 1921 the Santurce, Puerto Rico, native was hired by the New York Public Library (NYPL). Belpré pioneered the library’s outreach within the Puerto Rican community. Her Spanish language, community and literary skills soon earned her a position as Hispanic assistant in a branch of the public library
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at 135th Street in Harlem, having been recruited and mentored by Ernestine Rose, head of the Harlem library. Belpré became the first Puerto Rican to be hired by the NYPL. In 1925 she began her formal studies in the library school of the New York Public Library. In 1929, owing to the increasing numbers of Puerto Ricans settling in southwest Harlem, Belpré was transferred to a branch of the NYPL at 115th Street.
Diego Rivera. Belpré continued these efforts at the 110th Street branch, a.k.a. the Aguilar Library. Belpré was also a writer, collector of folktales and puppeteer. city & state — No ve m b e r 5, 2014
LIBRARIAN, PIONEER
She quickly became an active advocate for the Spanish-speaking community by instituting bilingual story hours, buying Spanish language books, and implementing programs based on traditional holidays such as the celebration of Three Kings Day. In her outreach efforts, she attended meetings of civic organizations such as the Puerto Rican Brotherhood of America and La Liga Puertorriqueña e Hispana. Through Belpré’s work, the 115th Street branch became an important cultural center for the Latino residents of New York, even hosting important Latin American figures such as the Mexican muralist
POWER IS IN THE STREETS W
hen Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto was elected mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2012, her victory shocked many observers. Supported by numerous politicians from the mainland, including New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Yulín defeated threeterm incumbent Jorge Santini. City & State Editor Morgan Pehme and Road to SOMOS editor Gerson Borrero sat down with Yulín in her office for a lengthy Q&A on Sept. 5.
city & state — November 5, 2014
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The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.
City & State: If anyone in public life can speak to the importance of connecting Puerto Ricans from the diaspora with those on the island, it is you, because you spent a long time in the States. Carmen Yulín: Altogether I spent 12 years in the States. I enjoyed every moment of it. I liked living in the States, but [what you call] diaspora is something you can partially be part of or continually part of. I was partially part of that for 12 years. I often say to my friends that I felt too Puerto Rican to live in the States; then I felt too American to live in Puerto Rico. So when I settled back in Puerto Rico in 1992, I had to come to terms with all of that. There are certain things … you always miss and things that you have to remember. I’ve come to understand—I don’t know who said it—but we are really one nation divided by one ocean. Those that are there, that are first generation Puerto Rican, are as much Puerto Rican as I am, [even if they] haven’t been born here, brought up here, and haven’t moved back and forth. That is something as a nation that we have to come to terms with. We are Latinos, we are Centroamericanos, and we have a place there as we have a place here. These are not situations that have to fight one against each other. They
A Q&A WITH
CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ SOTO complement each other. C&S: To defeat a 12-year incumbent, you not only took on the power structure of your own party, you really included everyone in your coalition. What is your understanding of how to be inclusive? CY: I think it has to do with a perspective of what you think government is for and what you think power is for and what is power. … In the end, political relationships are people relationships. So it had nothing to do with power. It has everything to do with people and how people come together. If you look at churches, if you look at Little League teams, if you look at unions, if you look at any organizations of any kind, people come together for one purpose only, and they forget about their differences. I was a member of the House [of Representatives of Puerto Rico] four years ago; that
power truly, truly is the power of the people. In fact, I wrote a book, El Poder Está en la Calle: The Power Is in the Streets. People don’t realize they have the power; people don’t realize that if they come together, there are more of them than those who occupy the seat that I’m in right now. One was the LGBT community; [another] one was the student community. There was a community of Dominican immigrants. One interesting alliance I had was with taxi drivers. So we redefined community in our campaign, and we do it in our government now. Not as a geographic location only, but as a group of people coming together for a common purpose, which seems to be the oldest definition in the book, but somehow it wasn’t. C&S: The United States has never had a female president, New York State has never had a female governor, New York City has never
had a female mayor. You are the third female mayor of San Juan. Is there a cultural difference that explains why more women are in positions of power in Puerto Rico than in New York State? CY: I don’t think so. Again, with all due respect, it depends what you think power is. You go to PTA meetings in the States—I lived in Bethel Park in Pittsburgh, Pa.—you go to community meetings, it’s mostly women that are on the front of those fights. You take, for example, Oscar López Rivera. Oscar López has been in [federal] prison for 33 years. He often speaks of all the women he worked with in Chicago to help provide for that heightened awareness of social justice needed to prevail. So if power is holding the higher office, maybe. People are people. Their struggles may be harder or more or less, but we all struggle for the same [purpose]. C&S: Is Puerto Rico more liberal or progressive than New York City? CY: I don’t know. I’m not qualified to [say] … because I was never involved in [the] structure [of] politics in the United States; I can’t say in terms of political power whether that is different. In Puerto Rico there is a difference. My party, the popular Democratic Party, the party that I belong to, had the first [female] mayor of anywhere in Puerto Rico, had the first [female] secretary of state, had the first [female] president of the party, had the first [female] governor—and still the amount of women that are holding the highest office are not enough. Politics is a rough game, and sometimes as females we are taught that you have to play nice. Sometimes you can’t play nice, and that zealous [passion] for life, that hunger and thirst for justice that people have at the most basic levels of democratic structure, tends to get lost as people go up the ladder. To watch a video of this interview in its entirety, go to cityandstateny.com.
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n November 2012, Alejandro García Padilla defeated the incumbent, Luis Fortuño, by less than a single percentage point to become the 11th governor of Puerto Rico. Prior to his election, Gov. García Padilla, the president of Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party and a member of the Democratic Party on the national level, had served in the Senate of Puerto Rico and as the secretary of the commonwealth’s department of consumer affairs in the administration of Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. As part of City & State’s Road to SOMOS/El Camino a SOMOS project, the series’ editor, Gerson Borrero, sat down with García Padilla in his office in La Forteleza, the governor’s official residence on Sept. 5.
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The following interview was conducted in Spanish, and has been translated into English by Borrero. It has been edited for space and clarity.
city & state — November 5 , 2014
City & State: First of all, how are you? Has being governor met your expectations? Alejandro García Padilla: I’ve got to say that as soon as I took possession [of the office] after the election, I almost asked for a recount [laughs], because it was much worse than anticipated. We found a deficit of 24 percent— $2 billion—and public corporations in bankruptcy. But 18 months later we have reduced the deficit to zero without laying off public employees, and we have been working with public corporations to look for efficiencies and cost-effective ways so that they can become sustainable with their own income. C&S: What would you say to Puerto Ricans who are part of the diaspora who are concerned about the present and future prospects of the island? AGP: They have to look at the objective evidence. The average unemployment has dropped from 16 percent to 13 percent, and while it is still high, it’s dropping. Crime has been reduced by 30 percent in the last 20 months. I remind you that the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 were the most crime-ridden in our history, and we had the highest unemployment in the last 60 years. But now we are seeing
A Q&A WITH
ALEJANDRO GARCIA PADILLA the opposite: Crime is down to historic lows and unemployment, although more slowly than crime, is also declining. In that sense, the main elements that make a person move from a place—quality of life, public safety and the chances of getting a good job—are improving. If they listen to the partisan political discourse, which is always from behind barricades, which is always hostile, which is always insulting, then they will stay away. They [should look at] the objective elements: increased tourism, a 52 percent uptick in cruise ships, over 8 million visitors coming through Muñoz Marin Airport. Agriculture is on the rebound, and manufacturing is rising. We have areas where we are still behind—car sales, cement sales, in those areas we are still behind—but we are working to bring them to the front as well. C&S: You’re not a magician and you don’t have a crystal ball, but nonetheless what do you see in Puerto Rico’s future? AGP: An economically developed and more educated Puerto Rico. A safer Puerto Rico. The government and the political parties must be committed to the welfare of the people, not the other way around. There are those who suggest that people
sacrifice their own welfare to the parties’ ideals. Look, a report by the United States Congress’ General Accountability Office recently concluded that statehood would destroy the economy of Puerto Rico, that we would lose $12 billion and would gain $5 billion. In other words, that’s a bad business decision. So what we have to do is use all political and social instruments, in terms of the powers of the commonwealth, but at the same time improve education, improve the ability of the country to promote more and better jobs in the service of the people—and that’s what we’re doing. That’s why Lufthansa chose Puerto Rico for their only MRO [maintenance repair overhaul] facility in the hemisphere. We compete with Mexico. We compete with all the states in the southern United States. We compete with other jurisdictions in Central America. Honeywell is expanding here, Eli Lilly is expanding here. Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, General Electric, CooperVision, Covidien, St. Jude Medical, to mention a few, are here. We are refocusing our efforts toward enhancing our competitive advantages. C&S: To what degree is the administration of President Obama, with whom I understand you have
had discussions, aware of Puerto Rico’s reality? What has the White House done to help further your objectives? AGP: President Obama has been an ally of my government and an ally of Puerto Rico, without a doubt. … The Presidential Task Force is no longer a group focused on determining Puerto Rico’s status. It’s a mechanism of interaction with the American public and agencies to achieve and boost economic development in Puerto Rico, and we are working together. The president is very attentive. The times I’ve met with him he demonstrated a detailed awareness of Puerto Rico’s realities. President Obama is a person of great sensitivity, and in that sense deserves, especially from us Latinos, our support in all his efforts. In fact, now that the congressional midterm elections in November are approaching, my appeal to Latinos—particularly to Puerto Ricans—is to register to vote and get out the vote. Don’t allow retrograde agendas to prevail against the interests of Latinos in particular. C&S: What can legislators from New York do to help Puerto Rico? AGP: Latino legislators and Puerto Rican legislators in the city and state of New York may contribute to the strength of Puerto Rico and to its future development by allowing for the truth to be known. The other day the president of an American television network that is in Puerto Rico told me he was wondering how he could help me, and I asked him, “How are you doing in Puerto Rico?” He told me, “Three-hundred percent better.” I told him to say that. Tell the story. … Puerto Rico was about to be Greece or Detroit, but we took the right steps and changed our direction toward a path of progress. That is the new Puerto Rican reality. Legislators in New York can help me by letting the world know about the new Puerto Rican reality, beyond partisan factions.
To view this interview in its entirety, including the governor’s remarks on the high cost of energy on the island, go to cityandstateny.com.
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