PEP, January 2008: Moving to a new horizon

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Members of the DC 37 Latino Heritage Committee celebrated their 24th annual Puerto Rican Heritage Week at union headquarters with tasty Puerto Rican pasteles, swinging salsa music by the Charansalsa band and a fascinating seminar on tracing family roots in Puerto Rico.

Charlie Fourquest Baitz, from the Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York, presented a slide show at the Nov. 26 opening event, demonstrating the basic steps in preparing a family tree and sharing with participants the resources available to assist them in tracing their roots.

“Boricuas moving to a new horizon,” was the theme for the closing event on Nov. 30, which featured DC 37 Treasurer and Local 1407 President Maf Misbah Uddin as guest speaker. “The Puerto Rican community has already moved well beyond the horizon,” said Uddin.

Santos Crespo, chair of the Latino Heritage Committee and 2nd vice president of Local 372, urged participants to “keep in mind those members who are no longer with us, those fighting in the war and the Puerto Rican political prisoners as well,” he said.

“We come to celebrate our heritage tonight. We are all one big family,” said Carmen Flores, a member of Local 1549 and the committee’s vice chair.

Rivera supports residency
The keynote speaker for the evening was City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, who represents District 15 in the Bronx. As a 22-year-old, Rivera, the son of State Assemblyman and Bronx Democratic Committee Chair José Rivera, was the youngest person elected to the City Council. Rivera pointed out the important contributions of the Puerto Rican labor force to the city.

“The contributions of our community are profound; we helped to build this city,” said Rivera. He also came out strongly in support of DC 37 and Intro. 452, the City Council measure that would lift the residency requirements on 45,000 members to allow them to live outside the city. “Already 240,000 city workers have the right to live where they want.”

“DC 37 members should have the same right,” said Rivera. “You’re going to win this issue because you continue to fight and you have a leadership that is always fighting.”