Rep. Ritchie Torres, DN.Y., could feel “the weight of history” on his shoulders when the freshman member of Congress first entered the House floor on Jan. 3. The office where Rep. John F. Kennedy once had Torres’ name on it.
“It was unreal for me to go to my office for the first time,” said Torres. “I never thought I would embark on a journey that would take me from public housing in the Bronx to the House of Representatives in Washington, DC”
Torres, 32, made history as the first gay Afro-Latino to be elected to Congress. The son of a black mother and a Puerto Rican father, he represents New York’s 15th congressional district, located entirely in the Bronx, where he was born and raised. His district, the most democratic in the country, is 64 percent Latino and 30 percent black.
“I was raised by a single mother who raised three children on a minimum wage,” he said. . “
“My attendance in Congress is as much my mother’s as mine,” said Torres.
‘A bigger story’
Torres performs during one of the most challenging times in recent US history – more than 427,000 people have died in the coronavirus pandemic and more than 25 million have been infected with the virus. His community has been hit hard; Since the start of the pandemic, Covid-19 hospital admissions and death rates have been consistently high in the Bronx, the country’s poorest congressional district.
“Covid-19 is more than a public health crisis,” he said. “It tells a bigger story about the deeper inequalities and injustices of American society – the digital divide, a lack of access to fresh food, a lack of income, housing insecurity, severe overcrowding, lack of access to health care, pre-existing conditions -” these are all expressions of systemic racism. “
In its first week in Washington, DC, tackling the fallout from the pandemic would soon compete with another crisis.
Just days after Torres was sworn in, a violent crowd of President Donald Trump’s then-supporters stormed the Capitol. The rioters, many of them aligned with white supremacist groups and ideals, basically stopped a ceremonial event on January 6, intended to confirm that then-President Joe Biden had won the November election.
“The uprising is not only a siege on the capital. It is a siege of the 117th Congress, the most diverse Congress in United States history, ”said Torres. It is a siege of multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy. “
That same week, Torres joined lawmakers in the House who voted to impeach Trump.
“If you told me a year ago that I would join Congress during an infectious disease outbreak, that I would witness a violent assault on the Capitol during the electoral college count, and that I would vote for Donald To impeach Trump, I would have said, ‘That sounds quite like a movie,’ ”he said.
From ‘lowest point’ to youngest councilor
Torres was born in 1988, just five minutes after his twin brother. His mother named him after the late Mexican-American singer Ritchie Valens after the release of the 1987 film ‘La Bamba’.
“She named my brother after the Reuben sandwich and I named Ritchie Valens. You can deduce who the favorite son is, ”Torres said jokingly.
His mother raised the twins and their sister in a small New York City Housing Authority apartment that, according to Torres, had mold, leaks, and lead, “and without constant heat and hot water in the winter.”
Before making history in Congress, Torres became the youngest member of New York City Council at the age of 25 and the first openly gay candidate elected to legislative office in the Bronx. As a councilor, he helped secure a $ 3 billion grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the housing authority’s already dilapidated buildings and opened the first shelter for LGBTQ young adults in the Bronx.
“What’s remarkable is that seven years earlier I was at the bottom of my life,” he said.
Torres had recently dropped out of college after struggling with depression, substance abuse, and grief after the loss of his best friend, who died of an opioid overdose. “There were times when I thought of taking my own life because the world around me had collapsed,” he said.
He found an opportunity to channel his interests around affordable housing issues while working in the office of city councilor Jimmy Vacca. Torres later ran and was elected to the city council in 2013. “Never lose hope, even in your moments of greatest darkness,” he said. “For me, that’s the lesson I’ve learned from my life.”
The ‘blessing and burden’
The pandemic has bolstered Torres’ central mission “to break the cycle of racially concentrated poverty,” beginning by addressing decades of federal divestment in the housing authority, which houses more than 400,000 low-income New Yorkers.
While his political career is mostly shaped by his experience growing up in public housing, he has also campaigned for job creation initiatives, addressing health inequalities and the segregation of public schools, and expanding services for the elderly, young and old. immigrants.
“We’ve seen the unraveling of the social safety net in America,” said Torres, “and the communities that pay the highest price are communities of color, abandoned by the federal government, and hardest hit by Covid19.”
He recognizes that there is much to be done.
“Representation is both a blessing and a burden,” he said. “I am grateful for the blessing and burden of the public service; I promised my constituents that I would work out my heart for them. ”
“I was careful to tell them I’m not a miracle worker, I can’t pick a magic wand out of nowhere and magically solve every problem, but I’m a worker. I’m a fighter,” he said.
Torres recently teamed up with Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., Who is also of Puerto Rican descent, om Urge Biden’s government to release disaster recovery funds to Puerto Rico, and with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., to supporting essential employees on a week-long strike to demand higher wages.
A ‘passing of the torch’
Torres managed to rise through the ranks of New York City Council and triumph in a busy primaries last summer to replace Representative José Serrano, a South Bronx Democrat for 16 years, who announced his retirement in 2019 after he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. .
Serrano’s departure was “a big deal,” said Ed García Conde, a longtime Bronx resident and activist. “Many people I know, including myself, were concerned about the loss of a Puerto Rican congressman with all that seniority who could be a voice for the Puerto Rican community – visibility and representation remain important to us.”
“The South Bronx has been a dump for a lot of pollution,” whether it’s from truck traffic or factories, said García Conde, who founded the hyper-local news site Welcome2TheBronx. The district has high rates of asthma and other health problems, making environmental justice an important issue, he said.
During his campaign, Torres raised significantly more money than at least nine other opponents combined. Unlike some of his rivals, he did not limit himself to accepting money from donors with connections to real estate and other business interests, a move that sparked skepticism among some progressive Democrats. Two major LGBTQ political groups, Equality PAC and The Victory Fund, have also raised money on his behalf in an attempt to give him an edge over opponent Ruben Díaz Sr., who has a history of anti-gay comments.
Torres said that while he considers himself “my own person with my own priorities and experiences, it has not been lost to me that I continue a half-century tradition of Latino leadership in the South Bronx – from Herman Badillo to Bob García, to José Serrano, For myself. ” He said, “When José Serrano first joined the US Congress, I was only two years old. So the fact that I am succeeding him at the age of 32 represents a real passing of the torch.”
At the start of his freshman year in Congress, Torres said voters know his deep roots in the community, as well as his story.
“Nobody gave me anything on a silver platter,” he said. “I’ve had to fight for everything I have in my life.”
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