From "Somos Ninguno" to "Somos El Futuro": Wheeling and Dealing in San Juan
By Angelo Falcón (November 10, 2013)
The gathering of New York Latino and other politicos in Puerto Rico these past five days at the Somos El Futuro Conference, historically derided by Latino community activists as only an extravagant junket organized by Latino state legislators, this year revealed its usefulness as a serious political networking opportunity. It gained greatly in significance largely because of all the publicity on the election of Bill de Blasio as the new Mayor of the City of New York and the political negotiations around the selection of a new Speaker for the NYC Council.
Created in 1987 as the Puerto Rican Hispanic Legislative Task Force that organized what was then called the "Somos Uno" Conference in Albany, what is now known as "Somos El Futuro" includes as well the annual conference in Puerto Rico every November and a regional conference on Long Island. It is one of the earliest statewide Latino gatherings in the United States and, from its beginnings, a thoroughly political animal.
The Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force was created in 1987 by then State Assembly Speaker Mel Miller with the support of the late East Harlem Assemblyman Angelo Del Toro as, some argue, a way to divide the growing Black and Puerto Rican legislative presence represented by an increasingly militant and influential Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus that had been established in 1967. The Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force was not only an alternative to the Caucus but also allowed any member of the Legislature who has 15 percent or more of their district population that is Hispanic to join.
Today, NYS legislators of color are represented by two groups and conferences in Albany. What was the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus is now called the Black, Puerto Rican Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which holds its annual conference in February and is largely Black-led, although Latinos still participate. The Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force holds its annual "Somos El Futuro" Conference in March in Albany and is currently headed by Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz. This coming year there will be 21 Latinos in the state legislature; all but two are Democrats.
In 1988, the following year the Task Force was established, a dispute between the governor of Puerto Rico and NYS Puerto Rican legislators led to the organization of the Puerto Rico conference of Somos Uno. This was a Presidential election year and the Democratic Party contenders included Michael Dukakis and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The Governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernandez Colon of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), had endorsed Dukakis, while the New York Puerto Rican legislators had endorsed Jackson. The story is that in order to mend fences over this disagreement, Governor Hernandez Colon supported holding the Somos Unos Conference in Puerto Rico, which he underwrote for the next year or two. Since then, this conference has been held there every year, except for 2012 because of Hurricane Sandy.
Because of the general ineffectiveness of NYS Latino legislators to translate their numbers and growing seniority into real political clout in Albany as a group, the Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force conference has over the years been derided by Latino community activists as "Somos Ninguno" or "Somos el Fututo," along with other epithets. In its early years, because of its novelty, the Somos Conference in Albany was attended by thousands of Latinos from throughout the state. However, as time went on and it became clear that no clear legislative agenda came from these conferences and that the timing of the conference in March, usually after the state budget was negotiated, made its impact negligible, interest began to wane. Today, its main value is to allow organizations and individuals with or seeking state funding to meet and party with the legislator individually and through receptions and participate on panels that highlight their work and themselves. It also holds a popular Model Legislative Session that introduces young people to the legislative process.
The Somos El Futuro Conference in Puerto Rico, held this year on November 6-10, became a place where those present could hear from NYC Mayor-elect de Blasio and meet with his staff to promote issues and humbly offer their resumes. In addition, four of the five Democratic Party county leaders of the city met during the conference to discuss, among other things, their options for NYC Council Speaker, with possible candidates Melissa Mark Viverito, Annabel Palma, Dan Garodnick, Mark Weprin and James Vacca on hand at the Condado Plaza Hilton to make their case. It was also going to be the site of a meeting between NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio, but the Governor decided at the last minute not to show, representing the one major setback of the gathering.
The question now is, with all the wheeling and dealing that took place in San Juan, what does the Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force have in mind for the upcoming legislative session and the annual conference on their home turf of Albany? Their inability to get Cuomo to back the NYS DREAM Act remains a sore point, and will they develop a strategy with de Blasio to help him get that tax hike on the wealthy to pay for pre-K and early childhood education in New York City? Then there is the persistent pesky problem that Latinos remain by far the most underrepresented group in NYS government employment --- although 18 percent of state's population, Latinos are only 4 percent of the state government work force! This, above anything else, indicates the collective failure of New York's Latino state legislators and raises serious questions about whether or not "somos el future" since, in terms of state government employees and political appointments, it is clear that still "somos muy. muy pocos."
Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). For further information on NiLP, visit our website atwww.latinopolicy.org . He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.