NiLP Note: Please note that NiLP does not endorse candidates for public office, but we publish the Guest Commentary below because it reflects the views of significant sectors of El Barrio's artistic community. Control of the management of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center has been a longstanding and clearly unresolved issue in this community. We will, of course, post alternative views on the issues involved if offered.
---Angelo Falcón
NiLP Guest Commentary
NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
and the Julia de Burgos Center Controversy
by Félix Leo Campos
The NiLP Report (May 4, 2017)
As the election for NYC Council in El Barrio/East Harlem in Manhattan nears, the role of Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is our Councilmember and is Council Speaker, needs to be closely scrutinized. Mark-Viverito, who is term-limited this year, is projected in the media as a big progressive, but within the community that she is supposed to serve she has a record of deceit, unethical political behavior, and gross misrepresentation. As the first Puerto Rican female Council Speaker she moves to become popular by taking the "community's side" on issues (political prisoners, the Puerto Rico debt issue, "affordable housing" and others), which have made her a visibly popular political figure, but,conceal her deviousness, corruption and misrepresentation
The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, located on 114th Street and Lexington in El Barrio, Manhattan, was established in 1992 under the management of Taller Boricua. By 2010, there were complaints that the site was not being adequately managed by Taller, a problem the community turned to address to its Council representative, Melissa Mark-Viverito. Without any community input, she approached the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to revoke the tenant lease agreement and open a new Request for Expression of Interest (REI) to determine who would manage it, which they did in September of 2010.
This move by Mark-Viverito was widely criticized in the community. One response was an October 2010 meeting at the Fiorello LaGuardia Memorial House convened by concerned community members. While at this meeting emotions were high, the focus was squarely on who and how the community would maintain control of its own assets and resources at a time of gentrification and displacement.
In response to Mark-Viverito's move to remove local community control of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, the Burgos Arts Alliance was formed. It was organized by the Teatro Moderno Puertorriqueño (Modern Puerto Rican Theater), Puertorriquenos Unidos (Puerto Ricans United), the East River North Renewal, Inc., and AfterDark CATV PRO. After much convincing, Los Pleneros de La 21, a Puerto Rican folk Dance & Music group, also joined the Arts Alliance but soon after chose to leave. Other groups were also formed to address the problem, including one organized by the late Yolanda Sanchez and Jaime Estades of Casabe Houses.
In October 2013, the EDC signed a lease with the Hispanic Federation, whose offices are in the Wall Street area, a long way from El Barrio, to manage Julia de Burgos. The following year, the Federation got $1.31 million in discretionary funds from the City Council. The Federation's first director, Luis Miranda, is Mark-Viverito's chief political consultant. His lobbying firm, the MirRam Group, gets at least $102,000 per year from the Hispanic Federation. Mark-Viverito is using Miranda's MirRam Group as political advisors, and the Federation (who hires MirRam as their lobbyist) as her "attack dog."
We initially thought this was a good move given that the Federation is a nationally-recognized and politically-connected organization that could bring many resources to our community. However, with time we found that the Alliance never received technical assistance or guidance of any kind from the Federation. The Arts Alliance was kept out of all lease agreement negotiations with EDC by the Federation after the selection was announced. In the ensuing years, the meetings with the Federation were simply dictations of what the Federation had done or planned to do, all without consent and input from the Arts Alliance. The Alliance, we realized, wasn't never intended to be part of the process.
Since the Hispanic Federation took over management of the center, this invaluable community institution has languished. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, it is evident that the selection process was corrupted by the Council Speaker and the negotiations with EDC were against Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance and the needs of the El Barrio/East Harlem community by the Hispanic Federation. It is clear now that it was never the intent of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to turn over the management to neighborhood groups. Instead, she misused her position as an elected official to orchestrate a hostile take-over of a local asset for her own future political plans, using the Hispanic Federation is her "attack dog." The Council Speaker is preparing to use one of her staff members as a "puppet elected official" to take over her Council seat while she bides her time to run again to a higher office. For her, El Barrio and the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center are key to her position as a political dominatrix.
In her hands are the life and well-being of the neighborhood's most iconic and historically significant cultural and arts institutions, such as El Museo del Barrio, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, and the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center. They draw major (campaign) supporters and are all very visible institutions and by bringing to each of them a piece of the proposed Governor's arts and culture funding ($400 million earmarked to NYC) she buys their loyalty.
The Burgos Arts Alliance has reached out to a number of public officials at the city and state levels about this problem. The NYS Attorney General's Office of Public Integrity, NYC Economic Development Corporation (through two of its property managers, one assigned the cultural center) and the Manahattan Borough President through her Deputy Boro President have been notified but, there hasn't been any action taken by any of them.
As this year's elections come upon us, the Latino community needs to hold our elected officials accountable to assure that they support our institutions and respect the need for local community stakeholders to control these institutions. El Barrio has for too long been the victim of politicians more interested in promoting their own self-interests than that of the community they are supposed to serve.
Félix Leo Campos
is a self-described "Nuyorican" (NY born & raised Puerto Rican) from El Barrio/East Harlem. He has served as a board member of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Lexington Children's Center, and El Barrio Operation Fightback, among others. He has worked in independent and commercial television and as a video camera operator, floor manager, director, and producer. His focus has been to provide media coverage (AfterDark CATV PRO) to small businesses and the arts & culture sectors, adding to the local effort of economic development and cultural maintenance. Now, He also works with La Fortaleza (The Fortress) Project CDC in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio, Children's Aid Society, NYPL, Educational Pledge and others in utilizing arts and culture as engines for economic development. He can be contacted at felix_leo_c@hotmail.com.
