POLITICS TOMORROW
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz Photos by Mark Hallum
THREE RISING STARS
These Queens women represent the borough’s political future
BY MARK HALLUM
As 2018 drew to a close, dust
settled on a new landscape
in New York City
politics that overthrew
the status quo with Queens at
the epicenter of it all.
The rise of Latina women
from Queens drew the eye of
the nation and marked a new
chapter for legislative progress
in New York with the election
of State Senator Jessica Ramos,
Assemblywoman Catalina
Cruz and Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez.
As controversy over the Independent
Democratic Committee
— a break-away group of
eight who negotiated with the
Republican majority — divided
the left in Albany, Ramos took
it upon herself to unseat the
IDC official in her district, the
late state Senator Jose Peralta.
Ramos emerged at the top
in the Democratic primary
of 2018 and was part of a successful
movement to oust
perceived turncoats and win
back the majority.
Since her victory, Ramos
has turned her office into a machine
to fight for the rights of
sex workers.
After leading the discussion
in Queens as well as conducting
a walking tour of Roosevelt
Avenue, Ramos has unveiled
legislation on June 10 to decriminalize
sex work and take
a bite out of human trafficking.
"Decriminalizing sex work
between consenting adults in
New York will protect many
of my neighbors — people who
have found themselves in situations
because of employment
and housing discrimination,”
Ramos said. “We will finally
make strides against trafficking
by empowering sex workers
to report violence against
them. Sex work is work and everyone
has an inherent right to
a safe workplace.”
Ramos came from a family
of Colombian immigrants who
struggled with maintaining
their lives in the United States.
her father, Auribal Ramos,
had once been snatched up in
an immigration raid while
working in a New Jersey factory.
Her mother made her way
across the Mexican border in a
grueling four-day trek on foot.
Catalina Cruz, who migrated
here from Colombia,
also fell into politics through
her experiences of hardship
throughout her experience in
the United States.
Cruz lived undocumented
for many years before she finally
gained her citizenship
and became a legislator in
2019. But along the way she
would become and attorney
and Chief-of-Staff for former
city Councilwoman Julissa
Ferreras-Copeland.
After Peralta died suddenly
of leukemia in November
weeks after losing his seat to
Ramos, he would be honored
with the DREAM Act, which
4 QUEENS TOMORROW 2019