Maritza Cruz

Latino History Project interview with Maritza Cruz, 25 August 2016
Interviewer and transcriber, Cynthia Stone

“My bid for public office, it was wonderful. [...] People would say, ‘our people don’t come out to vote.’ If you have the right candidate, they come out to vote."

"We made history. We had the highest voter turnout in that district ever, in the history of the city. And we never had that ever happen again. We were able to register people, and people got excited. And they were, like: ‘Mira, es Maritza, es de nosotros.’ That’s something very profound and something very … it’s a big responsibility."

"It was wonderful because you really get to see how loved you are. [...] And it was wonderful because it was the community—not just Puerto Ricans, Latinos, but it was Blacks, African Americans, white folks, just everyone coming together. And even though we didn’t win the seat, we were acknowledged and we were noticed. We made an impact. Now, with that race, we were also the first ones to do bilingual campaigning. It had never been done before. And we were noticed. We made our presence felt.”