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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Ramón S. Vélez |
| Address |
Bronx, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
April 19, 1933
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| Died | November 30, 2008
(75 years)
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| Contributor | nystate63 |
| Last Modifed | David
Jan 28, 2022 06:13pm |
| Tags |
Married -
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| Info | Ramón Santiago Vélez Ramírez
Ramón S. Vélez, who was the son of a poor Puerto Rican farmer and became the baron of a sweeping array of poverty programs in the South Bronx, receiving high praise for registering hundreds of thousands of Hispanic voters and stinging criticism for profiting from his humanitarian initiatives, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 75.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Caroline, said.
Starting with a $50,000 grant from the Johnson administration’s war on poverty, Mr. Velez built his social services agency, the Hunts Point Multi-Service Center, into a vast program encompassing centers for the elderly, housing, health clinics and substance-abuse programs. His other involvements ranged from community colleges to hospitals to leading the fight to abolish language requirements for Spanish-speaking voters.
For years, Mr. Velez controlled the Puerto Rican Day Parade with an iron fist, and in 1995 expanded the event nationally.
His political friends included Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, and a generation of Hispanic politicians he recruited and groomed for office. Representative Jose E. Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, said in a statement that most Puerto Rican elected officials who have held office since the 1970s “were elected in large part because of Ramon Velez’s work organizing the community.”
Mr. Velez himself served in only one elective office, as a city councilman for a single term in the mid-1970s. He ran for Congress twice, unsuccessfully.
“He was El Jefe,” former Mayor Edward I. Koch said in an interview on Tuesday. The words are Spanish for “the Boss.” He said Mr. Velez had supplied services of great benefit to the Hispanic community.
Henry J. Stern, now the president of New York Civic, a watchdog group, served with Mr. Velez on the City Council, and in an interview recalled him as a large man who radiated “a sense of power.” He was “the emperor of the South Bronx,” Mr. Stern said.
Mr. Velez’s power derived from the $300 million in government funds that his organization attracted during a quarter of a century. With hundreds of employees, and thousands of patients and clients, he had a ready-made campaign machine, used by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Some of the money, without question, flowed into Mr. Velez’s own pocket, at least through suppliers he set up, and this penchant for establishing private corporations to do business with his public endeavors raised many questions. Investigators combed through his financial dealings for decades, but no charges were ever brought against him.
For a time, Mr. Koch would say that Mr. Velez epitomized the abuse of Great Society poverty programs, calling him a “poverty pimp” and a “povitician,” but he eventually warmed to him.
“I ascertained he was wrongly accused,” Mr. Koch said on Tuesday.
Mr. Velez often boasted that he had been more carefully investigated by law enforcement than the gangster John Gotti had been. Newsday said in 1998 that Mr. Velez was “accused of everything but being dumb.”
Ramón Santiago Vélez Ramírez was born on April 19, 1933, in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, where his father raised cows, plantains and citrus fruits. He graduated from Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, studied law at the University of Salamanca in Spain, served in the United States Army and came to New York at the age of 28. He got a job as a welfare worker and moonlighted as a commentator at a radio station.
He is survived by his wife, Caroline Fitzpatrick; six children; six grandchildren; two sisters; and a brother.
Mr. Velez was called Padrino, or Godfather, by his followers. The Daily News reported in 2000 that many people routinely kissed his ring.
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