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Eddie Silverio, director of youth programs at Alianza Dominicana, is participating in the Nov. 7th rally that will begin uptown on West 181st Street and is urging other Washington Heights residents to join in. “The Heights gets involved with everything, [budget] cuts, education,” he said. “We should be involved with this too.”
Story by Alexandra Rosario and Debralee Santos
The Occupy Wall Street protests in downtown New York have inspired similar movements all over the country and around the world – from California and Colorado to Italy and Germany.
And now the protest is gathering strength and resources from a place just 20 miles away, but one that can seem a world apart from the OWS encampment: uptown.
As noted by a Fordham University survey conducted a month into the downtown protests, from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18, 68 percent of the protesters were white, 10 percent were black, 10 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were Asian and 5 percent were from other races.
Many have claimed that the protests, and protestors, have not been representative of the majority affected by the economic downturn and other socio-economic ills.
A November 7th march planned from 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue down to Zuccotti Park is aimed at bringing more uptown involvement, and a more diverse contingent, to the downtown protests.
“We have to be part of this action,” said Sussie Lozada, an organizer from the New York Civic Participation Project who is helping put out the call to action to local residents. “We think it's really important for residents in Washington Heights to get involved.”
Organized primarily by the office of New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodríguez and the Office of New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat in collaboration with community leaders and groups, the idea, as Councilman Rodríguez explains it, is to have a Latino and African-American-led march downtown to show that the ethnic diversity of the majority, the so-called “99 percent,” is also clamoring for change.
“We need jobs, we need housing, we need corporations to pay their fair share; this is why I am asking everyone…to come out and march with us,” he said.
The march will wind down Broadway, making stops in Harlem, on the Upper West Side, and on 14th Street to pick up people on the way down to Zuccotti Park. And more stops are being planned.
"The march is an important opportunity for us to come together and stand up for economic justice for our communities,” explained Senator Espaillat.
“Wall Street is something symbolic,” added Lozada. “We're affected by the issues up here just as much as everyone else. I think Washington Heights is known for getting involved; why shouldn't we get involved with this?”
Eddie Silverio, director of youth programs at Alianza Dominicana, has been involved with the protests since the beginning, and had visited Zuccotti Park a few times before the notion of a Washington Heights march was hatched.
“It was interesting to see people from all different walks of life down there,” he said.
Alianza Dominicana is one of the co-organizers of the march.
“It's [about] raising a voice and bringing awareness,” Silverio said, of the organization’s participation. “It's important for the Heights to march from one end of the borough to the other end. When we saw other community groups thinking about this, we felt it was very important for us to get involved.”
Silverio agreed with Lozada about Washington Heights' involvement in important community events.
“The Heights gets involved with everything, [budget] cuts, education,” he said. “We should be involved with this too. Zuccotti Park has become a symbol; it's a vehicle for our voice to be heard.”
Local residents echoed this sentiment.
Danicia Vargas, a recent graduate of New York University and a resident of the Bronx, has had trouble finding a full time job and said she would be interested in participating in the march. Under-employment and student loans are her biggest concerns.
“I have to start paying my loans next month,” she said. “I'm working two part-time jobs right now, completely unrelated to my psychology degree.”
Vargas works as an administrative assistant for an Upper West Side organization and as a hostess for an Upper West Side restaurant. She said she was also looking to take up graduate school in hopes that it will give the economy more time to rebound and for more opportunity for a full-time job.
Asena Oksuz, an Inwood resident and another recent NYU graduate, has mounting student loans. As an economics major, she is concerned that the financial system has faltered.
“There is such a lack of financial transparency for the general public,” she said.
Among the many participating elected officials and community groups participating in the Nov. 7th rally are New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat, New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez , New York City Councilman Robert Jackson, the New York Civic Participation Project, Alianza Dominicana, and Community League of the Heights (CLOTH).
For more information on the rally, local residents are asked to call the Office of New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodríguez at 917.521.2616 or email
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