Rep. Ritchie Torres kicked off Ladies’s Historical past Month by internet hosting Home Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a number of other different honorees for a hearth chat on the New York Botanical Backyard on March 1.
Torres held an analogous occasion in February for Black Historical past Month with Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries, whom Pelosi predicted will develop into the primary Black Home Speaker after this yr’s midterm elections.
On the celebration, Pelosi outlined her groundbreaking journey from “housewife to House Speaker” — a robust place second in line of succession to the president. She is now retiring from Congress after practically 40 years representing San Francisco.
Most of the metropolis and borough’s distinguished ladies leaders turned out for the occasion, together with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, the primary Black girl to serve within the position and Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin, the primary Jewish speaker.
Additionally among the many honorees have been three distinguished Bronx natives who’re breaking new floor of their respective roles: Metropolis Council Chief of Workers Miguelina Camilo, the primary girl and Latina to serve within the place; Metropolis Council Deputy Chief of Workers Simone A. Jones, who beforehand served underneath Council Member Kevin C. Riley; and Randi Martos, who’s chief of employees for Meeting Member Jeffrey Dinowitz.
Meeting Members Chantel Jackson, Landon Dais and Dinowitz attended, as did Council Member Justin Sanchez.
In Menin’s remarks, she referred to as Pelosi a “role model and someone who’s carved the path.” She proudly touted the women-led Metropolis Council, which presently has 32 feminine members out of 51 complete.
“I think to be a woman elected official … it’s really not easy,” Menin stated. “People pick apart what you wear, what your hair looks like, what shoes you’re wearing, what you’re saying. It is just an absolutely unbelievable double standard.”
Pelosi will quickly retire from a 40-year profession in Congress and eight history-making years as the primary girl Speaker of the Home.Picture courtesy Rep. Torres’ workplace
‘Matriarch of American politics’
In introducing Pelosi, Torres paid tribute to his mom, who raised him in South Bronx NYCHA housing.
“I deeply believe that our mothers and grandmothers are the bedrock of the Bronx, and the bedrock of America,” Torres stated.
He described Pelosi as “the matriarch of American politics.” When she began in Congress in 1987, there have been solely 24 ladies out of 435 complete members. As we speak, there are 96 feminine Democrats and 33 Republicans, figures that Pelosi stated ought to nonetheless be increased.
Nonetheless, Torres stated she helped pave the way in which for numerous Individuals in management. “If you’re a young woman, there is no ceiling on how high you can rise, because Speaker Pelosi has broken that ceiling,” he stated.
Pelosi informed the gang that she was raised in a “fiercely patriotic” political household. Her father was a member of Congress and mayor of Baltimore. Her brother later held the identical mayoral workplace, and her mom was lively in Democratic social gathering politics.
However regardless of these roots, Pelosi stated turning into a mom was the important thing motivator for her to enter public workplace.
“What got me from the kitchen to the Congress was, being a mom of five, the fact that 1 in 5 children in America lives in poverty and goes to sleep hungry at night,” she stated.
Pelosi stated she has by no means overpassed the mission to enhance the lives of Individuals. “When you know your why, if you know why you’re out there, you can take any punch they wanna throw.”
Torres stated Trump’s presidency appears to deliver out Pelosi’s combating spirit, recalling the “iconic moment” when she ripped up Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech.
Pelosi stated she didn’t pre-plan that act. “It was planned by Donald Trump when he decided to give a speech that on every single page was a lie, was a misrepresentation.”
An enduring legacy
Earlier than lengthy, Pelosi’s stance in opposition to President Trump started to hazard her life because it had by no means been earlier than.
Torres recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, which was solely his third day in Congress. As rioters stormed the Capitol constructing the place Congress was set to certify Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election, Pelosi’s life was focused by identify.
Torres praised Pelosi for returning to the Home ground late that night time to certify Biden’s win. However she stated she was horrified by the violence in opposition to police and Capitol staff and stated many employees members, particularly youthful ones, have been “traumatized.”
Whereas politicians assume at the least some degree of danger, the trauma inflicted upon employees members was “unforgivable,” she stated, including that some didn’t return to their jobs.
One other horrific second got here in Oct. 2022, when an attacker, later recognized as David DePape, went to Pelosi and her husband Paul’s house. DePape demanded to see the speaker, who was not house, and bludgeoned Paul with a hammer. DePape later stated he believed that Pelosi and different Democrats have been engaged in a conspiracy to steal the election from Trump.
DePape was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
Torres described Trump’s second time period as “much more vindictive, much more emboldened” than his first. However Pelosi stated Democrats are able to uniting the general public round points Individuals care about, particularly round reducing the price of housing, healthcare and meals.
No matter particular person sturdy stances in opposition to Trump, the Democratic Occasion as an entire has been roundly criticized for seeming out of contact with common Individuals, weak on messaging and unable to win elections that ought to have simply gone of their favor.
This yr, Pelosi stated Democrats should, and can, win the 2026 midterms and see Jeffries elected the subsequent Democratic Home Speaker.
“Our resistance is hope,” she stated. With Trump, “We have a real fight on our hands.”
Torres, who himself broke floor in 2013 because the youngest and first overtly homosexual Afro-Latino New York Metropolis Council member, closed with a private reflection on what it means to work underneath Pelosi.
“I have a vision of my future in which I’m speaking to my daughter or granddaughter and we’re reading a history book and we encounter the name of Nancy Pelosi. And I will tell my granddaughter I knew Nancy Pelosi and it was the honor of my life to be led by her, to be inspired by her, to be transformed by her leadership.”
