José Rivera (born July 30, 1936) is a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

, representing the Fordham-Bedford,

Kingsbridge Heights Kingsbridge Heights is a residential neighborhood geographically located in the northwest Bronx, New York City. Its boundaries are Van Cortlandt Park to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, Kingsbridge Road to the south, and the Major Deegan Expr ...

, Bedford Park, and Belmont sections of the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. He is a Democrat.

Biography

Rivera was born in 1936 in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

. He was a member of the

from 1983 to 1987, sitting in the 185th, 186th and

187th New York State Legislature The 187th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 7, 1987, to December 31, 1988, during the fifth and sixth years of Mario Cuomo's governorship, in Albany. Backgroun ...

s. He was a member of the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...

from 1987 to 2000. Rivera was elected again to the State Assembly in 2000, and was the head of the Democratic Party in the Bronx from 2002 until he was ousted in 2008 by the so-called Rainbow Rebels. Prior to his election to the Assembly in 1982, Rivera gained prominence as a labor advocate and organizer of construction workers and "gypsy"

taxicab A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choi ...

drivers. During his tenure as County Leader of the

, Rivera was frequently advised by Mike Nieves, a Democratic party consultant and strategist. Rivera was a vocal advocate for the withdrawal of the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

from its bombing range on the island of

Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

, and was arrested in 2001, together with

Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democrati ...

and other political figures, for trespassing onto the Navy's Vieques facility. The Navy subsequently agreed to withdraw from the Vieques facility. Two of his children, Joel Rivera and Naomi Rivera, were formerly elected officials in the Bronx, and were members of the

and New York State Assembly, respectively. In the 2022 primary, he lost his re-nomination bid to George Alvarez.

References

External links

Official New York State Assembly Website
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Jose 1936 births American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Living people Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly New York City Council members Hispanic and Latino American New York City Council members Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in New York (state) People from San Juan, Puerto Rico 21st-century American politicians Politicians from the Bronx Puerto Rican people in New York (state) politics