New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. with honorees and co-sponsors at his Latino Heritage and Culture celebration at S.E.I.U. 32 BJ Headquarters on Thursday, October 25, 2007. Pictured (back, l to r) are: Eduardo Castell, Executive Deputy Comptroller for External Relations; Rev. Luisa Celeste Martinez, Pastor, Grace United Methodist Church, Manhattan; Elsa Marte-Hampton, Esq., President, Dominican Bar Association, Inc.; Thompson; Lin-Manuel Miranda, Composer-Lyricist-Actor, In The Heights; John Ortiz, Award-winning Actor and Co-founder and Co-Artistic Director, LAByrinth Theater Company; (front, l to r) Manuel R. Acevedo, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor, Columbia University and Attending Physician, Harlem Hospital Center; Lorraine A. Cortés-Vázquez, New York State Secretary of State; and, Edward A. Flores, Esq., President, Puerto Rican Bar Association, Inc.

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New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. honored five City leaders last night at his Latino Heritage celebration. The event was co-sponsored by ASPIRA of New York, Inc., the Dominican Bar Association, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
“Latinos are creating jobs and stimulating the local economy with businesses across the city – from Jackson Heights in Queens to Sunset Park in Brooklyn – helping to insulate us from the cyclical swings in our other key industries,” Thompson said. “Esta noche estamos presentes para celebrar el poder, orgullo y la diversidad de la comunidad Latina.”
• Dr. Manuel R. Acevedo, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, has been affiliated with Harlem Hospital since 1983. Dr. Acevedo has worked with the Spanish American Medical Society and the Dominican Medical Association and has served as president of Sociedad Médica Dominicana.

• Lorraine A. Cortés-Vásquez, Secretary of State for the State of New York, was presented the Public Service Award. Ms. Cortés-Vásquez previously served as a Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at Cablevision, President of the Hispanic Federation, and executive director of ASPIRA. Cortés-Vásquez also has a long record of government service, first at the New York City Department of Aging and later as Chief of Staff to New York State Assemblyman Roberto Ramirez and then as a member of the New York State Board of Regents.

• John Ortiz, award-winning actor, is the co-founder of the LAByrinth Theatre Company. Mr. Ortiz currently serves as its co-Artistic Director along with fellow actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Ortiz has appeared in some 23 theatre productions as well as countless films, including Ron Howard’s Ransom, Brian de Palma’s Carlito’s Way, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad and the soon-to-be-released American Gangster. Some of his theater highlights include the Broadway production of Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics, the New York premiere of Jose Rivera’s Tectonics, and Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Jesus Hopped the A Train, for which he earned a Drama Desk nomination as Best Lead Actor.

• Cid Wilson, business leader, whose first job on Wall Street was in the mailroom as an unpaid intern and has since risen to the top of the finance industry as a Senior Analyst and Director of Research for Kevin Dann & Partners. In May 2006, Forbes Magazine ranked Wilson as the number one analyst in the nation in forecasting company earnings in the “specialty retailing” category. Wilson is a co-founder of Dominicans on Wall Street, president of the Dominican American National Roundtable, and member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund.

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