Norwood News

It’s 7:25 a.m. on a recent Thursday, and Yudelka Tapia is standing outside the 183rd Street subway stop on the 4 train, greeting sleepy commuters with a wide smile and a ready handshake.

“Hello, how are you? Nice to meet you,” she says to one man in quick, accented English. To another: “Buenos días. ¿Cómo está, señor?”

Around her, a handful of energetic volunteers, including her 16-year-old son, hand out flyers, and scribble down the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of registered voters they’ve managed to stop.

“People are longing for change,” says Tapia, during a lull in foot traffic.  “People have been longing for change for so many years.”

Later that morning, in her campaign office on the Grand Concourse, Tapia, 44, talked of a childhood spent in the Dominican Republic and the "strong" women who raised her – her mother, a grandmother, and various aunts. "They believed you can get anything you want if you work hard for it," she said.

Beginning her Advocacy
In Santo Domingo, Tapia served as president of an organization dedicated to women’s education, and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She moved to New York in the late 1980s, and settled in the Bronx in an apartment not far from her current home on East 180th Street.

“When I got here I found that we still have the same problems that we have in my own country… education, social justice, domestic violence,” said Tapia, a mother of four boys. “And so I continued advocating.” 

As a stay-at-home mom, she helped her immediate neighbors fill out government forms and with translation. Later she began advocating for immigration reform, stronger rent control laws, and against domestic violence, by organizing events and attending demonstrations. She also fought for better schools by joining school leadership teams at several Bronx schools. 

Tapia believes her experiences living in, and fighting for the community give her an edge over her opponents, Fernando Cabrera and the incumbent, Councilwoman Maria Baez. “I can tell you how it is to go to Housing Court,” she said. “I can tell you what is to fight for a school, for your children, because I have. I can tell you what it is to live in one of the poorest districts and counties in the nation.”

Dipping Toes in Politics
In the mid-’90s, she began to dip her toes in the chaotic world of Bronx politics. She founded the Great Alliance Democratic Club which, by her own account, played an instrumental role in the election of several politicians, including Adolfo Carrion, who in 1997 became District 14’s Council member.

Tapia ran for School Board in 1999; Carrion’s old seat in 2001 (an election Baez won; Tapia didn’t even get on the ballot), and State Assembly in 2002 — all unsuccessfully. She was, however, elected as the State Committee Member for the 86th Assembly District, a position she held until last year, when she was voted out.

Tapia, who’s on unpaid leave from her current job as a senior auditor for the city, doesn’t hold back from criticizing her rivals. If Baez was too sick to attend mandatory Council meetings and hearings (Baez claims illness is the reason for her woeful attendance record) she should have stepped down, Tapia believes.

“I think that has prevented her from actually bringing more resources to the district,” said Tapia of Baez’s absenteeism. “If you’re not there for the discussion… how can you advocate for the people of your district?” 

But Tapia reserves most of her scorn for Cabrera, a pastor and college professor who is being supported by the Bronx Democratic Party, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and a plethora of powerful unions.

Vying With Cabrera
Cabrera is a Democrat who says he lives on Sedgwick Avenue with his wife and son. But until last summer he was a registered Republican living in Pelham, a leafy Westchester town devoid of many of the problems that plague the west Bronx. Tapia doesn’t want voters to forget that.

“You’re telling me you’ve been a Republican for 19 years, and you actually have a connection with the people of this district?” she said, incredulous. 

Cabrera’s supporters point out that Tapia supported Nelson Castro, himself a one-time Republican, for Assembly last fall. But Tapia says she stepped away from Castro when she found out about his past. 

Tapia’s campaign has experienced one or two hiccups of late.  

Last week, she had to be told by a reporter that her campaign manager, Onix Sosa, had taken a job as State Senator Pedro Espada’s deputy chief-of-staff. “I haven’t heard that from him,” she said, after a brief silence. She now has a new campaign manager.

Tapia has also had problems getting her hands on matching funds from the city Campaign Finance Board. She says some documentation wasn’t submitted to the Board — hence the delay — but that she’s confident she’ll receive what’s rightfully hers on Sept. 2, when the next payments are announced.

Haile Rivera, a community activist from University Heights (and one-time candidate in this race), said Tapia should be applauded for getting this far. “For me, anyone who makes the ballot, without the support of the Democratic establishment, you’ve got to commend that,” Rivera said.

He called Tapia a “trailblazer” in the Dominican-American community. If she wins, she’ll be the first Bronx Council member of Dominican origin.

Tapia insists her campaign is healthy: she has 200 to 300 volunteers working for her, and will be able to call on more come primary day. James Duarte, a recent graduate from TAPCo High School on Webster Avenue and a Tapia volunteer, said working on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign last year inspired him to get involved politically on a local level. He said he looked at the three candidates and settled on Tapia. “I felt that Yudelka was more in touch with the needs of this community,” he said. “She’s one of us, I felt I could identify with her. She has a similar [life] story to a lot of people in this neighborhood.” 

Duarte said Cabrera, whom he’s met, offers few specifics — either in person or on his Web site — as to what he would do if elected.

Tapia, on the other hand, Duarte says, has come out with a detailed plan for preserving affordable housing; for ensuring the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project benefits the community; and for improving the environment, among other things. 

Tapia says she’s serious about winning, and isn’t just making up the numbers.  And despite the relentless campaigning — the flyering, the phone calls, the door knocking — she looks like she’s enjoying herself.

“Everyone in this city is watching this race,” she said.