It was only recently that the Bronx began to see a gender shift in representation on the legislative front, with more women representing districts at all levels of government.

Last year, the borough elected state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi to replace Jeff Klein while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the first woman to represent the Bronx/Queens 14th Congressional District. Nathalia Fernandez and Karines Reyes were also elected to represent their Assembly districts in 2018, doubling the number of women in the Bronx Assembly Delegation.

Melissa Mark-Viverito, the former Speaker of the New York City Council, and Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, look to continue that trend as each vies for the 15th Congressional District seat. It’s a race that’s now seen eight other Democrats open a campaign committee.

Despite residing in Manhattan’s El Barrio, Mark-Viverito hopes to differentiate herself from the pack by emphasizing her “track record of success” and showing that she will be a fighter for the district in Washington, D.C. From 2006 to 2017, Mark-Viverito represented the 8th Council District, which was geographically split between her home turf in East Harlem and the South Bronx.

“We’re living in a very fragile moment in our democracy,” Mark-Viverito told the Norwood News. “The constituents of this district, of the Bronx, of this city are really under attack under this administration. And really, our very existence is under threat.”

For Cintron, deciding to explore a run was easy: she believes none of the declared candidates are suited to represent the district.

“We have to get this right. Whoever becomes our member is going to be our member for a bit of time,” said Cintron in a telephone interview with the Norwood News. “We can’t afford to send to Congress someone who has no intent to stay there and do the hard work. We have to send somebody there that is really and truly looking to be a Congress person.”

Cintron is a lifelong resident of the district, which remains the country’s poorest congressional district after the current seat holder, Jose Serrano, was elected nearly 30 years ago. For a time, Serrano and Cintron lived in the same Grand Concourse apartment building.

With more women living in the Bronx than men, Cintron believes a female voice is certainly needed in the nation’s capital where the future of female reproductive rights has taken center stage.

“It’s important that we be represented by somebody who’s going to move the women’s agenda forward and not bring them back to the dark ages,” said Cintron.

Mark-Viverito feels similarly. One of Cintron and Mark-Viverito’s opponents, Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., is a strong opponent of abortion. Bronx Democratic Party boss and Assemblyman Marcos Crespo has voted against bills protecting women’s reproductive rights, including a bill that codified Roe v. Wade in New York earlier this year.

“Why should men be telling me what to do with my body? It defies logic,” Mark-Viverito said when asked about Crespo and Diaz Sr. “To have anyone running in a Democratic primary that does not support [women’s reproductive rights] should be dismissed outright. It’s not within the core values of the Democratic Party. It’s a real concern. Its highly offensive to me, as a woman.”

Supporting women for public office is something of a sticking point for Mark-Viverito and Bronx Democrats. Party leaders, sans Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., backed Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez over Mark-Viverito’s preferred successor, former aide Diana Ayala, in the 2017 race for 8th Council District. Ayala won.

She also encouraged Bronx Democratic leadership to back a female candidate in the special election to replace Maria del Carmen Arroyo after the 17th Council District representative retired in 2015. Instead, they backed eventual victor Rafael Salamanca.

“I told [Crespo] the count of women in the Council was diminishing and that they should really work hard to identify a woman to replace” Arroyo, Mark-Viverito said. “It all falls on deaf ears.”

Despite Mark-Viverito’s protestations on the party doing little for women, it did back Fernandez and Reyes.

Cintron was appointed to her latest post by Diaz Jr. The borough president’s father, Diaz Sr., is himself a candidate for the 15th Congressional District seat and has a serious shot at winning. On Aug. 14, Diaz Sr. took partial credit for landing Cintron her current gig.

“I have the unique skill of having people working for me, such as Marlen Cintron, [state senator] Luis Sepulveda, and Marcos Crespo coming out of my office with my recommendation” for their current positions, Diaz Sr. tweeted. “Not too bad for a black Puerto Rican with a kinky hair and a broken English!”

Cintron shot back with a tweet reading, “Why does it seem that behind every successful woman, there’s a man trying to take credit for her accomplishments?”

“I’ll be sure to send you a thank you card from DC!” Cintron added.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.