Yudelka Tapia: Empowering Dominicans

Dominican immigrants to the Bronx often face a hard transition due to language and cultural barriers. They have a champion in that struggle, 86th Assembly District Leader Yudelka Tapia, who has fought to empower the Bronx’s Dominican community for the last 25 years.

Born in Santo Domingo, Tapia comes from a family of activists. “My aunts and uncles organized groups who fought against the everyday injustices in our country,” she says. “Eventually, I followed their lead.” While attending O&M University, Tapia organized groups to prevent domestic violence, to promote education, and to combat political corruption.

In 1987, shortly after graduating from O&M with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Tapia moved to the Bronx. After a year in Fordham, she moved south to Tremont, where she has remained ever since. She says that the issues surrounding Bronxites were similar to those in her native homeland. “Not only did they have issues of corruption, education, and violence, but they also wanted better housing and more political representation.”

In 1994, Tapia founded the first Dominican-based political club in the Bronx, the Great Alliance Democratic Club. They would fight for the aforementioned issues and endorse political candidates. They were also one of the biggest proponents of creating the new 86th Assembly District in 2002. “Dominicans were moving in, either from Upper Manhattan or straight from the island,” Tapia says. “It was time to elect someone who looked like them.”

Tapia ran for several offices, including the 86th Assembly District, but came short each time. However, she did settle into the role of that district’s state committee, meeting officials and making decisions for the Democratic Party, such as nominating candidates.

After eight years in the State Committee, Tapia became female district leader in 2010. In this role, she played a “middle woman” between political leaders and the communities they serve. “Because politicians spend so much time outside of the Bronx, it is up to district leaders to not only get them to their constituents, but to fight for the local issues, such as policing and education,” says Steve Santana, who works in the 86th Assembly District under Assemblyman Nelson Castro.

In 2011, Tapia became a panelist for the Dominican-American National Roundtable. “I helped push the campaigns to get more Hispanic judges to the court system and a Dominican in Congress,” she says. “We need more people who look like us in power.”