Sandra Sabara

“No nipples! How often do I have to say that? No nipples! Look at the neighborhood
we’re sitting in.”


Nickname: Lady Pink
Neighborhood: Astoria
Favorite Horse to Ride: Painting Murals

Astoria resident Lady Pink was a trailblazer in the underground, illegal art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, dubbed “the first lady of graffiti.” Back then, she would have seen a wall or train car as a blank canvas and covered it with curvaceous letters spelling out her name. Nowadays, when Pink covers a wall, her name still pops up, but for the past few years, it has gone from being graffiti to arguably the best deterrent against it.

Greatest Achievement

Although coy about her exploits, Pink’s well-documented work speaks for itself. In the world where graffiti pieces go up literally overnight, graffiti writers and admirers today still revere Pink’s work, 20 years later.

Just barely out of high school, Pink’s reputation as an artist was known around the world. At 18, she starred in the film “Wild Style,” which became the iconic film about art and music of urban life. Her art was on train cars running all over the city, and inside prestigious museums around the world.

Now when she paints, it is in broad daylight, with permission slips and scaffolding. The purpose now, Pink said, is to keep what she calls “vandals” from turning walls into eyesores.

Community Character

In person, Pink dresses like a biker: blue jeans ripped at the knees, black leather jacket and pin-straight black hair down to her waist. When the talk turns to murals, she lights a cigarette and sounds like a frustrated mother yelling from her front porch.
“No nipples! How often do I have to say that? No nipples! Look at the neighborhood we’re sitting in,” said Pink, recounting directions she’s given over the years to those who paint murals with her. “Just put a bra on that girl.”

For the artist whose canvas is left along the street, the responsibility of public art is a matter of survival.

“We can’t do crazy political statements, or we can’t do social statements. We can’t do anything that’s crazy controversial because the opposing view will have our wall at their mercy.” Without a trace of regret, Pink added, “I end up having to sensor our artist.”

Most Outrageous Act

For a one-time outlaw artist, it’s hard pointing to the single-most outrageous act. Quite possibly, it may have simply been her decision to paint in broad daylight. She said her critics “want us to cut it out. I’m sure they’d be just pleased, tickled pink if I was just exhibiting inside and keeping indoors and lining my pockets like a culture vulture on this” art. “Now, I don’t feel right just profiting from it. I feel I should give back to the community, so we do these legal walls…so we give back to the community, for free.”
Reflecting on her career, she said, “Everything from underground goes above ground and that’s the way it is.”

Working relationship

When Tony Meloni heard the artist he commissioned for over half a dozen murals made the list of Community Characters, he said, “Character is a good word.” Unlike the stereotypical temperamental artist, Meloni said, “I find she is hardworking and whenever we work together [the murals] have gone flawlessly because she cares about her work.”

For a man who “can’t draw to save my life,” Meloni said, “each time it’s a marvel to watch something go up that you conjure in your mind and can’t put on paper.”

—Azi Paybarah


Rose Renda-Rothchild

Nickname: Lady Rothschild
Favorite Issue: Neighborhood Service

Rumbling through western Queens louder than the No. 7 train is Rose Renda-Rothschild, the district manager of Community Board 4 whose name strikes fear in the hearts of bungling bureaucrats and scheming land developers. She runs the CB 4 meetings with touching anecdotes about each nook and cranny of the board, which she seems to know expertly. Her roots to the Corona and Elmhurst neighborhoods go back decades. In fact, along with the Ice King of Corona and Spaghetti Park, Renda-Rothschild is considered an icon.

Greatest Achievement

Lasting for as long as she has is in its own right an accomplishment worthy of note. During her tenure in the community some other milestones have been achieved. Queens Center Mall was named not only the most profitable mall per square foot in America, it nearly doubled in size. Built over 92nd Street is a unique bridge that connects the old mall with the new mall, and provides a “seamless shopping experience,” mall officials said. Other upgrades have taken place at Linden Park, which now sports a new baseball field and artificial turf. That turf is more durable than regular grass and will save the city millions in repairs in the long run.

Also, the 74th Street station for the No. 7 train opened its doors this year. The sleek, new design is more spacious, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, roomier than its predecessor.

Community Character

Renda-Rothschild is an indestructible force in the neighborhood. She presides over CB 4 meetings like a grandmother, telling her younger kin what the neighborhood was like, and advising them on what to do next. Sprinkled throughout CB 4 meetings are Renda-Rothschild’s personal anecdotes, giving color and background to today’s complaints.

In one gripe session some CB 4 members suggested the overcrowding in the neighborhood is a result of bribery in the Department of Buildings (DOB) and possibly with other officials. Renda-Rothschild said of one former DOB employee, whose identity she would only hint at, “I hate to say it, but he must have been on the take.”

Although she doesn’t mince words, the iron-jawed Renda-Rothschild is careful about where she places them.

After the board’s meetings, Renda-Rothschild is often carrying the conversation long into the night with other like-minded residents. When asked for comments after a meeting, watch out. Renda-Rothschild insists that all her comments at the board’s public meeting be kept off the record and out of the papers.

When contacted for this profile, she reportedly called the Borough President’s office, pleading with them to intervene and help her maintain her below the radar profile.

Working Relationship

“Rose strikes fear in the hearts of many, because she doesn’t take anything from anybody,” said Chairperson Richard Cecere of Community Board 3, which abuts CB 4 along Roosevelt Avenue.

“Whenever you’re on the scene with Rose, you know you’re going to have a good time,” he said. For a hard exterior that usually gets the most notice, Cecere called Renda-Rothschild one of the foremost experts on the community. “Certainly one of the most knowledgeable.” He then added, “Rose is a community character.

She’s part of the character of the neighborhood, in a good way.”

Joe Ruzalski

“Sanitation, graffiti, for me they’re
all the same garbage laws.”


AGE: 63
NEIGHBORHOOD: Woodside
FAVORITE ISSUES: Preservation
& Environment
Joe Ruzalski became a grandfather this August. Before that, his grandfatherly feelings have been directed almost exclusively at his Woodside community.

“I remember him ever since I was a little girl,” said Vanessa Branco, who has been Ruzalski’s neighbor all her life and his colleague at the United Forties Civic Association (UFCA) for close to five years. “Whatever you needed, Joe would get. You needed apple sauce—he would get you apple sauce.”
As a member and Block Watcher coordinator at the UFCA, Ruzalski walks around much more now than he used to in his younger days, when his truck driving job kept him in a sitting position most of the time.

Ruzalski said the beginning of his community activism was the result of simple curiosity.

“I used to see people on the streets, protesting, while driving a truck, so this was how I got interested in it,” he said.

The fact that Ruzalski has to use a cane to assist him with walking makes his actively mobile style all the more impressive.

Greatest Achievement

While Ruzalski never ignores any project concerning his community, those directed at the future generations are at the forefront for him.

“Joe wants to preserve the environment for his grandchildren,” Branco said.

Anthony Nunziato, CB 5 member and himself a Community Character, agrees that environmental protection and neighborhood preservation are high on the list of Ruzalski’s priorities.

“I remember his involvement with the Phelps-Dodge [cleanup] project,” he said. “Nobody worked harder than him on this.”
Ruzalski himself puts Phelps-Dodge at the top of the list when talking about his achievements.

“This was definitely something that needed to be done,” he said.

Most Outgrageous Moment

Branco recalls Ruzalski’s conduct during the recent protest against the Cross Harbor Project as the defining element of the man’s character.

“At one point [during the event], he was barely walking—his feet must have been completely numb,” Branco said. “Congressman Eric Gioia saw him and said, ‘Alright, get this man a chair.’ But Joe just shrugged it off, said, ‘I’m alright,’ and continued standing. It was inspiring.”

“Well, actually I didn’t refuse that chair for long,” Ruzalski recalled with a chuckle.

Community Character

Being a large man, Ruzalski has a “large” voice, as Nunziato calls it. Like many other Community Characters, he gets riled up pretty easily when people do not see eye to eye with him. As his voice rises, he can seem somewhat intimidating.

“Sure he can intimidate people by the way he talks, but in my opinion, that’s precisely the type of persons we need—someone who knows how to get people to pay attention,” Branco said.
Nunziato thinks Ruzalski’s image stems from a great deal of caring rather than meanness.

“It comes from how passionate you are,” he said. “Joe has true passion for the community. He lives there, surrounded by other people who live there and who equally care for the environment in which they live. When you care so much, coming up against indifference could make for some hot tempers.”

—Mark Fox

Dr. Arturo Sanchez

“This is a quantum leap for community boards. We’ve never had this kind of data.”


nickname: The Doctor
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Age: 55
Favorite Issues: Immigration, Demographics and Technology

The way a Swiss watchmaker admires the perfectly timed gears of a Rolex is the way Arturo Sanchez appreciates an immigrant’s journey from their homeland to the streets of Queens. Sanchez, an assistant professor of urban studies at LaGuardia Community College, doesn’t give lectures on immigration: he performs them. Cupping his hands and sliding them across imaginary planes, Sanchez describes the financial and sociological forces pushing new Americans into Queens.

During his talks he stands in front of colorful, digital maps generated from his research, lending a laser-light show quality to a Sanchez appearance.

Greatest Achievement

To study the shifting demographics in his neighborhood, Sanchez brought the students to the sidewalks. Graduate students in urban planning from Hunter College studied Corona Plaza by 103rd Street, while Pratt Institute students recently began their study of 74th Street.

Another milestone in Sanchez’s work was the creation of the Community Mapping Assistance Program (CMAP). In collaboration with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), Sanchez for the first time created a map that showed the ethnic clustering of immigrants within a single community board.

“This is a quantum leap for community boards,” Sanchez said. “We’ve never had this kind of data.”

Previously, decade-old census information asked people to identify themselves within broad ethnic categories. “Most analysts use terms like Hispanics, [but] we break it down into Mexicans, Dominicans, Columbians” and other nationalities.

This newly analyzed information “changes the geometry of information and leverage that community boards can now have,” he said.

Community Character

Donning an Indiana Jones-style hat and satchel, Sanchez replaces one cigarette after another and delves into the market forces and policies that bring immigrants into New York. His appearance leaves some listeners unaware of the academic vocabulary and theories about to come forward.

“Within each nationality there appeared to be a two-tier economy that plays out spatially,” he said.

When the glazed look washes over the face of the lectured, Sanchez knows he’s lost someone, and translates his Ivy-League ideas, into laymen’s terms.

“The difference between Dominicans in Corona and Maspeth is something akin to your parents when they moved out of their ethnic neighborhoods and suburbanized,” he revised.

Most Outrageous Moment

Shy to mention his outrageous moments, Sanchez preferred to discuss his “most vivid moments.” That, he said, is when he presented the CMAP information to CB 3 last year. “It was bold because it was visual. It was the first time people saw clustering patterns by ethnicities.”

—Azi Paybarah

Isaac Sasson

“There has been a lot of over-development, a lot of luxury apartments. I would put a stop to the
over-development now.”


Neighborhood: Flushing
Favorite Issue: Tenant’s Rights

Isaac Sasson is a political insurgent, the sort of civic activist who remains undaunted by long-shot odds or other factors lined up against him.

Sasson is the sort of impassioned community do-gooder with his roots firmly planted in local issues—he has led crusades on behalf of his fellow residents as a leader of the Skyline Tenants Association—but who does not hesitate to take his reformist drive out into the community at large.

Community Character

“I’ve been a resident of Flushing for 27 years, I live on Kissena Boulevard,” Sasson said. “I’ve been a New Yorker since 1956,” he added, “after I came from Lebanon.” An experienced immigrant in a neighborhood defined by newcomers, Sasson knows the dynamic pull of Flushing first-hand.

“I was going to stay here for a few years and do some post-doctoral work,” he recalled, “and 27 years later I live in the same apartment.”

As a tenant’s rights advocate, he had focused on strengthening rent stabilization laws. Over the years, he has taken the fight to unscrupulous landlords and prevailed, forcing building owners to restore services and trim back skyrocketing rents.

Greatest Achievement

A veteran representative on Community Board 7, Sasson takes an active role in shaping issues as both a critic of local problems and a champion of causes that can help Flushing. As a member of the Health Committee, he has worked to prevent cutbacks in senior services and demanded compliance with federal and state standards at area nursing homes.

In addition to these achievements, Sasson may well be defined by his courage to challenge the political order in Flushing. Last year, he took on the powerful incumbent councilman, John Liu, in a bid to highlight issues he considered important for the community.

“I am running for office because I see the changes in my neighbor and Jon has not done the job he should have done,” Sasson said at the time.

Though his campaign ultimately failed, his emphasis on political independence led him to an alliance with Flushing businessman Jimmy Meng, who successfully defeated incumbent State Assemblyman Barry Gordenchik, earlier this year.

In a way, with Sasson on the ticket as a district leader candidate, Meng’s victory represented a triumph for political underdogs like Sasson.

Most Outrageous Act

A one-time researcher at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and an associate at the Institute for Cancer Prevention, Sasson did take one counterintuitive political pose during his campaign against Councilman Liu: he criticized the citywide smoking ban.

When asked to name which of Liu’s City Council votes he disagreed with, Sasson replied, “I think the thing about the smoking.” Liu voted with the majority to ban smoking at most city bars and restaurants.

The anti-cancer scientist explained, “People go to bars to smoke, and now they are standing outside… People who work in bars would know that that’s where people are going to be smoking.”

Working Relationship

Grace Meng, who helped run her father’s primary campaign against an incumbent, praised Sasson’s tireless dedication to the people of Flushing. “He is a very caring person,” she said, “very involved in the community.”

Gene Kelty, chair of Community Board 7, called Sasson “a ball of fire.”

“He gets frustrated when things get bogged down, but he’s very tenacious. He is always ready with research.”

—Aaron Rutkoff

Bill Seivers

“If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

Neigborhood: Douglaston
Age: 72
Favorite Issue: Historic designation of Douglaston Hills

Bill Sievers has lived in the Douglaston Hills community for more than 40 years. He sees the history that is there. It’s been around him long before he came to the area. So why has it been so hard to get the bureaucrats and politicians to see what he does?
“The emphasis has always been on Manhattan,” said Sievers, who, since becoming a charter member of the Douglaston Hills/Little Neck Historical Society in 1991, has fought tooth and nail to have his community recognized as a historical district. “Sure, that’s where the city started, but no one really considers the historical significance of the outer boroughs.
“There’s a lot of history out here,” he added.

Greatest Achievement

He’s still waiting for it to happen, but he’s confident New York City Council will eventually vote to designate Douglaston Hills as a historical district.

“They tell me it’s moving forward,” he said.

And it took a lot of work to get it to move at all. Sievers has chaired the Douglaston Hills Committee for the historical society for nearly 14 years and he’s become known as the “relentless organizer” of the whole operation. He was the one keeping the pressure on the politicians and the Landmarks Commission. He was the one making phone calls, mobilizing volunteers throughout the community. And he was the one heading up all the research that goes into even applying for historical designation.

“We’ve contacted politicians to get our issue pushed into the limelight,” he said. “That was a way to garner some attention. It was a group of people that had to be kept on course to get the results we wanted, and I guess that was my job. While this stuff is moving its way through the bureaucracy, you have to keep the flame burning.”

Community Character

You could call Sievers a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge of the Douglaston Hills area. Some of his knowledge comes from the hours of research he’s had to do throughout the years. But a lot of it comes from his enthusiasm about his roots.

“There are limited opportunities in Queens County for becoming acquainted and learning about what went on here 150-200 years ago,” he said. “That was a valid reason to chase after this. This is an area where property sales are not that frequent. There’s little turnover of residents and some people are still living here who are descendents of people that date back to the 1900s. There aren’t many areas within the city that you can find a community like this.

“One of the main levers we kept pushing was of the 70 or 80 historic districts in the city, only five were in Queens. That’s one historic district for every 400,000 residents. It’s one-tenth of that in Manhattan.”

Working Relationship

Co-founder and fellow vice-president of the Douglaston Hills/Little Neck Historical Society Kevin Wolfe uses the word “piston” to describe Sievers.

“He really threw himself into this,” he said. “He’s kind of the leader of the pack on this issue. He’s always been the guy who has kept the pressure up and has been relentless and dogged in making this happen. Without someone like that, you can’t be as effective.”

—Jack Buehrer

Joyce Shepard

“If you are quiet, you get elected. If you speak out, you are crazy.”


Neighborhood: Bayside
Age: 62
Favorite Issue: Women’s issues

Joyce Shepard published the Queens Alternative, a newspaper dedicated to change, for two years before folding it out of frustration for what she calls the apathy of the people of Queens. Shepard was also involved in a myriad of civic organizations and even ran for City Council once, although she was happy to have lost, “Could you imagine me working along side of Gifford Miller? I don’t think so.”

Greatest Achievement

Among the more politically inclined in Queens, the name Joyce Shepard has for a long time been synonymous with crazy. But determined might be a better word. Although her greatest achievement in Queens might be successfully lobbying for public meetings to discuss the future of Fort Totten, her work on domestic violence, her support of the mentally ill and her fight against the use of the toxic pesticide Malathion are also impressive feats.

But Shepard will tell you that bringing down Ross Perot is by far her greatest achievement. She started an organization called “Duped by Perot,” after she discovered the presidential candidate was financially taking advantage of grass roots organizers.
Shepard was featured on Dateline and her catch phrase “Grass Roots Turned Astroturf” was used in newspapers all across the country.

Every time the candidate came to New York, she hired a plane to carry a banner deriding him.

Community Character

Shepard is known for her fiery brand of affecting change. At most meetings she would often speak out (scream out might be a better way to describe it). She at times can be impressive, intelligent, warm and affable. But at other times she can be downright intimidating. When advocating for the mentally ill, she organized more than 600 mental health consumers and managed to stop traffic all down Broadway. And she isn’t always exactly “politically correct.”

“In the beginning my strategy was to hold meetings and write letters. But when that didn’t work I would bring out my two by four,” she said.

Most Outrageous Act

In an effort to expose the deficiencies of the domestic abuse help centers in and around the city, Shepard went undercover as a battered woman.

“I think going undercover as a battered woman was a little outrageous,” she said. “I was on the telephone as an abuser trying to get treatment.”

She had discovered that most of the numbers and centers offering help were not actually trained in helping with domestic abuse. When she called, they would tell her that they couldn’t help her. But her undercover work paid off in the end.

“The first call I made was to a 24-hour hotline that was listed in a book distributed by Borough Hall,” she said. “They said they didn’t have domestic violence services.”

Shepard said that these places were just listed in the book in order to help them receive money from the city.

“Mayor Giuliani’s top man’s wife was a lobbyist for a hotline and got them a $100,000,” she said. “But that was the hotline that didn’t do anything. I would call and ask them for a shelter and they wouldn’t be able to help me.”

Shepard said there is still a lot of work to be done to correct this problem.

But Shepard got the ball rolling and when Alan Hevesi did a similar study he got the mayor to give $5 million more toward domestic violence and 200 more beds in domestic abuse centers.

Working Relationship

Shepard has worked with many different people over her years as an activist. But she said that her time was often tainted by how she was treated as a woman. Shepard often found herself fighting for change in a man’s world, which often made things unnecessarily difficult.

“If a man did what I did, he would be the Mayor,” she said. “When I do it I am either crazy or a bitch, females are not supposed to bang doors to get justice.”

But Shepard is putting that behind her now as she intends to spend more time with her husband and less time fighting the powers that be.

—Peter Gelling

Bob Singleton
Wisdom from one generation is handed down to the next via history, and the man in charge of the history of Astoria, one of Queen’s oldest neighborhoods, is Bob Singleton.

As President of the Greater Astoria Historical Society (GAHS), Singleton nearly single-handedly drums support and stirs the crowd into turning out for his organization’s lecturers, slide shows, and historical celebrations. His family’s roots to Queens go back several generations, giving Singleton’s mission of preserving the neighborhood’s history, a personal touch.

Greatest Achievement

In celebrating the rich history of Astoria and Long Island City, there have been quite a few moments one could consider “greatest achievements.” GAHS helped raise the community’s concern over plans to demolish a hundred-year-old church in order to build a smaller church and residential units.

GAHS also helped publish “Images of America: Long Island City” which contains 209 photos of the neighborhood. The Dutch recognized the area as a village in 1839, roughly 60 years before Queens was incorporated into New York City and 70 years before the opening of the Queensboro Bridge.

Singleton’s group also helped celebrate the 100th anniversary of the General Slocum disaster; hosts the lecture series Civil War Saturdays, and routinely hosts notable historians for one-time speaking engagements.

Community Character

Mix methodical persistence, pinpoint accuracy, and familial pride, and that’s Singleton.

Friendly and undeterred, he’ll pursue leads and causes and sound the alarms to preserve the community’s history. Reluctant to speak on the record, Singleton will nonetheless speak at length about almost every topic relating to local history, like: significance of various manhole covers (now on display at the GAHS), the Ronzoni building (who’s giant metal R is also on display), and Queens’ electrical grid, based in Astoria.

Congenial but unmistakably focused, Singleton seems most at home when the room is full.

Most Outrageous Act

Exuberance may have gotten the best of the historic group when they weighed in on a church’s decision to replace it’s building with a cheaper, mixed-used facility. On GAHS’ website, the group not only posted 27 photos of the church, but also the following statements: “This site requests architect’s renderings of the new façade and the entire new complex. An educated community and congregation should see what their future holds.”

Singleton called reporters and helped bring the church’s situation to the attention of the entire borough. Singleton said he has received anonymous e-mails from church members concerned about the demolition plans, but was unwilling to give any specific details about the e-mails.

Working Relationships

Some would refer to Singleton as a walking encyclopedia, and they wouldn’t be exaggerating. While some find his persistence a bit much, those who’ve gathered for a lecture, browsed the GAHS website, www.astorialic.org, or simply glanced over the group’s exhibit would call his work, tireless, and invaluable.

—Azi Paybarah

Frank Skala

“Students always told me I had no heart, I have now proved them wrong twice.”

Neighborhood: Bayside
Age: 67
Favorite ISSUE: Zoning Regulations

Frank Skala has now had two heart attacks, the second of which struck earlier this month. To an outside observer it comes as no surprise that Skala might have heart problems. He is involved in more civic and community organizations than most people know exist, he leads an epic adventure of a life (think whitewater rafting and bungee jumping), and he has chocolate and a Coke for breakfast.

Most Outrageous Act

It isn’t easy choosing Skala’s most outrageous act, there are so many. But one of the most publicized took place at a meeting of the 111th Precinct Council in 1998. Skala, more than 60-years-old at the time, vocally and persistently objected to the meeting’s procedure. “They ran the meeting incompetently,” he said. He was so aggressive that the presiding officer, a captain, “flipped out, grabbed me, dragged me out of the room and threw me out.”

Forcefully throwing a senior citizen out of a public meeting is considered conduct unbecoming of an officer and the captain was forced to retire soon afterwards.

Greatest Achievement

Skala has been described as everything from a “curmudgeon” to simply “loud.” A former public school teacher at I.S. 25, he has developed a reputation for being a thorn in everyone’s side. But, as is a criteria for making this edition, his persistence is mostly for the betterment of his community.

Skala’s most impressive accomplishment might be establishing the East Bayside Homeowner’s Association in the mid-1970s. The Association now boasts more than 450 member homes and it represents more than 4,000 families. But Skala is best known for tirelessly maintaining zoning regulations - he jumps on every opportunity to run a detrimental developer out of town. His most recent project is battling the expansion of St. Mary’s Hospital in Bayside.

Community Character

Skala is omnipresent in the Bayside community. Besides the Homeowner’s Association, Skala has been a teacher, PTA president, minister, choir member, union chairman, and he runs the Bayside High Alumni Association - not to mention his acting career (he plays Santa Clause every year).

Skala has taught more than 7,000 kids and it’s a good bet they all remember him. One former student wondered aloud in a college essay nine years later, “I don’t know what is brighter, his clothes or his bald spot.”

What makes Skala so memorable?

“I tell it like it is and I don’t really care if they agree or not,” Skala said. “I have no agenda that involves any kind of profit. Over the course of four decades you can get a lot done. I have an absolute ego that says I can do it when nobody else will.”

Working Relationship

Frank Skala doesn’t call, he just shows up at Councilman Tony Avella’s office whenever he has an issue – which is often.

“Frank is certainly single-minded in purpose,” Avella said. “When he gets involved with an issue he doesn’t let it go until it is to his satisfaction.” In regards to Skala’s crusades against zoning violations Avella said, “Frank is certainly vociferous in his opposition to development.” That’s putting it politely.

Avella said Skala is unique and effective because he doesn’t care what anybody else thinks. “He is well-known for his Hawaiian shirts, he likes them and he doesn’t care what other people think about it. You have to admire people like that.”

Orlando Tobon


Nickname: “Don Orlando”
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Age: 54
Favorite Issue: Recovering the bodies
of dead drug runners, or mules.

News of every major and minor happening inside the borough’s Colombian community seemingly passes through the tiny, street level office of Orlando Tobon: a travel agent; tax preparer, and funeral arranger for young drug mules. Not the usual image of a Hollywood hunk, Tobon’s work with the Colombian community reached new heights when he played a fictionalized version of himself in this year’s “Maria Full of Grace.” A stroll down the streets of Jackson Heights is a testament to how life imitates art. Strangers and friends alike now refer to Tobon by his character’s name, “Don Orlando.”

Greatest Achievement

Undoubtedly, for an activist who gets called in to recover dead bodies of drug mules, “achievements” are a murky topic. Those most indebted to Tobon include the families of Colombians whose younger members are lured to the states with the promise of a better life and easy money.

In exchange for a free ride here, they swallow condoms filled with drugs, turning themselves into human vessels for a lethal amount of narcotics. If the condoms rupture, death is all but certain. In a mule’s journey, that can happen at any moment, and when it does, Tobon is usually called.

For Tobon, the greatest achievement is the movie. In it, audiences see the people, places and reasons behind this phenomenon. Filmed in Jackson Heights, audiences here see the characters act out stories they know in places they know.

Community Character

Like his reputation, Tobon’s presence is hard to miss. Tobon, who moves at his own pace, is often seen amidst a crowd of activist gatherings anywhere along Roosevelt Avenue. Often times, if he’s not speaking, he is standing right next to the event’s main organizer.

Standing on Roosevelt Avenue, Tobon can be seen going to or from his office, heading to a civic meeting, rally, protest, or some other function. For a man so involved, the one thing he doesn’t chase is the limelight. In fact, holding Tobon long enough for a five-minute interview is a task in itself. Juggling a travel agency, preparing financing for a large swath of the Colombian community in Queens, and sitting on more boards than most people leaves Tobon with little time for interviews.

Most Outrageous Act

Tobon has helped orchestrate or been associated with a number of protests in the area. In Jackson Heights, especially during campaigns, that hardly is considered an outrageous act. One highlight that did not go unnoticed was when he stood alongside his Councilman Hiram Monserrate, a man he criticized as being an outsider and corrupt, in order to support Luis Rosero’s candidacy for the State Senate.

According to activists in the area, this marked a major shift in the sometimes-fractured Latino community. By bridging the ethnic gap, Latino’s proved they could mount extremely competitive races for local offices. Some say it’s a matter of time before more leaders in the Latino community follow Tobon’s lead.

Working Relationship

Don’t think that a feature film has gotten the best of Tobon. His CB 3 colleague, Shiv Daas, said Tobon is “a very intelligent person, very down to earth. We learn a lot from him.” When asked what sets Tobon apart from other activist, Daas quickly responded, “I think it’s his experiences. He has experience with the community, and he works with different communities.” Even without the widespread attention that comes with being in a movie released world wide, Daas said Tobon is a man many people in Jackson Heights gets to know. “He’s always outgoing.”