Activists: Congreso board out of touch with Latino community

Congreso de Latinos Unidos occupies a five-story building a little more than two blocks from the Conrail tracks in Kensington, where addicts inject heroin amid mountains of trash and used syringes.

Clients of the city's largest Latino social service agency live mostly in the 19133 zip code, which has the city's highest percentage of residents living in poverty (58.3%) and the lowest median household income ($17,016), according to U.S. Census data.

In contrast, Congreso's board of directors skews from the well-to-do worlds of banking, law, real estate, technology, and pharmaceuticals, a fact that has not been lost on grassroots activists, who charge that board members are out of touch with the community. They say they want a seat at the table. Activists said they would ask board members to meet with them on Tuesday.

Many on the board "are disconnected from the issues that people are facing every day," said Erika Almiron, executive director of Juntos, an immigrant-activists organization that has criticized Congreso. "There's no way they understand what a family is going through when struggling to put food on the table or ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is at the door trying to deport them."

Artist and activist Gilberto Gonzalez, 52, agreed. "Most of the board members have never lived in the barrio," he said.

Aside from one board member, Gonzalez said, "they have never lived our experience. They are making decisions for an organization serving a community based on their assumptions, not based on reality. They don't know who they're serving."

The anger and criticism stem from controversy that erupted after Congreso president and CEO Carolina Cabrera DiGiorgio attended a Harrisburg rally for President Trump on April 29, prompting calls for her resignation. The Congreso board has stood behind her.

DiGiorgio's attendance at the rally was a "slap in the face" to the community, said critics such as Ana Montanez, a teacher and activist who lives a few blocks from Congreso, at American and Somerset Streets. She and others said that Trump's policies are contrary to their community's interests and that anyone who supports those policies should not lead Congreso.

"This is a president who has encouraged racism and hatred against people of color and against immigration," said Berta Joubert, a retired psychiatrist, who protested outside Congreso this month. She said the community was justified in its anger over a leader showing support for a president who pledged to build a wall to keep out undocumented immigrants, and whose health-care plan could cut insurance for millions of people. "If they can't understand that," she said, "the board needs to step down."

Esperanza Martinez Neu, chair of the 12-member Congreso board, said the board is deeply concerned about the community and is willing to meet with the organizations.

However, Neu said, the board stands firmly behind DiGiorgio, who said she attended the rally because her husband, Val, is the chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

Neu conceded "the optics were not good" when people saw DiGiorgio applauding at the Trump rally. "We have said that we do not support the current administration's immigration policies that have a negative impact on the community," she said.

Neu said Congreso had announced plans to form a community advisory council before recent protests.

"We see this as an opportunity for the board to have more exposure and to just engage not only with the community but with the staff,"said Neu, who recently retired as an executive of a pharmaceutical company in Valley Forge.

"Not all of our board members are Latino, but they are very passionate about the work Congreso is doing," Neu said. "Everyone has stayed very committed and has not allowed this [the DiGiorgio controversy] to be a distraction. We are taking it very seriously. We see this [advisory council] as a good sign and an opportunity to reevaluate our practices."

Laura Otten, director of the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University, said it makes sense for a nonprofit board to reflect the community it serves.

"If your constituents represent a certain segment of the population, then you would be very wise to have that population reflected … on the board," she said. On the other hand, "we would be very remiss to think that the only way you can understand poverty is if you grew up in poverty."

Ana Montanez, the founder of Voces del Barrio, said the board should be community-based.

"As a child, I used to play in those railroad tracks" now used by addicts, said Montanez, 41, a culinary arts teacher at Edison High School. "We need people who understand our struggle. We can't have a banker come in and say they understand us. All they understand is numbers. They don't understand our needs."