Mr. Hernandez, just because I keep a low profile in this Village doesn’t take away the fact that the good people of Ossining elected me as part of the Perillo, MacNeill and Parise team back in 2002. I would like to point out that when I ran for office I never made my nationality a focal point of my campaign simply because I didn’t want to isolate any one group; I wanted to represent the entire community. To summarize a few things, as a bi-partisan board we worked tirelessly and accomplished a great deal, too many to list here. In fact, we were the board that placed Trustee Elect Daraio to the Constable position for the first time. Regarding our involvement with the Hispanic community, we were the first Administration to assist the day laborers by organizing and meeting with them in the Community Center. We listened to their needs and concerns. We mutually agreed to move them from the dangerous and unorganized location on Spring Street to where they currently are today. We offered them a site where they could gather safely complete with rest rooms available to them in the Community Center- something they didn’t have before. We organized with the surrounding businesses to offer free coffee, bread and hot chocolate to the day laborers while they waited at the stand. You and I, together with Cecilia Gutierrez, were very instrumental in forming The Hispanic Coalition of Ossining, a place where day laborers could come for assistance, guidance, education, free legal advice and representation. We met with day laborers and organized a Minga for Ossining. Tony Parise and John Perillo literally helped “build” the Day Laborer Stand. In 2004, John Perillo received recognition from the Hispanic Coalition of Ossining for his efforts as Mayor in helping the day laborers in Ossining. In 2005, John received the Amigo Award from The Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck for his outstanding commitment to justice contributing to the quality of life in the Immigrant Communities. So you see Miguel, this is not about a simple faux pas; this is about more than that. Denying my name in the history of this Village is denying the efforts and hard work of the entire Perillo Administration. I’m sorry but “out of sight out of mind” just doesn’t cut it. I expect more from you in particularly since you consider yourself a History Guy. Finally, I am very proud of my heritage and my background. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everything I have stated above justifies why I decided to take a firm stance and vehemently defend our administration to set the record straight. I refuse both collaboratively and personally, to be denied by anyone in particularly The Daily Ossining or The Hispanic Democrats of Westchester, who obviously don’t have a clue. To Mr. Quezada, again I congratulate you and hope you make an honest effort to represent this community as a whole and not just the Hispanic community. Good luck to you! View Comment

please see comments under "Update shows Donnelly, Dariao, Quezada, Tawil won"! View Comment

My main reason for commenting on this site and as part of this particular article is to congratulate all the candidates that ran for office in the Village/Town of Ossining. The other reason for commenting is to set the record straight with the Daily Ossining. In the article above you state "Quezada is the first Ecuadorean ever to hold an elected office in Westchester and he said he is excited about winning." this unfortunately is completely wrong and untrue. I don't want to take away anything from Mr. Quezada but he is NOT the first Ecuadorian to hold an elected position in Ossining or Westchester. I just wish the Daily Ossining would gather their facts before publishing articles irresponsibly. For your information, I was the first Ecuadorian born to be elected in Ossining in 2002. My family came to this country and directly to Ossining in 1967, we as children grew up in Ossining, we attended the public schools in Ossining and made this our home to the point that today my grandmother is buried here and now my mother as well. I'm surprised Mr. Quezada was not made aware of this fact by Mr. Miguel Hernandez who happened to be on the same Village Board as a Village Trustee at the same time . Regardless, let it be known today that Mr. Quezada is the second Ecuadorian to be elected not the first. Marcia Barberan MacNeill View Comment