Cesar A. Perales
| Cesar Perales | |
|---|---|
| 65th Secretary of State of New York | |
|
In office May 2, 2011 – February 22, 2016 |
|
| Governor | Andrew Cuomo |
| Preceded by | Ruth Noemí Colón |
| Succeeded by | Rossana Rosado |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 12, 1940 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education |
City University of New York, City College (BA) Fordham University (JD) |
Cesar Augusto Perales (born November 12, 1940 New York City) is an American attorney, civil servant and was the previous Secretary of State of New York in the Cabinet of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Perales was appointed by Cuomo on March 31, 2011 and unanimously confirmed by the New York State Senate on June 7.
The son of a Puerto Rican father and a Dominican mother, Perales grew up in New York City. He has said he first considered becoming a lawyer as a child, after his father's business went bankrupt.
"It really cost us a lot. I'm talking about losing furniture in the house, having it repossessed and things of that nature. It was a very terrible period for our family. And my father once told me that if he had had good legal help this wouldn't have happened."
Perales went on to earn a bachelor's degree from City College 1962 and graduated from Fordham Law School in 1965.
Upon graduating from Fordham, Perales worked at the legal unit for a Ford Foundation-funded program on the Lower East Side of New York called Mobilization for Youth.
In 1968, when the federal government began to open neighbourhood legal services programs as part of the War on Poverty, Perales was selected to establish the first Brooklyn Legal Services Office.
His experiences working in New York’s Puerto Rican neighborhoods allowed him to also assume the role of legal advocate for New York’s Latino community. In April 1969, he represented the students who took over his alma mater, the City College of New York to demand the admission of more minority students.
In January, 1970, he represented the Young Lords Organization when they took control of a church to provide community services to poor community in El Barrio. Perales negotiated the early morning non-violent arrest of over 100 members the Young Lords who refused to leave the church. "The Young Lords were seen as a radical young Puerto Rican group that, actually in that situation had taken over that church and were offering breakfast to the kids," Perales said. "These young people had a right to have a lawyer. I was doing my job as a lawyer for a group that I thought was doing good things."
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Wikipedia