Resident (R): What does it mean to be a New Yorker?
R: How have you seen your district change
Charlie Rangel (CR): I don’t know anything else; I feel sorry for people who were born here, like me, because it doesn’t get any better. There is no town that we can go to that is as exciting - whether it’s Paris or Berlin or Tokyo. Wherever you go, different cultures have a lot to offer but no other place has all of them together and to know that you can at anytime fall into a culture is a beautiful thing. I was able to see the Mexicans and the Dominicans emigrate here and to be able to be a part of that assimilation is very exciting. My family comes from Virginia; my father abandoned my mother as a kid. I was raised right here in Manhattan. I had not known any Dominicans until they had come into Manhattan and that group, more than any other; I was able to help organize, to help
CR: The district has changed from the
Resident January 2013
congressional district was always expanding. However, there are many more Dominicans in the district than there used to be and so there have been changes, but not as much as in other districts and not enough to change the outcome of the last election. Normally my reelection is not too much of a problem because I have worked so closely with the existing political structure. R: What’s a normal day like for you? CR: Everyday is a different day and now is after the election I would not be in Washington at all because we would be preparing for the transition into the new Congress. Normally,
we would be home for the holiday season and if there were an emergency we would be called to Washington. Of course, when I’m home there is a great many people who want to meet with me so that I can help with whatever organization it may be. There is no one-day that is the same. In the summer time, it’s the parades in the wintertime it’s It is exciting because no day is dull; you never get tired of it. R: Which pieces of legislation are you most proud of ? CR: When my bill was signed into law, marked the beginning of the end of apartheid because they couldn’t afford to pay for both very proud that I was involved. My bill for