Our 'Save the Medallions' Campaign
WE MADE IT HAPPEN!
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April 10, 2023 — One year ago, on April 10, 2022, I went looking for the Medallions on the Avenue of the Americas and discovered that only 18 (out of 300) were left. Only 14 countries were still represented. Many of our Latin American countries were missing! The biggest Hispanic groups in NYC were no longer represented there!
Yet only one year later, there are new medallions on the Avenue of the Americas, representing Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and other countries which had been absent for a long time. It took four columns, two petition drives, hundreds of emails and a hard-fought struggle by my former U.S. Hispanic History students and many Hispanic community activists who joined our “Save the Medallions” campaign, BUT WE IT HAPPEN! It took having to confront and expose some slimy politics, BUT WE MADE IT HAPPEN! When NYC Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced that the medallions would be restored, he never gave us credit and shamelessly claimed the idea as his own. But he could not cover the sun with one finger. Everyone knows that WE MADE IT HAPPEN! |
En español: ´LO LOGRAMOS! 
Old medallion photos by Miguel Pérez from Sunday April 10, 2022
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Background: In the Spring/22 semester, as I searched for more sites to assign to my students and expand our “NYC Hispanic Landmarks” page on this website, I remembered that the Avenue of the Americas, has light poles displaying the coat of arms of our Latin American countries (see photo). So, before assigning my students to visit and write about those emblems, I personally walked the entire avenue and found that most of the 300 original medallions were gone! The remaining 18 were very deteriorated. They were close to extinction!
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So, on April 24, 2022 (less than a year ago!), I wrote a column proposing that the city should restore the medallions. (See link below). I also started a campaign and an online petition drive that was mostly driven by my former students. The campaign received considerable media recognition last spring. We were on TV and several publications, in English and Spanish, promoting our “Save the Medallions” campaign.
Original April 24 column:
LET'S SAVE THE MEDALLIONS! On the Avenue of the Americas |
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Yet, six months after we started our campaign, Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, who had been interviewed about our idea by several news media, held a press conference and announced that the medallions would be restored. But he never even acknowledged the "Save the Medallions' campaign and accepted all kinds of praise for coming up with an idea he knows he stole.
Of course, I wrote another column about his shameless behavior (see link), which was widely distributed on social media by my furious former students who had worked on our campaign. |
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Making matters even worse, once we looked at the list of medallions Rodriguez was planning to restore, we saw that he was excluding Puerto Rico! Since Puerto Rico is not an independent nation, I believe he thought Puerto Rico never had medallions there. Some of my students believe he had more nefarious reasons. So, I did some investigative reporting and was able to prove (with articles and photos) that Puerto Rico indeed had medallions there! And so I wrote another column:
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Cynthia Rios, one of my former students, started a second petition drive to make sure Puerto Rico was included:
Second petition: Restore the Puerto Rico Medallions On the Avenue of the Americas
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Yet, when Rodriguez unveiled some of the new medallions in another press conference on 1/30/23, he quietly and shamelessly included Puerto Rico without even acknowledging that Puerto Rico was finally included because of the pressure he received from us, and from Puerto Rican community leaders (including Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez) who supported our campaign. And so when Rodriguez stood in front of TV cameras and took credit for our idea once again, I had to write another column:
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At one point, one of Rodriguez’ lackeys claimed that I had stolen this idea from him because he had been researching this issue since the 1990s. And so, just to shut him up (lol), I had to pull out one of my first columns on this subject — from 1984! And I wrote them a little note: "To the politiqueros seeking a way to defend Ydanis Rodriguez’ shameless behavior by questioning the depth of my research on the Avenue of the Americas, make sure you go back to at least 1984. LOL This is what I wrote back then:
“The display along the avenue of the flags and seals from every country in the continent — including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico — is a source of pride for most Latinos. When they first come to New York, Latinos walk up and down the avenue looking for their homeland’s flag and seal, which serve to reassure them that this city recognizes its historical ties with Latin America and the contributions of its Hispanic residents.”
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Yet, until today, Rodriguez has lacked the honesty and decency to recognize the work done by my students and the activism of all who wrote letters and gathered signatures for our petitions to get this done. As shown in this Telemundo47 report where I'm interviewed by reporter Ricardo Villarini, Rodriguez is still trying to cover the sun with one finger! Sadly, in this report, diplomats from Mexico and Colombia are quoted praising Rodriguez, apparently unaware that it was my Mexican and Colombian students who really deserved the praise.
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But what can we do? One can only feel pity for a politician in such need of grabbing attention that he refused to acknowledge that he was implementing an idea that came from a student project.
Nevertheless, on the anniversary of my long walk in search of medallions, after numerous struggles and roadblocks that have made the past year seem much longer, I want my students to know how proud I feel of what they have accomplished, and I want to thank all those who supported our "Save the Medallions" campaign. WE MADE IT HAPPEN! 
PROF. MIGUEL PÉREZ
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Other related links:
Our Original Petition! What People Are Saying Our Press Release! Media Recognition! PARTY TIME!
Are we celebrating our victory for the replacement of the Avenue of the Americas Medallions, whether or not NYC gives us credit? Absolutely! With salsa! (Make sure you turn on the volume). Check out this video posted on Instagram by one of my former students: |
