Rodriguez, Luz

Luz Marina Rodriguez was born in New York City on March 7, 1956, and grew up on the Lower East Side. She was the eldest of three children of Elsa Rodriguez Vazquez and Luis Rodriguez Nieto, Sr., who had both recently emigrated from Puerto Rico as part of Operation Bootstrap, a government economic investment into the Puerto Rican economy. Her father held a variety of jobs, including electronics repair and night security work, while her mother sold Avon products.

After graduating from Seward Park High School in 1974, Rodriguez spent two years immersed in social and cultural activities in her Puerto Rican neighborhood, which became known as Loisaida (a Latino pronunciation of the Lower East Side). She was deeply involved in The Real Great Society, a gang outreach and community empowerment organization created in 1964 to engage youth in addressing local needs, especially sweat equity projects to create affordable housing. She was also an active participant in Charas/El Bohio, a cultural center where she taught Puerto Rican folkloric dance.

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