Felix D. Arroyo (born Apr 16, 1948) is the

Register of Probate A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as Orphans' Courts o ...

for

Suffolk County, Massachusetts Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chel ...

effective 2018, and a former at-large member of the

Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...

Early years

Arroyo was raised in a public housing project in Puerto Rico by his late father, Felicito Arroyo, a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran and police detective, and his late mother, Elisa Arroyo, a garment seamstress and an

ILGWU The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membe ...

member. Arroyo completed his undergraduate studies and received a Masters in Secondary Education at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

. He was the first member of his family to earn a college degree; he continued with his graduate studies at Harvard University, MIT, and the University of Puerto Rico. A long-time resident of Boston, Arroyo taught at

Springfield College Springfield College is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. It confers undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor J ...

UMass Boston The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

Roxbury Community College Roxbury Community College (RCC) is a public community college in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. RCC offers associate degrees in arts, and sciences, as well as certificates. RCC has transfer agreements with Curry College, North ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, and Emmanuel College.

Political career

Arroyo ran for the

Boston School Committee Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the ...

in 1981 and 1983, becoming the first Latino to run citywide, and the first Latino to pass a primary. In 1984, Arroyo founded the Latino Democratic Committee, the first statewide Latino political organization in Massachusetts, and served as the Latin American Affairs Director for United States Senator

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

. Arroyo served in the cabinet of

Mayor of Boston The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four- ...

Raymond Flynn Raymond Leo Flynn (born July 22, 1939) is an American politician who served as 52nd Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1984 until 1993. He also served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 1993–1997. Flynn was an All-American c ...

from 1985 until 1992. In 1992, Arroyo resigned his salaried position as the Director of Personnel for the City of Boston, in order to take an unpaid position as a member of the Boston School Committee. He would later serve as Vice President and President of the Boston School Committee, where he served from 1992 until 1999.

Boston City Council

Arroyo joined the Boston City Council as one of its four at-large members in January 2003, after placing fifth for an at-large seat in the November 2001 election; he was seated after

Francis Roache Francis Michael Roache (August 3, 1936 – December 17, 2018) was an American law enforcement officer and politician who served as the Boston Police Commissioner from 1985 to 1993. He was also a member of the Boston City Council from 1996 to 2002 ...

resigned. Arroyo was re-elected in November 2003 and

November 2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered ...

. He narrowly lost in November 2007, placing fifth in a field of nine candidates—his loss was attributed to low turnout among nonwhite communities, coupled with disproportionately strong turnout in traditionally white, Irish enclaves; overall turnout was only 13.6%.

Register of Probate

Arroyo announced he was running for Register of Probate for Suffolk County on February 11, 2014. He won the Democratic nomination with over 53% of the vote on September 9, 2014, and won an uncontested

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

in November 2014. He was the first Latino to win a county-wide political race in Massachusetts. Arroyo was suspended from his job in February 2017, reportedly due to questions about his performance; he returned to work in October 2017 and has deemed the suspension "unjust". He was re-elected in November 2020, garnering a 77.1% majority against two opponents including perennial candidate

Althea Garrison Althea Garrison (born October 7, 1940) is an independent American politician from Boston, Massachusetts, who has served on the Boston City Council as an at-large councilor. Garrison was elected as a Republican to the Massachusetts House of Rep ...

Anti-war activism

For more than 25 years, Arroyo has worked to promote peace and justice on a local and global level. Locally, he has sought to curtail domestic violence, gang violence, and hate crimes and was a vocal advocate against the War in Iraq. Working globally for peace, he has traveled to Nicaragua with Witness for Peace and to El Salvador with Sister Cities Program. He has traveled to Haiti and visited Israel as a peace delegate, and went to the Dominican Republic in 1999 to distribute supplies with a hurricane relief delegation.

Legacy

Two of Arroyo sons have also been elected to the Boston City Council:

Felix G. Arroyo Felix G. Arroyo (born May 25, 1979) is an American political figure from Boston. Arroyo was elected to an at-large seat on the Boston City Council in November 2009, and re-elected in November 2011, serving for two terms before unsuccessfully runn ...

served as an at-large member from January 2010 to January 2014, and Ricardo Arroyo took office in January 2020 representing District 5.

Selected positions held

* Boston City Councilor At-Large, 2003–2008 * Latin American Affairs Director for United States Senator John Kerry, 1984 * Committee Chair: New Bostonians and Youth Affairs * Committee Vice Chair: Human Rights * Committee Member: Environment; Health & Human Services; Housing * Director of Advocacy at the

Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation The Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation (HOPE) was a statewide, community based, nonprofit organization with regional offices in Boston, Lawrence, and Springfield, Massachusetts. Established in 1971, HOPE was incorporated in the Commonweal ...

* President, Vice President and Member of the Boston School Committee, 1992–1999 * Director of Personnel for the City of Boston * Education Advisor to Mayor Raymond Flynn * Chair of the Boston Arson Commission * Encuentro5 Adivory Board member * Teacher at Springfield College, UMass-Boston, Roxbury Community College,

, and Emmanuel College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arroyo, Felix D. American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Boston City Council members Boston School Committee members 1948 births Living people University of Puerto Rico alumni Boston University faculty Puerto Rican people in Massachusetts politics Hispanic and Latino American city council members