Marcela Mitaynes is a Peruvian-American politician and tenant organizer. She is a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

, representing the 51st district as a Democrat. Mitaynes is a member of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

Early life and education

After spending her early life in the

Department of Puno Puno () is a department and region in southeastern Peru. It is the fifth largest department in Peru, after Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It is bordered by Bolivia on the east, the departments of Madre de Dios on the north, Cusc ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, Mitaynes moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as a child and was raised in

Sunset Park, Brooklyn Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, bounded by Park Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the ...

. Mitaynes has an A.S. in Accounting from CUNY Kingsborough Community College.

Electoral history

Mitaynes ran for elected office for the first time in the June 23, 2020 Democratic primary for the 51st district of the

. On election night, she trailed longtime incumbent

Félix Ortiz Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, S ...

by 464 votes. After absentee ballots had been counted, Mitaynes led Ortiz by 240 votes, and on July 16, 2020, Ortiz conceded defeat to Mitaynes. Given that the district skews heavily Democratic, Mitaynes ran unopposed in the November 3 general election and won her race. She was sworn in on January 1, 2021. During the campaign, Mitaynes was endorsed by the New York City

, the

Sunrise Movement Sunrise Movement is an American 501(c)(4) political action organization that advocates political action on climate change. When launched in 2017, the movement's goal was to elect proponents of renewable energy in the 2018 midterm elections, fi ...

, the

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nev ...

State Senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...

Julia Salazar Julia Salazar (born December 30, 1990) is an American politician and activist. She is the New York State Senator for the 18th district, which covers much of northern Brooklyn, centered on Bushwick. She won the seat as a first-time candidate af ...

Representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...

, and actress and 2018 gubernatorial candidate

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

Political positions

Mitaynes first became politically active as a member of the tenants' rights movements in New York City, after she and her family were

evicted Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgag ...

from their apartment in 2006. She was active in the successful 2019 effort to lobby the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...

to pass stronger tenant protections. Mitaynes made housing issues central to her 2020 campaign. She supports cancelling rent for residential and commercial tenants, and cancelling mortgage payments for small landlords. On August 19, 2021, she was arrested in an act of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

to oppose the end of New York's statewide eviction moratorium. The moratorium was extended later that month. Mitaynes also participated in a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

in March and April 2021 in support of an "excluded workers fund" that was established to support undocumented workers who did not qualify for federal pandemic assistance.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American politicians Activists from New York City American politicians of Peruvian descent Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in New York (state) Democratic Socialists of America politicians from New York New York (state) Democrats New York (state) socialists Politicians from Brooklyn Peruvian emigrants to the United States {{NewYork-politician-stub