State Senator José R. Peralta (1971-2018) made history by becoming the first Dominican American elected to the New York State Senate when he assumed office in District 13. He served from 2010 until his death in 2018. His tenure was marked by a focus on immigration justice, support for working-class families, access to quality education for all children and advocacy for LGBT rights. He was most notable as his chamber's leading champion for undocumented young people whom he believed deserved equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. He introduced the New York DREAM Act in 2013 and increased its support over the following years. Prior to his election to the State Senate, he served in the New York State Assembly from 2002 to 2010, representing the 39th Assembly District. He was a member of the New York State Senate Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian caucuses, and of the Puerto Rican Hispanic Task Force. As a state legislator, his sponsorship of gun-control legislation and a bill requiring microstamping on bullet-casings has drawn the ire of the National Rifle Association. He was a champion of economic development and job creation, and was a fighter for immigrants’ rights. He worked to heighten awareness of domestic violence and protect battered spouses from further abuse.

Guillermo Vasquez (1953-1996) was a leading gay rights, AIDS, and Latino community activist in Queens who emigrated from Colombia in 1972. A member of Queens Gays and Lesbians United, Vasquez would go on to serve on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a statewide organization that advocated for LGBT rights. In 1993, he helped organize the first Queens Pride Parade as a member of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee and served as a translator for Spanish-speaking participants. Vasquez passed away due to AIDS-related complications in 1996.

The corner of 77th Street and Broadway was co-named “Guillermo Vasquez Corner” next to the site of the Love Boat, a former gay Latino bar where he educated the community about HIV/AIDS.

Luis Alvarez (1965-2019) was a retired NYPD bomb squad detective who died from complications of cancer linked to 9/11-related illness. He worked with other first responders during the search and rescue operation at Ground Zero. He also worked tirelessly for an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Shortly before his death, Alvarez, alongside television host Jon Stewart, testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee in Washington to replenish the fund.

Alice Cardona (1930-2011) was a prominent leader in New York's Puerto Rican and Latino communities. She authored "Puerto Rican Women Achievers in New York City" and was deeply involved in community programs. In the 1960s, Cardona served as program coordinator for United Bronx Parents, promoting parental involvement in the school system and youth programs. She played a key role in New York's first Head Start program and worked as a youth counselor at the non-profit ASPIRA.

From 1983 to 1995, she was the assistant director of the NYS Division for Women under Governor Mario Cuomo. Cardona was a staunch advocate for bilingual education and women's rights, including those in prison. She also worked to combat HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and domestic violence. Additionally, she served as the director of the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs and co-founded Atrévete, a voter registration and political participation program.

Born in Veracruz, Mexico, Lorena Borjas (1960-2020) was a fierce advocate for the transgender and Latinx communities in Queens. Borjas moved to the U.S. in 1980 and earned a green card through a Reagan-era amnesty program. She was convicted of charges related to prostitution in 1994, but the charges were later vacated, since she was forced into prostitution by human traffickers. However, other convictions remained on her record until 2017, when then-Governor Andrew M. Cuomo pardoned her. She became a U.S. citizen in 2019.

Borjas inspired many people through her advocacy for the LGBT community. She co-founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund in 2012 and was actively involved in many organizations, including the AIDS Center of Queens County, the Hispanic AIDS Forum and the Latino Commission on AIDS. In 2015, she founded El Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo, a non-profit organization that works to defend the rights of transgender and gender non-binary people. The organization provides legal and medical services to trans and non-binary sex workers and undocumented members of the community. Although Borjas had already been taking sex workers to clinics to get tested for HIV and helping to get lawyers for possible deportation cases, El Colectivo was a way for her to officially continue that work. She also became a counselor for the Community Healthcare Network's Transgender Family Program, where she worked to obtain legal aid for victims of human trafficking. Borjas died on March 30, 2020, of complications from COVID-19.

On June 26, 2022, a bill was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul establishing the Lorena Borjas transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) wellness and equity fund, which will be used to invest in increasing employment opportunities, providing access to gender-affirming healthcare, and raising awareness about transgender and gender non-binary people in New York.

Laura Almeida Egas (d. 2017) a native of Ecuador, moved to Queens with her young children in 1975. She began work as a seamstress and soon organized coworkers and learned labor laws to demand they be paid the appropriate wage and have better working conditions - a fight she won. When Almeida became involved as a parishioner at the Most Precious Blood church, her work to support fellow congregants who were unable to attend mass showed her that many needed more than prayers. She recruited other members to help get them, and members of the greater community, to their doctors, get them food and clean their homes. Almeida was well known for her extensive community service, particularly amazing as she was a single parent of three daughters, including Queens Supreme Court Justice Carmen Velasquez.

Nicolas A. Nowillo (?-2008) died trying to protect a neighbor from getting robbed on the street. The youngest of four children, Mr. Nowillo moved to New York City from Riobamba, a city in central Ecuador, his family said. After graduating from George Washington High School in Manhattan, he attended Bible study classes and worked as a jewelry appraiser. He enlisted in the Army in the 1960s, but was never sent to Vietnam, his family said. He volunteered at the East River Development Alliance and helped organize a seminar to teach new immigrants how to start businesses. Nowillo, who lived on Crescent Street for more than 34 years, was known as a neighborhood “good guy”, area residents said. The father of two spent countless hours volunteering at the Evangel Christian Church and School, where he was a member for more than 19 years. The street renaming was spearheaded by Nowillo’s daughter, Doris Nowillo-Suda, and backed by Community Board 1, the Dutch Kills community, the Dutch Kills Civic Association and then City Councilmember Eric Gioia.

Manuel de Dios Unanue (1943-1992) was a Cuban-born journalist and radio host who was killed in New York City in 1992.

De Dios was born in Cuba in 1943 and moved to the United States in 1973, after time spent in Spain and Puerto Rico, he settled in Elmhurst, Queens. He worked as a journalist for several Spanish-language newspapers in New York City, before becoming editor-in-chief of El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-Language newspaper in NYC, in 1984.

De Dios was best known for his investigative reporting on the Colombian drug trade. He wrote extensively about the drug cartels that operated in Queens, and he named names. His reporting made him a target of the drug traffickers, and he was slain on March 11, 1992, by a hitman for the Colombian drug cartel in the Meson Asturias restaurant on 83rd Street in Queens.

This small park on the border of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst in Queens was named in his honor in 1993.

Monti J. Castañeda Sanchez (1961-2021) was born in Brooklyn, the only child of a Guatemalan-immigrant single mother. Monti, or Chiqui, as she was known in her community, had a profound connection with the challenges and struggles faced by immigrant women, youth, and the elderly in New York City. For over 40 years she was as a member of Queens Neighborhood Advisory Board 4 and the Community Action Board as the Representative of Region 17 for Queens Neighborhood Advisory Boards 3, 4 and 17.

Motivated from a young age, Chiqui earned two Master’s degrees from New York University; the first on Latin American and Caribbean studies (1995), and the second on Global Public Health (2008). After almost two decades working at the Institute of International Education's Fulbright Program, Chiqui decided to focus her attention on underserved immigrants in her community by working as a researcher for various health related organizations such as Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS, 2008-2010), NYU Langone Cancer Center at Bellevue Hospital (2009-2015), and Americares Foundation (2005-2021).

From 2012 until her death, she worked closely with the Ecuadorian International Center in Jackson Heights writing grants to raise funds for free mammogram services for low-income women, among other causes. There, she also mentored young people - especially DACA youth. In 2018, Chiqui helped start the Luz Colón Memorial Fund, which provides small college grants for young Latinas in New York interested in civic affairs and community leadership. She also supported the Mexico Now Festival since 2004 to reshape Mexican culture and identity preconceptions and to promote racial justice while highlighting the work of Mexican artists in New York City. Lastly, Chiqui had a particular passion for advocating for elderly migrants living in Jackson Heights. She devoted her personal life to the care of her elderly mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and with whom she lived in the same apartment in Jackson Heights for over 40 years. In 2008, while at the New York Academy of Medicine, she published a paper on the needs of older immigrants and their perspective on growing older in New York City. Chiqui also maintained close connections with other community advocates and public servants to help promote much needed policy changes for migrant women, youth and the elderly.

Monti J. Castañeda Sanchez passed away unexpectedly on June 11, 2021 as she went to bury her recently deceased mother in Guatemala, far from her beloved community of Jackson Heights, but surrounded by close family members.

Barbara Guzzardo (b. 1952) a Glendale resident and Cuban immigrant, worked for Aon Corporation at the World Trade Center. Guzzardo came to America when she was five years old and taught herself English, working her way through high school and college. She was killed in the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Carlos Lillo (1963-2001), a paramedic, was killed while assisting in rescue operations on September 11, 2001, following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Luis Manuel Gonzalez (1982-2009) was a Queens native who went to Flushing High School. He had dreamed for years of joining the Army and enlisted after graduating from high school in 2002, he had a commanding presence that made him a good fit for the Army. Assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, he was killed in combat in Afghanistan, along with six other soldiers, when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

Sargent First Class Gonzalez grew up in the Corona area of Queens, but later moved to the South Ozone Park neighborhood. Gonzalez, an avid New York Yankees fan, had a wife, Jessica, and son. He distinguished himself by earning more than twenty-three medals, including the Bronze Star. Gonzalez served twice in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan.