Winning Over Hispanics – One Republican Vote at a Time

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Dr. Ramon Tallaj is a leading Republican fundraiser, an active participant in the convention, and an activist for the party in Washington Heights and Inwood. But he wasn’t even eligible to vote in the last election.


Dr. Tallaj moved here from the Dominican Republic in 1991, and he became a U.S. citizen three and a half years ago. He is an inspiration to Republicans looking to gain ground in traditionally Democratic districts.


“I am here to tell my fellow Hispanics, from Maine to California, from Alaska to Miami, ‘Look around you. This is the right time to start working to diversify our vote,'” he said, with fervor.


He’s supporting two local candidates this year, Dr. Jose Goris (for state Senate), and Martin Chicon (for state Assembly). He’s on the lookout for young people to recruit. “I’d like to see us win a City Council seat in three years,” he said.


Also on the horizon: Dr. Tallaj said he is working on getting 600 units of housing for the elderly built. “When Sandy Treadwell [chairman of state republican committee] visited, he said it would happen.”


Dr. Tallaj is in step with the Republican National Committee – which boasts that Hispanics are the largest minority group of delegates at the convention. It has arranged for gavel-to-gavel proceedings to be translated in Spanish simultaneously and there are Hispanic speakers and entertainers.


Hispanic Republicans are a rare breed in the city. But the way he tells it, the Hispanics’ devotion to the Democratic Party is borne out of lack of political savvy. “This was a land of the blind,” he said. He has no kind words for the Democrats.


“They’ve been running things like a dictatorship,” he said.


“The president of the Democratic club – he resigned, he’s with me. The chief of staff for a state assemblyman – he resigned, he’s here. Why? They’ve been seeing the community stay the same, just people getting rich, doing deals,” he said.


“I was able to take a look, and see the poverty, and open their eyes – the eyes of the women, especially, so they can see their kids go to high school and college,” Dr. Tallaj added.


“This is the party, and the president, that is in line with our principles: family, work, believing in yourself…My people aren’t blind anymore. They see with their health insurance,” he said.


As an internist, health care is an issue close to Dr. Tallaj’s heart. Although his political dedication has increased in recent years (he revived the Northern Manhattan Republican Club, and helped establish the Republican State Committee office on Dyckman Street shortly after his naturalization), he still sees patients from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. His work for the party is accomplished during late nights, early mornings, and on weekends.


He serves as president of the Dominican Independent Physicians Association and of the Dominican Medical and Dental Society, and was appointed to the New York City Sports Development Corporation by Mayor Bloomberg.


He is proud: “I make changes as a leader, in the medical field, in the political field,” he said.


Along with health care, education is among his top concerns. “Governor Pataki made sure our children have free health insurance,” Dr. Tallaj said. “And Mayor Bloomberg improved the schools. Why? Because he’s a businessman, not a politician.”


He proudly notes that in the past four years, Mayor Bloomberg has visited the Dominican Republic three times, and Governor Pataki has visited once. “That never happened before. With the access we have now, we can tell them what we need,” he said.


Dr. Tallaj grew up in Santiago, where three of his five sisters still live. Another is here, and the fifth is in Miami.


His uncle, Dr. Jose Tallaj, made a tremendous impact on the young Ramon.


His uncle was also physician and an activist – and among those who attempted to oust dictator Rafael Trujillo.


“My uncle, he went to jail and was tortured. He was released when the dictator was killed. I was only four years old at the time, but I grew up with him, I studied medicine because of him, I saw his caring and his compassion. That’s why I became a physician,” he said.


In the first 10 years of his medical career in the Dominican Republic, he became the undersecretary of public health and ran the welfare department for a year. Then Cardinal O’Connor encouraged him to come to America.


“He was my mentor, he saw the work I was doing, and he said, ‘We need you there.'”


He trained at St. Luke’s Roosevelt and is currently the co-chief of Ambulatory Services at St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital, which has three offices in Washington Heights.


“I’ve been able to help a lot of people in my community,” he said.


Dr. Tallaj’s commitment to the cause has not been without sacrifice. He is divorced (“the one bad thing,” he said), and he worries that he doesn’t spend enough time with his five children, who range in age from 14 to 26.


“I take things too seriously sometimes. I’m not 28. I’m 48,” he said. “Sometimes I have to slow down.”


Dr. Tallaj’s exhaustive efforts for the Pataki campaign put him in the unusual role of patient. A few weeks after the election, he had heart surgery.


This week, though, he seems in fine form. At a rally Saturday outside the Dyckman Street New York State Republican Committee office, he moved through the crowd and led chants against a group of Democrats who’d staged a protest: “Four more years.” “Now, I see,” “Don’t Fool Us Anymore,” he called out.


His message to Hispanic voters is clear. “We’ve made inroads in every single borough. I want my fellow Hispanics to understand that we must change or we will perish.”


The New York Sun

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