STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — When the Rev. Lester Figueroa first arrived on Staten Island in the 1990s, he noticed a community that nobody else seemed to see.
“When it comes to Puerto Ricans and my fellow Latinos, I noticed that Hispanics were the forgotten people in the forgotten borough,’’ he said.
On Staten Island, the Hispanic community was different from those in the rest of New York City, and it needed a voice, said Figueroa, founder of the Latino Civic Association of Staten Island, a partner in a Manhattan law firm and the senior pastor at Calvary Assembly of God, Eltingville.
“We discovered that, in general, the income [among the Hispanic community] was higher than other boroughs, the educational attainment was higher than other boroughs,’’ said Figueroa, 66. “There was a greater number of public servants, police, firefighters.”
He wanted to unify those people, he said. So, in 1993, the Latino Civic Association of Staten Island was born out of his efforts.
The stories he heard from the community moved him, said Figueroa, who was born in Puerto Rico and was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he said he first became acquainted with devastating poverty.
Early on, a Spanish-speaking Mexican mom on Staten Island told him she’d had to carry her son on her back for more than a mile to find a Staten Island hospital with a Spanish-speaking employee when her son’s appendix burst.
“You expect more of the land of the free and home of the brave,’’ Figueroa said. “We expect more from the biggest and most powerful nation in the history of humanity, and at the time, we were expecting more care. How could nobody think of learning the language of this new community in town?”
Figueroa and civic association leadership met with Staten Island’s hospital officials. Eyes were opened. And things changed, he said.
Voter registration efforts among members of the Hispanic community soon gave them a voice at the polls, he said.
“We wanted to unify the community and let the public officials know that there was a voting block that they needed to pay attention to ... We were spread all over the Island; voters, educated, employed,” Figueroa recalled.
And young people were especially in need, he recalled discovering.
A new ministry
In 2001, in addition to his busy career as a partner at the law firm of Borah Goldstein in Manhattan, he was called to the role of minister at the International Christian Center in Eltingville.
There, he founded a Spanish-speaking ministry, which still exists today, despite Figueroa moving on to his current role as pastor of Calvary Assembly of God nearly 17 years ago.
Compassion for people
“He has such a genuine compassion for people,’’ said Eileen Howarth, the associate pastor at Calvary, who’s worked closely with Figueroa since his arrival at the church, and has been there for 39 years. “He’s fighting, always, for the underdog. He’s fighting, always, for people’s rights — people who are in need.”
Figueroa started a Spanish ministry at the largely English-speaking church when he arrived, and today the church offers services in Spanish and in English, and Howarth said the English- and Spanish-speaking communities have blended beautifully together.
“He’s actually been able to knit both of them together,’' she said.
Food pantry
A food pantry he founded at the church about five years ago, run in coordination with City Harvest, feeds 400 families every other week — no questions asked, Figueroa said.
And though the South Shore community of Eltingville isn’t known for its poverty, Figueroa said many people behind the walls of the big, beautiful homes with Cadillacs parked out front can’t feed their families.
“No questions; We don’t care,’’ he said, “Our concern is that nobody goes hungry on our watch.”
Figueroa’s support reaches far beyond the Hispanic community on Staten Island, according to those who know him.
“He embraces you,’’ said Michael Pietrosante, an Italian-American from Westerleigh who explained he has benefited from Figueroa’s guidance. “You don’t even notice the barriers that society tends to build up.”
Pietrosante, 33, who now is in the final stages of study to become a minister with the Assembly of God church, said Figueroa was there for his family during his teen years, after Pietrosante’s father died of cancer.
“He’s been a father figure to me,’’ Pietrosante said. “He put his wings around me and was there for me. He’s impacted so many.”
Multi-ethnic community
All of Latin America is represented at the church, he said, noting that some nations represented include India, China, Korea, Russia and Uzbekistan.
“The beauty is you get to make friends with people,’’ said Figueroa, who’s been married to his college sweetheart, Melba, since 1980, and has two grown children. “We’ve identified a growing Arabic community, mainly from Syria. It’s amazing how fast that community is growing.”
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The outreach is inspiring, and its growing because of the pastor’s leadership, Howarth said.
“He doesn’t sit behind a desk or tell us what to do,” she said. “He rolls up his sleeves and he’s right there, showing us by his example.”
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