[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 12710-12711]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING AIXA TORRES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ

                              of new york

                  in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 8, 2017

  Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
extraordinary accomplishments of Aixa Torres on the occasion of her 
birthday and retirement. Ms. Torres was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, 
to Domingo Arturo Torres and America Figueras. She moved with her 
parents and sisters to New York City in 1955, where she attended public 
schools. Ms. Torres graduated from the City University of New York and 
Lincoln University.
  Among her many achievements, Ms. Torres was instrumental in working 
with local elected officials to push the New York City Housing 
Authority to fully repair old, faulty gas pipes at Smith Houses that 
sometimes forced residents to go without cooking gas for weeks or 
months at a time. Under this leadership and partnership, Smith 
residents can reliably use their ovens and stoves without having to 
worry about looming gas outages.

[[Page 12711]]

  Ms. Torres' leadership has also been put to the test by multiple 
natural disasters. Her efforts resulted in the successful evacuation of 
hundreds of Smith residents ahead of Hurricane Irene, and her advocacy 
during Hurricane Sandy demonstrated that an organized community can 
overcome the worst of disasters. On behalf of the residents of Alfred 
E. Smith Houses, she recently formed a Sandy Task Force for the purpose 
of overseeing the Sandy Recovery and Resiliency at Smith.
  After decades of community work, serving on advisory councils and 
public school parent associations, Ms. Torres retired in 2014 from the 
Department of Education as the Lower East Side's Family Advocate. In 
August 2004, she, along with Principal Santiago Tavares, instituted a 
Citywide High School Summer Graduation. In 2010, Torres also began 
serving as President of the Alfred E. Smith Resident Association, on 
Manhattan's Lower East Side.
  Ms. Torres married the late George Carmona, Jr. in 1971, and had two 
children, George III and Liza Noemi. For more than 50 years, she has 
resided on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she lives with her 
daughter and grandchildren, Mia and Elijah.

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