PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Former Philadelphia City Councilmember Juan Ramos has died at the age of 71. Ramos was a labor leader and community activist, and he served on City Council from 2004 to 2008.
Ramos was a Latino rights activist while he was still in high school in 1970, according to his brother Pedro.
“He was part of an early generation of English-speaking kids who were being educated in the U.S. and giving voice to their families and communities,” Pedro said.
Pedro — himself prominent in Philadelphia government — says he was greatly influenced by his brother.
“He was unrelenting in what the most disenfranchised people should expect,” he said.
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His former Council staff member Josh Cohen recalled Ramos’ outrage at a seeming lack of action over the disappearance of a young Black woman in Philadelphia, LaToyia Figueroa, while news media seemed more devoted to a blonde American teenager who had gone missing in Aruba several weeks prior.
Cohen said the attention Ramos demanded for Figueroa did reveal she had been murdered by her boyfriend. And he said it also “brought new exposure to others who were missing who didn’t get that same exposure.”
Ramos ran for re-election for City Council-at-large, but Cohen said he was fighting a bad ballot position and another candidate named Ramos, and he lost in the primary. He went back to the Laborers Union until he retired.
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He died of Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by his wife, Ana; two daughters, Alicia Ruiz and Anita Ramos; a son, Andre Ramos-Cuadrado; seven grandchildren; three great-grandchildren and four siblings besides Pedro, Elsa Ramos, Gladys Ramos-Colon and Jose Ramos.
Services will be held for Juan Ramos on Monday, July 31, at St. Peter the Apostle Church (1019 North 5th Street) in Philadelphia. A viewing will begin at 9 a.m., with a Catholic Mass to follow at 11:30 a.m., followed by interment at Greenmount Cemetery (4301 North Front Street) in Philadelphia.
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