Taveras sworn in as Providence’s first Latino mayor
PROVIDENCE – Angel Taveras became Providence’s first Latino mayor at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.
Taveras, 40 years old, was sworn in just after midnight in a private ceremony at his home in Mount Pleasant. The public inauguration at City Hall will take place at 1:30 p.m.
Ahead of the public event, his office offered several excerpts from his prepared speech.
“We have at our fingertips resources and assets that other cities could only dream of. We are blessed with a community of entrepreneurs, artists and activists who challenge and inspire us to dream big and do better,” the release said.
“We are a city of creators who, for much of our nation’s history, have defined American arts, culture and industry.”
Taveras, a Dominican-American lawyer, grew up on Providence’s South Side, where he attended Head Start before entering the city’s public school system. He went on to graduate from Harvard University and earn his law degree from Georgetown University.
“More than half of our students are not proficient in reading and more than three-quarters of our students are not proficient in math. It is unacceptable – and unconscionable – that we provide anything less than the absolute best: a college and career preparatory education for every single child in this city, regardless of family income, regardless of skin color, regardless of ZIP code,” Taveras’ speech said.
He returned to Providence to practice at the firm of Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District in 1999. Later, Taveras began his own practice, Taveras Law, in Providence.
In 2007, he was appointed by then-Mayor David N. Cicilline as an associate judge on the Providence Housing Court and twice confirmed by the Providence City Council.
Since winning the election on Nov. 2 with 82 percent of the vote, Taveras said he has assembled his senior leadership team, nominated former state police superintendant Steven Pare as the public safety commissioner and will launch a national search for a new Economic Development Director immediately upon taking office.