Currently president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, a primarily Hispanic community on the west side of Pueblo, Colorado, Ersilia Cruz is not a newcomer as a resident leader. Known informally as the "Mayor" of Hyde Park, Cruz has fought hard for the preservation of the neighborhood in which she has lived for 50 years.

 

Her first venture into community improvement causes came through the War on Poverty when she led the struggle to capture some of the benefits of this federal program for her Hyde Park neighborhood. Her efforts resulted in many water, sewer and pavement improvements for the community, as well as the establishment of several youth programs, including baseball and basketball camps.

This was just the beginning of Cruz's activism on behalf of her neighborhood. Since then, she has been in the forefront of numerous battles to preserve and improve living conditions in this often neglected corner of Pueblo. For many years, she led the fight to keep the neighborhood school open. When that struggle ultimately was lost, she played a prominent role in the conversion of the building into a library.

She always has been one of the first to knock on city hall's door when infrastructure improvements are needed in Hyde Park or decaying buildings harboring drug addicted squatters must be demolished.

Concern for young people in Hyde Park has been a motivating factor for Cruz's actions. In 1999, she helped establish a computer education program at the community center, and was instrumental, along with the Hyde Park School Usage Committee, in using a federal program to obtain computers for the center. She followed up this achievement by gaining financial support from various city agencies for a much-needed renovation of the center, now the source of several youth recreation programs.

Most recently, Cruz called on Neighborhood Housing Services of Pueblo to step into the neighborhood and develop seriously needed quality housing. Subsequently, ground was broken for a $6 million, 79-unit, single-family, mixed-income community called Hyde Park Gardens.

Today, Cruz serves as a board member and board secretary of NHS, is president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, which she helped establish just over a year ago, and is a member of the Community Development Block Grant Committee. She also is Parrish Council vice chairman of Holy Rosary Church and a past president of the Hyde Park PTA. Her dedication to the preservation and improvement of Hyde Park is never-ending.