1970s, a number of campaigns were launched by Puerto Ricans and Latino candidates, many of which were, in the words of the candidates themselves "more to assert a Latino political presence than an expectation of winning". Among these was Carlos Vega. An Ecuadorian community activist who managed Nueva Esperanza for many years, Vega would lose to another candidate for a school board seat in 1971. In 1973 Heriberto Flores would see the same outcome, though he would be the very first Puerto Rican to run for Holyoke City Council, then-known as the Board of Aldermen. It wasn't until 1985 that the first would be elected to city government, with Betty Medina gaining a seat on the school board. Medina, who was active instrumental in organizing the nonprofit Enlace de Familias, serving as its director in subsequent decades would be the first Puerto Rican woman to hold any public office in the Commonwealth. In city politics, Diosdado López, one of Nueva Esperanza's former interns, and key figure in La Familia Hispaña, was the first to be elected to the city council in 1992. By 2018, the representation of Puerto Rican and Latino councilors closely resembled that of the city's demographics, an outcome from gradual integration from the previous margins of municipal politics. Gradually Puerto Rican culture in schools saw greater acceptance as well; in 1988 the city hall would host more than 100 exhibits talking about the history and art of the island made by students of Holyoke Public Schools. This same year, artist and retired factory worker Angel Sánchez Ortíz moved to Holyoke, and began to work with youths in the city and the Greater Springfield area to provide them with new outlets of creativity and combat a culture of gang activity. Working with local cultural centers Ortíz taught a generation how to make vejigante masks and the traditional dance and festivities which they were associated with on the island. Since that time his own work has been featured in a number of venues, including the Worcester Art Museum, Lowell Folk Festival, and the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Following a campaign by Diosdado Lopez, the first member of the community elected to the Board of Aldermen, the city renamed Park Street of South Holyoke to Roberto Clemente Street on August 20, 1993. Clemente, the first Latin American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall