Hispanic Heritage Month: Annette Ramos

ROCHESTER, N.Y. ( WROC ) — If you look left or right at any Monroe County elections event, you’ll see Annette Ramos right there lining up all the dominoes to fall in place. Experiencing her vibrant energy and boundless passion, and you’d never know the long hours she tirelessly spends setting up registration tents, recruiting poll workers, and making sure everyone she can reach knows that “You’re Right to Vote”.

“The pride with which they walk away from our table, knowing that they are now part of the Democratic process and they get to practice democracy in action — that is a feel good that I get to go home with every day,” Annette explains to News 8’s Mikhaela Singleton .

Before Annette was ever the voter registration coordinator at the Monroe County Board of Elections, she began life as a first-generation, born and bred New York City gal whose mami taught her Puerto Ricans are just as American as the next man or woman on the street.

“I can recall the very first time I ever stepped into a polling site with my mami—and those were the lever machines way back when,” she laughs. “Growing up in a family that was already civically-minded and engaged was really a steppingstone for knowing and understanding my civic responsibility as a United States citizen.”

She says she moved to California for a period of about 17 years, and during a vacation to Puerto Rico, had a fateful encounter with a man from Rochester who would become her husband.

Since taking her position at the Board of Elections three years ago, Annette says she’s had one goal in mind: make sure every person in this diverse city feels represented. The community credits her for working hard on new polling and registration sites —like the one at the Susan B. Anthony House— and visiting classrooms to promote youth civic engagement.

“I tell young people —and I was just in a classroom full of young people— I want you to feel your power,” Annette says passionately.

“A few words that come to mind when I think about Annette is high energy, fun, and passion. I think that there are lots of people that can be inspired by seeing Annette out working in the community,” says Allison Hinman, the chief operating officer at the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House.

“It really brings me a tremendous joy and satisfaction —and especially as a brown woman, to know that I am moving forward Susan B. Anthony’s vision of women’s rights to vote,” Annette says while reflecting on the hard work to bring election events to the museum.

Her vision for diversity also reaches the stage. Annette is the co-founder of the Rochester Latino Theatre Company. She says she loves telling stories and noticed that not everyone’s gets told.

“We would either be cast as the maid or a hotheaded Latina or directors wouldn’t see beyond the character. We were so invisible in the theater community here as brown and Black women, that we realized we needed to form our own theater company and we really needed to write our own stories about us, by us, and for us, and most importantly in our own language,” she explains.

Annette has won many honors for her steadfast work over the years, including a 2024 Geva Theater Diversity in the Arts award and as a 2023 Father Tracy awardee. Whether in the arts or in the polling booths, Annette’s passion for inclusion shines, and she says she doesn’t take the community’s appreciation for granted.

“I am simply doing the work that needs to be done in this community,” Annette says while reminiscing on the “tribe” of strong women she says have supported her through her journey.

“I am dedicated single-handedly, every day to pounding the pavement to ensure that others also feel empowered, supported, and activated,” she concludes.

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