Was Guridy First Latino Council Member?

A Morning Call article on Saturday described Julio Guridy as Allentown's first Latino council member. Recently, Matt Tuerk was described as our first Latino mayor by the paper. If Tuerk's Cuban grandmother qualified him as a first, then certainly Martin Velazquez's Puerto Rican father made him the first Hispanic council member in 1994.  

In fairness to the paper, Velazquez's terms were many years ago, and the "First Latino" was missing from both the headline and article by Sunday. Guridy and Velazquez were both motivated to run in opposition to Emma Tropiano, especially her sponsored ordinance on English as the official language. Marty also became a candidate for mayor, and beat Emma Tropiano in the primary by one vote. 

I do agree with the article about Julio's contributions to Allentown. Although he and I over the years had some heated discussions, both in the council chamber and on the street, Allentown has certainly benefitted from his devotion to the city.