Nelson Antonio Denis

Nelson Antonio Denis is an American attorney, author, film director, and former representative to the New York State Assembly.

Denis went on to graduate from Harvard College in 1977, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, and then a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School in 1980.

He then went to work as an attorney with the New York law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine.

Denis's screenplays have won awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and CineFestival.

He also wrote and directed the feature-length film Vote For Me! which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In 1994, Denis entered into a controversial relationship with the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation.

While jogging along the FDR Drive, he ran into a group of 500 Latin Kings and recruited them into his campaign for the State Assembly.

Denis and the Latin Kings cleaned up several parks in East Harlem, and attended community board meetings together.

Denis also pledged that, if he won, he would help the Latin Kings to create a community non-profit corporation, a leadership training course, and a construction apprenticeship program to rehabilitate roughly 800 abandoned buildings in East Harlem.

Denis maintained that "the Kings are the product of 20 years of neglect. These are the youth that Reagan forgot."

However, others did not agree.

His opponent, the incumbent Assemblyman Angelo Del Toro, said "they're gangsters and a threat."

Another early skeptic was Denis's mother.

She laid down rules that included no beepers or babies in the office, but she gradually learned to work with them.

Despite this controversy, the New York Times endorsed Denis for the State Assembly that year.

Prior to serving in the New York State Assembly, Denis directed TV commercials and several short films, and wrote eight screenplays.

In 1995, as deputy director of Yucahu Inc., an East Harlem community group, Denis opposed the merger of Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan due to inadequate service to the community.

Denis was a member of the East Harlem Community Board (C.B. 11), the Area Policy Board, and the director of strategic planning for the Harlem Community Development Corporation.

He was also a New York State Democratic District Leader from 1995 to 2001.

The press noted that his mother, Sarah Denis, worked 12-hour days on the campaign trail and that Denis was himself an untiring campaigner who was "often seen throughout the neighborhood campaigning on the back of a blue bus."

In 1996 Denis won a seat in the New York State Assembly, where he served as a Democrat from 1997 to 2000, and developed a reputation as a reformer.

From 1997 through 2000, Denis represented New York's 68th Assembly district, which includes the East Harlem and Spanish Harlem neighborhoods, both highly populated by Latinos.

As the editorial director for El Diario La Prensa, Denis published over 300 editorials and won the "Best Editorial Writing" award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

His most recent work is War Against All Puerto Ricans, a non-fiction book, about the life of Puerto Rican independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos, and the treatment of Puerto Rican nationalists by agencies of the United States government.

Denis was born in New York City borough of Manhattan to Antonio Denis Jordan, a native of Cuba of French descent, and Sarah Denis, originally from Puerto Rico.

After his father was peremptorily deported back to his homeland, when Nelson was eight years old, he was raised by his mother and grandmother.

Denis wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own book War Against All Puerto Ricans (Nation Books, 2015).

According to The Daily News a feature film of War Against All Puerto Ricans was being planned from this screenplay and several actors, including Luís Guzmán, were interested in the project.

For several years Denis was the editorial director of El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York City, where he published over 300 editorials and received the "Best Editorial Writing" award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Denis also wrote editorials for the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Nation, Harvard Political Review, Daily News, New York Newsday, Orlando Sentinel and The New York Sun.

He was also a cultural and political commentator on WNYC, WADO, and other radio outlets.

From 2015 onward, Denis's journalism has focused on the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, and the historical and political underpinnings of this crisis.

His editorials in this area have appeared in the New York Daily News, New York Times, The Nation, Orlando Sentinel, and Truthout.

Denis has also appeared on ABC TV, C-SPAN, New York 1, MSNBC, Al Jazeera TV, and Democracy Now! to discuss the history and current fiscal crisis of Puerto Rico.

Denis also gave radio interviews around the US to discuss conditions on the island: including the Brian Lehrer Show in New York, WBEZ Worldview in Chicago, WNPR Connecticut, WBAI/The Jordan Journal, and WGBH/The Takeaway.

He is a strong proponent of Puerto Rican independence because of the "rigged capitalism the United States has forced on its Caribbean colony."

He has also written extensively about the Jones Act, and its economic impact on Puerto Rico.

His article on the status of Latino publishing in the U.S. was the second most-read editorial in Publishers Weekly for the year of 2017.

Before and during his years as an assemblyman, Denis conducted a neighborhood legal clinic that provided advocacy, advice, and free legal services to the residents of East Harlem.

Denis majored in Government at Harvard, and was involved in New York State government for fourteen years.