This article was edited on Aug. 4 to include the statements from the Sheriff of Philadelphia City and County, as well as a follow-up response from Lopez.

As the Latino community of Philadelphia becomes more visible and vocal throughout the city, it seems that so has the need to recognize its achievements.

And in a current landscape where its representation still has a long way to go, a “Latino or Latina” first resonates even more as a source of pride in the community.   

Latinos have a history of successes, but the recognition part has taken a lot longer to arrive. Today, unlike in the past when it was rare to catch them in headlines, their stories are actually catching up in the mainstream. Today when Latinos make it...it matters.

A good example of this is the reaction to the recent announcement by the Office of Communications Department from the Sheriff’s Office. On June 3rd it published a media release that read “Sheriff Jewell Williams promotes first female Deputy Sheriff in history of the office,” a headline that prompted an article in AL DÍA.

“Among the four Deputy Sheriff Officers promoted to the rank of Deputy Sheriff by Sheriff Jewell Williams yesterday was Dolores Ramos, making her the first female Latino Deputy Sheriff to hold the position in the more than 300-year history of the office,” reads the release.

AL DÍA published the profile, “A Latina first, 'but not the last'” on June 29, about Ramos, who after a few years as a correctional officer applied for the Sheriff’s Office during a recruitment effort.

A few weeks after the story ran, AL DÍA received a call from Brunilda “Bruni” Lopez to let us know that the “information was incorrect.”

“I wanted you to know that I was the first Latina Deputy Sheriff at the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office,” Lopez said over the phone.

Lopez, now retired, said she learned about Ramos’ article after receiving a few calls. “A friend of mine brought the article and I said ‘Wow, this is not correct.’ I couldn’t understand how it could be printed in your paper,” Lopez said to AL DÍA.

But, Joseph Blake, Communications Officer at the Office of the Sheriff of Philadelphia, defended the statement of the release. In an email he said the office verified its records and that “Dolores Ramos is the first Female Latino Deputy Sheriff in the history of the Office of the Sheriff of Philadelphia City and County.”

“We gave you facts in a real-time situation that was validated and verified by our records and processes.  There is no reason imaginable for this office to fabricate anything, especially the significance of such a special promotion,” he wrote in an email.

“Bruni Lopez, a former Sheriff’s office employee carried the title of Deputy Sheriff Officer, a rank below that of Ramos,” Blake added. “The distinction is significant because there is a difference in pay and law enforcement duties and rank. Ms. Lopez was a Deputy Sheriff Officer, not a Deputy Sheriff.”

Lopez acknowledged that the distinction might be true today, but not when she was hired by the Sheriff’s Office. Her City Council citation recognizes her as the “first Hispanic Deputy Sheriff.”

“I don’t mind sharing the glory,” Lopez said. “Back in the ‘80s you would hardly see Latinos or Latinas in law enforcement to begin with. I would definitely then like to be recognized as the first Latina Deputy Sheriff Officer.”

She added that in the community there is always a pride in being the first Latino or Latina. “The more people learn about it the more people open their eyes to say ‘if she can do it I can do it,’” said Lopez.

Born and raised in Philadelphia on 4th Street and Susquehanna Avenue in a Puerto Rican family, Lopez began her career with the city in 1979 as a clerk typist with the Personnel Department, CETA Program.

According to the City Council citation she received in 2012 (after retiring from the Philadelphia Police Department) in 1981 she became the first “Hispanic female Police Matron for Police Detention where she was responsible for all females arrested in the City of Philadelphia.”

“I don’t need to put all that stuff (about career) out there because I know who I am and what I was, but at least make that clarification,” Lopez told AL DÍA, as she displayed her former Sheriff’s Department ID that reads ‘Deputy Sheriff.’

“In 1984, I went to the Sheriff’s Department and applied for Deputy Sheriff, it was pretty much a lateral transfer. I came under Ralph Passio (Philadelphia’s sheriff from 1984 to 1988),” she added.

Currently the Sheriff’s Office reports 10 percent of the staff is Latino. But back in the ‘80s “you’d be lucky if you got one percent, if that. Latino representation was almost non-existent,” Lopez said.

When asked if as a young woman she realized the importance of becoming the first Latina Deputy Sheriff Officer, she said she did, but only because her sister Hilda Lopez was “very active in the Latino community back in the ‘70s.”

“She was the one who got me into city personnel and said ‘Work your way up. Being a Latina, do anything and everything you can ... and work your way up,’” Lopez recounted. “I needed insurance and I needed benefits. It was just another job.”

Lopez left the Sheriff’s Office in January of 1990 to join the Police Department where she served for 23 years, then retired in 2012 after 30 years with the city.