Jorge L. Rivera Ortiz, age 82, of Boston, passed away on July 14, 2016 after a long battle with cancer. Born in Manati, Puerto Rico to the late Jose Rivera and Angelina Ortiz and where he lived for 32 years in the town of Palo Alto. Jorge worked and later retired from the City of Boston’s Park and Recreation Department.
Jorge loved the game of baseball. He played as a young boy in Puerto Rico and later became a community activist, helping bring the game that he loved so much to inner city youth. According to stories told by friends and loved one, he fought the mayor of the town where he lived in Puerto Rico to turn a pineapple farm into a baseball field. Eventually, and with his continue persistence, the park was finally constructed and to this day stands in honor of his name.
In 1966 Jorge moved to South Boston form Puerto Rico. He always joked that he learned English in a bar called the Broadway Café and from his Irish friends. In 1968, with the help of friends like Father O’Connell and Jim Dolan, who later became Judge Dolan, Jorge organized Sociedad Latina, a social club for Latinos to be used for social, cultural and recreational purposes. The organization burned down twice throughout the next few years (rumored to have been cause by racial intolerance). Jorge served as President of Sociedad Latina for seventeen years and also as President of the Puerto Rican Festival for three years. He was also attributed for the Chico Munoz Marathon, a 6 ½ mile race that used to kick off the Puerto Rican festival and the Spanish Council of Saint John the Baptist, Knights of Columbus.
Although Jorge served in many board for various agencies, he was best known throughout the Boston Hispanic community as the organizer of baseball leagues. In 1982 he took over the Twilight League with six teams, renamed it the Junior Park League and within five years it flourished to a twenty-two team league with teams from all Boston neighborhood and beyond. On any given moment you would find him at the Mayor’s office. First with Kevin White, then with Ray Flynn and later with Mayor Menino, to get them to give funding for the youth leagues and he didn’t stop there, from the Mayor’s office he would then head to the Red Sox management office to get them to donate uniforms, funds and tickets to the game. Indeed, he was the first coordinator of the Red Sox Returning Baseball to the Inner (RBI) city program. As he got older and could no longer continue with his baseball activities, he returned to an earlier passion when he started gardening at home. During more summer months of more recent years, you would find him outside in his garden, but always with a TV nearby so he could keep an eye on whatever baseball game was on.
Jorge is survived by his beloved wife, Ana Rosado. His children, Jorge Rivera, Jr. of Quincy and his wife Judy, Arquimedes Rivera of Puerto Rico, and his wife Maria, Marisol Sustache of Lynn and her husband Julio, Elsie Soto of Boston and her husband Joel and Luis Rivera of Boston. His step-children, Carlos Ojeda and Andre Ojeda and by 10 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family request donations in Jorge honor to either of these two non-profits organizations, which were close and dear to him: (1) Urban Farming Institute of Boston, Inc., 34 Linwood Street, Roxbury, Massachusetts 02119, an organization dedicated to all things related to agriculture-a subject for which Jorge had a lifelong passion from the farms of his native Manati, Puerto Rico where he worked as a young man to his home garden in Boston in later years, or (2) Sociedad Latina, Inc., a social service organization focusing on the Latinos and broader community, including a robust baseball program that Jorge help organize in 1968 with help of friends like Father O’Connell and Jim Dolan who later became Judge Dolan. Today Sociedad Latina is a leading youth organization that services and empowers a diverse group of youth and young adults throughout Boston. Sociedad Latina, Inc. is in keeping with the essence of Jorge Rivera's dedication to elevating his fellow human beings, be it through baseball or in innumerable other ways.
Visiting hours at the Brady & Fallon Funeral Home 10 Tower St. (Opp. Forest Hills MBTA Station) Jamaica Plain on Monday July 18 from 6-9 PM. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 14 Montebello Rd. Jamaica Plain on Tuesday July 19 at 10 AM. Relatives and friends are invited to attend. Burial will follow at Oaklawn Cemetery in Roslindale.