Councilman Luna comes from a large and close-knit family. He is the youngest in a family of four sisters and one brother. His hometown is in the Dominican Republic, a small village in sugar cane country named San Pedro de Macoris. Councilman Luna is the second Latino elected to the Providence City Council and began his first term in January 2003.

 

Since 1989, he has worked at the AIDS Care Ocean State Center (formerly FACTS) in South Providence, as the Director of Transitional Housing and Special Projects. He has also worked at the International Institute and at Amos House. His first job in Rhode Island was through Job Link, and he understands of the ups and downs of working for a temporary agency. He also previously worked in a metal casting business on Smith Street in Providence; in a lighting manufacturing company; and as a laborer during construction of the Comfort Inn by T. F. Green Airport.  Hard labor has made him respect the value of work.

 

While still living in the Dominican Republic, Councilman Luna helped immigrants and artists through hardships and improving the quality of their lives. After training with the Center for Third World Organizing, he worked throughout the United States with a variety of groups, such as: ministers in Ohio to help farm workers fight for their rights; with tenants in San Francisco; and with community groups in Los Angeles to get the city government to invest in the neighborhoods, not just into downtown. In Rhode Island he worked with DARE on projects to build new playgrounds in Providence.

 

Councilman Luna has an exemplary commitment to community service and became involved with La Communidad in Acción at St. Michaelxs Church, helping tenants confront the Providence Housing Authority about the horrible conditions in the Manton and Hartford Park Public Housing facilities. He has also served on the Board of Directors and has worked as a volunteer at: Amos House, to help shelter families; at the San Miguel School, to help at-risk boys; at the Center for Minority Advancement in the Building Trades, to help create employment opportunities for youth; and on the City Plan Commission for the City of Providence, to help protect neighborhoods while promoting economic development by overseeing the city’s master plan.

 

Councilman Miguel Luna severs on council Committees:

·         Member, Committee on Finance

·         Vice-Chair, Committee on Urban Redevelopment, Renewal Planning

·         Member, Committee on Dr. Charles V. Chapin Memorial Award

 

Councilman Luna studied first at CCRI, then at Rhode Island College. 

 

He lives in the Washington Park neighborhood with his children Dante, Sofie and Omar.