History will be made Tuesday night when Obed Matul is sworn in as Lynn’s first Latino city councilor.
The November elections created the most diverse City Council in history, as five of 11 councilors will be people of color. Matul, who will represent Ward 2, will join Councilors-at-Large Hong Net and Nicole McClain, Ward 3 Councilor Coco Alinsug, and incoming Ward 4 Councilor Natasha Megie-Maddrey.
“The significance is huge because the Latino community here in Lynn is a majority in the city, yet we have no representation on the council,” Matul said. “It’s an honor for me to be able to represent my community, to be able to voice our concerns, to be able to have a voice for everybody in the community.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos make up nearly 43% of Lynn’s population, the largest demographic in the city.
Matul said he wants to better connect Lynn’s Latino community with City Hall.
“There’s a lot of Latino families that have a lack of connections with City Hall and city government,” he said. “Being able to be that chain-link to be able to connect the Latino community to city government is very important to me.”
Matul said that, long before he decided to run for office, he often found himself helping members of the Latino community with common city questions.
“We have been doing a lot of this work already,” he said. “Before, I used to get calls from people who didn’t have the knowledge for something so simple, like ‘They didn’t pick up my trash. Who do I call?’ or ‘There’s a pothole in front of my house. Who do I call?’”
When Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard announced he would not seek re-election earlier this year, Matul saw it as an opportunity to continue helping people in a more official capacity.
“I spoke with my wife and we said that this is a great opportunity to be able to work at a different level, not just to guide people to go here, but actually have the influence and the ability to say ‘I will make sure DPW picks up your trash, I will make sure that your sidewalk or the tree gets removed,’” he said.
At the start of his campaign, he took an unorthodox approach by not announcing a specific platform. Instead, he canvassed the ward to learn what concerns residents had.
“The two biggest concerns were public works and public safety,” Matul said. “Ward 2, specifically, has a large number of old trees that are dying out. People are concerned about that. Streets not getting paved properly or the dividing lines are not visible any more because they haven’t been repainted in so long.”
Regarding public safety, he said that residents are concerned about not having enough firefighters and police officers.
In the November election, Matul won the Ward 2 seat with 64% of the vote.
“I’ve been blessed with the amount of support that I have gotten in my ward,” he said. “We had a very successful election. People have been very responsive. Being very accessible, being responsive, acting in a timely manner, people like that. That’s what they want, and that’s what I’ll be doing.”
Matul said that he wants to be known as a city councilor who is always available to residents.
He started the This is Ward 2, Lynn Facebook page to keep people informed of happenings in the city. The group already has more than 250 members.
“One of the things that I learned is that people want to be informed,” he said. “Sometimes, a solution will not come right away, but people want to know that we’re working on it.”
Born in Guatemala, Matul came to Lynn with his parents when he was 8 years old. He graduated from Lynn English High School in 2006 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Emmanuel College in Boston.
He and his wife, Maribell, have owned and operated Full Color Signs and Graphics for the past 10 years, and have both been active in the community for many years.
“I’m part of the North Shore Business Association — I’m actually a board member,” Matul said. “I’m a member of the Chamber of Commerce. My wife and I are executive members of His Love Foundation, which is a nonprofit that helps a lot of families in need. We work a lot with homelessness, with children in need, with immigrants.”
He hopes that his election will inspire other members of the Latino community to run for office.
“We need the representation of the community on the council,” Matul said. “I’m the first one, but I do hope that we get more.”
