Ricardo Ortega has been a LELO staff member since 1999; working largely on the Tyree Scott International Worker to Worker Project.
In the late eighties when the Mexican government tried to privatize the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the biggest University of Latin America, Ricardo actively participated in the one month student’s strike. Thank to that struggle and others UNAM is still a free and public university. Ricardo has been supporting the Zapatista’s movement since 1994. He was one of the three founders members of the Committee for General “Amnesty” and Social Justice and organized the first May day march in 1999. Most recently, Ricardo with LELO and other community members participated in documenting the impacts of NAFTA in Mexico for the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, Chapter Mexico. In September 2014 Ricardo, with LELO, held one of 2 hearings on immigration in USA and NAFTA. Ricardo is LELO executive director.
Cindy Domingo has been involved with LELO since the early 1970’s when she worked on LELO’s infamous class action lawsuits against the Alaska canning industry.
She began her political career as a member of the US based Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP) in the early 1970’s fighting to end the US supported Marcos dictatorship. Over the past four decades, Cindy has been a leader in local, national and international human rights issues. Cindy is the co-founder and current co-chair of US Women and Cuba Collaboration and Chair of WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee. She has served as Chief of Staff to King County Councilmember Larry Gossett for over two decades. Cindy is a LELO Board Member.
STAFF & BOARD MEMBERS
Gary Owens, picture coming soon.
Coming soon...
Martha Ramos was born in Argentina and relocated to Seattle as a political refuge by the end of 1979. In Argentina, she dedicated herself to community, political and union organizing work. She took part of the Freire literacy campaign.
In USA, Martha has worked/served on organizations and groups as “Church Council of Greater Seattle”; “EL Comite for Immigration Reform and Social Justice”; UW Research project: “Study of Homeless families in King County”; Head Start Project: Provided training and workshops in the areas of: Bilingual Education, parenting issues, Management, Racism and Cultural Diversity; Youth EJNA Bilingual Video Project; Seattle Public Schools Alternative program: Instructor-Technology Trainer; Technology Access Foundations as the accounting/bookkeeping; and others.
Prior to joining LELO as a staff, Martha collaborated with the Worker to Workers Project as a volunteer with the Venezuela trip. In 2012 Martha joined LELO work as a Community Organizer and keeping the finances for the organization. She holds a Bachelor in Science from City University and a Teacher Certificate from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She enjoys gardening, hiking and spend times with her family, friends and her two cats.
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Romy Garcia has been a long time supporter of LELO's work and three years ago he joined LELO's Board. His political activism began in his last year of high school in San Francisco, organizing students against Proposition 13 and for the support of national liberation movements in Central America and struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.
In 1980 he joined the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP) opposing the US-Marcos dictatorship and fighting against racial and national discrimination. He continues his efforts to bring about human rights, dignity and respect for all people, here and abroad, and is currently active with Asian Pacific Labor Alliance (APALA) Seattle, WFSE Local 843 and with his lay Buddhist faith community. He works with youth and families as a DSHS Social Worker.
Garry Owens is a worker/intellectual who joined the LELO board in 1991 and served as a facilitator for internal affairs for many years. He is a Seattleite from birth and a recent retiree from 30 years of public service. He credits his family for teaching him to read; empathy for all people regardless of color, creed or national origin; appreciation and respect for non-human species, and the courage to travel to borders beyond. He came to LELO with a portfolio of progressive and radical thought and deed. As a Vietnam era US Army veteran in 1967 he became acutely aware of US government hegemony. He was a founding member of the UW Black Student Union and Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968. As a student at Hampshire College in the 1970’s he taught 5 year olds at the iconic Che-Lumumba School for Truth at UMass in Amherst, MA, During his long sojourn with LELO he has traveled to serve as agent of solidarity in Cuba, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and throughout the United States. Comrades alive and past continue to inspire and support his regimen for study and critical thinking. He also credits the leaders and thinkers of the global national liberation struggles of the 60’s and 70’s as key to understanding the role of the common worker to study and build solidarity without borders. He carries a discreet list of revolutionary heroes and heroines who defer popularity for the sake of an analysis that demands liberation on all fronts, especially the Global South. He is currently working on a project that would help to eliminate the reality of 5000 children dying every day from drinking dirty water.
Coming soon...