On July 1, 2009, activist Estela Ortega becomes the executive director of El Centro de la Raza (The Center for People of All Races), a community gathering place in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood that provides education, housing, job support, and social services for Latinos and other people of color. Born in Harris, Texas, on July 23, 1950, Ortega worked in the cotton fields as a child, an experience that honed her passion for social justice and human rights. In 1972, she moved to Seattle and participated in the peaceful occupation of the shuttered Beacon Hill Elementary School. After negotiations with city and school district officials, the protestors leased the building for $1 a year and El Centro de la Raza was created. Ortega’s husband Roberto Maestas was El Centro’s first executive director, a post he left in June 2009 due to health issues; Ortega succeeds him as executive director. During her tenure, she will direct the creation of additional services and outreach programs at El Centro, including a 112-unit affordable housing community.
Fifty Years of Service
Building community and advocating for civil and human rights have been lifelong commitments for Estela Ortega (b. 1950). From the cotton fields of Texas to the peaceful occupation of a Seattle elementary school to the founding of a nationally recognized gathering place for Latinos and other people of color, Ortega has advocated for education, health, civic, and social services for 50 years.
Born in Harris, Texas, she picked cotton in the fields as a child, an experience that showed her what it was like to work hard in grueling conditions. "I worked in the fields of Texas picking cotton at eight years old, with my brothers, to help contribute to the household. That has always stayed with me. I’m so committed to my mission because I myself come from being dirt poor, growing up in a little town outside of Houston. In many ways, I have not forgotten where I came from and that has made me put everything, my time and effort, into building El Centro de la Raza" ("OL Reign Legend").
Ortega became politically active in her early 20s when she was living in Houston. She protested the Viet Nam War, picketed for the rights of agricultural workers, joined political campaigns for local candidates, and registered individuals who lived in the poorer neighborhoods to vote. In 1972, she traveled to El Paso, Texas, to attend a national conference for Chicano and Mexican activists. There she met Roberto Maestas (1938-2010), an outspoken Mexican American and civil-rights advocate. Born in New Mexico, Maestas was a former Spanish teacher at Seattle’s Franklin High School who had participated in several major civil rights and antiwar demonstrations.
After the conference, Maestas and Ortega stayed in touch, and Ortega traveled to Seattle that fall. On October 11, 1972, about three weeks before she arrived, Maestas and about 70 other activists occupied Beacon Hill Elementary School, which had been shuttered by the school district due to dwindling enrollment. The protesters initially proposed that the empty building be used to house an English adult education program that had lost its space at South Seattle Community College. On December 10, 1972, while still occupying the building, Maestas and Ortega "were married in a Native American ceremony in the school’s chilly gymnasium ... About 100 persons gathered for the ceremony, which was performed by Semu Huaute, a Chumash elder" (Chesley). The next day, Maestas began a liquid-only fast as the protest continued. After additional negotiations and a second occupation at the offices of Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman (b. 1935), city and school district officials agreed to lease the property to the group for five years at a rent of $1 per year. El Centro de la Raza (The Center for People of All Races) had a home.
Commitment to Community
Maestas, who was El Centro's first executive director, Ortega, and other members of the Mexican/Chicano/Latino community began to raise funds and develop services to meet community needs. One of the first programs established was to offer English as a second language — the reason the building was occupied in the first place. More education, health, and social service programs were added. There was a child development center with a Head Start program, job training, emergency services, food bank, meal delivery for seniors, voter registration, and voter education. The center also hosted cultural events and activities and became a major presence in Latino affairs in Washington state. El Centro purchased the building from the school district in 1997 for $1.4 million, procuring grants from the city and state that contributed about $1 million toward the purchase price.
Ortega assumed the role of executive director about a year before Maestas died of lung cancer on September 22, 2010. Although she was new to the position, by that point she had spent 37 years working at El Centro. "I’m part of El Centro de la Raza and I’ve been here almost from the beginning ... I came as a young woman, 22 years old, and El Centro de la Raza is an organization where I felt welcome, where I could be myself ... We all depended on each other because of our commitment to build this organization and provide services to the community. In many ways we were a collective" ("Women Who Dare").
Ortega’s unwavering commitment to El Centro goes beyond just a 9-to-5 job. "She devotes seven days a week to the organization’s efforts in equitable housing, childcare access, financial and educational empowerment, and social justice issues. When Maestas passed away in 2010, Ortega still came to work the next day" (Cabotaje).
Honors and Accolades
One of Ortega’s most ambitious projects as executive director was to build mixed-use affordable housing on Beacon Hill, not far from El Centro and the community the organization serves. Named Plaza Roberto Maestas in memory of her husband, the two six-story buildings flank an outside plaza and include space for small retail shops and a childcare center. The $45 million mixed-used project was eight years in the planning, relying on an inclusive process with more than 30 community meetings. "The Plaza was inspired by El Centro’s homeless-service program, which increasingly had to place its clients outside Seattle city limits due to high housing costs. El Centro wanted to do something that would help retain Beacon Hill’s diversity" (Stuteville).
The need for affordable housing was overwhelming. Five months before the building opened in 2016, more than 450 people lined up to apply for the 112 apartments, some camping out for 24 hours. In 2017, Plaza Roberto Maestas won the American Institute of Architects/HUD Secretary’s Award for creating community connection.
Over the years, Ortega has garnered numerous awards and honors from organizations locally and nationally. In 2016, she was honored for her work in human and civil rights with the George I. Sanchez Memorial Award from the National Education Association. In 2018, she was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met magazine, and that same year, the Seattle Seahawks selected her for their Hispanic Heritage Award. In 2020, The Seattle Times named her one of the 13 Most Influential People of the Decade. In 2021, she was recognized for her extraordinary contributions to the Pacific Northwest by OL Reign, Seattle’s professional women’s soccer team. The following year, she was nominated for a 2022 Shero Award by the Seattle chapter of the National Organization for Women for her work to advance women’s rights.
