Media sources are reporting that Roberto Martinez passed away today, May 20, 2009 due to diabetes-related complications.
Roberto was a long-time activist who shed much needed light on the human rights situation along the US-Mexico border. He was among those who consistently defended immigrants as human beings - no small feat in the era of immigrant bashing and criminalization. His work in the San Diego area as part of the American Friends Service Committee directing the US/Mexico Border Program will be long remembered and respected.
Descanse en paz, Don Roberto.
Photo: In Motion Magazine
De Aníbal Yáñez:
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday I read this note in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Friends seeking money for Latino advocate's care
Friends of pioneering Latino rights advocate Roberto Martinez, who is terminally ill, are raising money to pay for his medical care.
For nearly 30 years, Martinez took up the cause of impoverished Latinos, mostly immigrants. He retired at the end of 2001 as head of the border project for the American Friends Service Committee.
Martinez, who has diabetes and other complications, later moved to Las Vegas to live near his son. He returned to San Diego recently to end his days in the region where he long labored, he told his family.
Two nonprofit organizations are raising money to help with his medical care. Donations can be sent to the Parent Institute of Quality Education, 4010 Morena Blvd., Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92117; or Border Angels, P.O. Box 86598, San Diego, CA 92138.
Checks should be addressed to his wife, Yolanda Martinez, who said get-well cards and other greetings are welcome. –N.V.
Staff writers Pauline Repard, J. Harry Jones, Tanya Mannes, Janine Zúñiga and Norma de la Vega contributed to this report.