VOZ

VOZ Staff

Romeo Sosa
Executive Director
(503) 233-6787
romeo(at)portlandvoz.org

Romeo is a Guatemalan Mayan with a vast array of experience in grassroots organizing.  He worked as a rural researcher and indigenous rights organizer in many non-profits in Guatemala and also develop Popular Education Materials in the Rural community.  He also advocated for displaced people at la Organizacion de Servicios de Solidaridad, Mexico and uses art to display and connect issues of immigration and globalization and to communicate and educate about the economic disparities in rural communities of Guatemala.  As past Director of the St. Francis Dining Hall, he coordinated volunteer programs and events and supervised staff.  He is currently the Executive Director of VOZ.

Ignacio Paramo

MLK Worker Center Director, LUCHA Program Director
iparamo@portlandvoz.org

Ignacio has been working with the immigrant Latino Community for 15 year here in Portland OR.  Working as an employment specialist for five years providing workshops on employment issues and job developing for the Latino community.  He also worked as a case manager on housing, information and referral, health, and labor issue for ten years.  He started with VOZ as a volunteer with the Immigrant Rights Promoter project, and was the Organizer for four years. Currently, he is the Director of the Martin Luther King Worker Center.

Paul Riek

Organizer

paul@portlandvoz.org

A Northern California native, Paul received a Civil Engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley, but since then he has spent most of his life in Latin America—Paraguay, Nicaragua and Mexico. From 1993 to 2009 he lived in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, where he worked in human rights and founded a unique prison program, organizing inmates as leaders to serve the prison community. Paul is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and has worked as an interpreter and translator. He loves Latin American cultures; he also loves to sing, especially in Spanish. Paul is married to Aurelia, a Zapotec Indian from Oaxaca and an herbal medicine specialist.

Francisco Aguirre

Worker Center Assistant

francisco@portlandvoz.org

Francisco is originally from El Salvador. He has worked as a day labor and with the day labor community for over ten years both in Portland and in Los Angeles. Francisco was involved in the Workers Organizing Committee very early on and has continued to be an important leader in our community. Francisco works as the Weekend Coordinator at the Day Labor Center and also facilitates the music class.

Linda Miles

Development Director

development@portlandvoz.org

Linda Miles is originally from Ketchikan, Alaska. She studied Theatre Arts and Women’s Studies at Portland State University and has been a part of the Portland non-profit community for 14 years. Prior to working with Voz, Linda served as the Development Director for the Portland Women’s Crisis Line and the Oregon Death with Dignity National Center.

Jessica Lankford

Jessica has been working for Voz for a little over a year now, handling the accounting.  She is a wonderful colleague who brings a lot of cheer and energy to the office.

VOZ Board of Directors:

Executive Committee

Wilmer Escoto
Wilmer is originally from Honduras where he grew up in the Pequeños Hermanos orphanage. Wilmer has participated in many different committees and organizations throughout his life; in school, in his hometown to improve community health and to introduce water, to surrounding villages, and in his church back in Honduras where he was the treasurer. Before moving to Portland, he was a day laborer in Arizona. As a day laborer in Portland, he utilizes the Martin Luther King Jr. Worker Center and has participated in many of VOZ’s activities including the Northwest Leadership School, soccer, and neighborhood clean-ups.

Marco Mejia

Marco is from Ecuador. In his country he was part of the popular youth movement organizing and developing leaders using the Education methodology. His activism extended beyond Ecuador to other countries in Latin America. He currently works with AFSC as Director of the Youth Program, developing leaders as well as working in community organizing, training, advocating for immigrant rights and building bridges among diverse groups. Marco has been an active member of VOZ Board of Directors since 2006 and had performed a number of fundamental tasks that has been re-shaping the vision and image, especially about Latino/a day laborers workers’ of Portland. He has also been instrumental in several Immigrant Rights led by VOZ in 2006 and 2007. He is currently the president of VOZ.

Edilberto Montano
Edilberto is a day laborer leader originally from Mexico State, Mexico; his first language is Otomí. He participated in student government at his school; he also served as his neighborhood’s representative to the local water committee, helping to connect homes to the water system. He worked in a local textile factory and sold clothes at outdoor markets in Mexico City. At VOZ Edilberto has participated in the Leadership School and in monthly Assemblies, and he has distributed leaflets advertising the Martin Luther King Jr. Worker Center. He has four children.

Arturo Muñoz ___________

Arturo is originally from Veracruz, Mexico and received his B.S. in anthropology from the Universidad Veracruzana in 1999. Through his studies, he worked with many different communities including youth gangs in Mexico. Arturo has worked for the Portland Grassroots Media Camp and Tricaster Studios doing graphics, set-up, and directing. Arturo is also on the board of the Portland Central American Solidarity Committee, and has been a media volunteer at the Center of Intercultural Organizing since October, 2009.

J. Lauren Norris_____________

Lauren is from Portland. She has a Masters degree from the Institute of Non-profit Administration at Lewis and Clark College. She worked as a development and community organizer for a number of non-profits before her 10 years as a community organizer at the City’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement. She is currently a volunteer coordinator at the Office of Sustainable Development. Also for the past nine years, Lauren has volunteered one month in Guatemala, working in a variety of community development and health promotion programs with the Mayan Quiche and Tzutuhuil communities. She spends much of her volunteer time fundraising for these Guatemalan projects and for VOZ.  Lauren is the secretary of Voz.

Peter Parks   _________

Peter is retired from Portland ILWU Local 8, longshore workers (11 years). Earlier, he was in the Machinist’s Union, working at Cummins Northwest as a diesel mechanic for 14 years.  He has been involved in social justice and workers’ rights issues for many years, lately in Jobs with Justice, The Cross Border Labor Organizing Council (participating in delegations to Venezuela/Colombia and Mexico) and more recently VOZ.  He is a co-chair of the Immigrant Rights Committee of Jobs with Justice.  Peter is married and has two adult children and a golden retriever.  Peter is the Board Treasurer.

Hector Torres _____________

Hector has a degree in Accounting from the Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City and has also studied political science and sociology.  Hector lived and worked in Canada for many years, and also worked as a delievery driver in Texas. He has been living in Portland for a little less than a year and works out of the MLK Worker Center as a day laborer. Hector is passionate about health education and policy and has been very active in LUCHA, our leadership and health project.

Meg Heaton

Meg Heaton is the staff attorney at the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project, where she has advocated for the labor rights of low-wage workers for over five years. She has represented hundreds of workers in cases for unpaid wages, discrimination, and retaliation.

DAY LABORER COMMITTEE

The Day Laborer Committee will be holding elections in the upcoming weeks.  In the meantime, Juan Sop, of the formerly elected Committee, continues to work with dedication.

Juan Sop

Juan Sop is from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where he participated in Alcoholics Anonymous. He is the youngest member of the Day Laborer Committee. He has been coming to the Center since it opened; he enjoys making friends there. Juan participates in ESL classes at the Center. He loves to play soccer and plays on the day laborer team. He is currently pursuing a GED.

COUNCIL OF ELDERS

Pedro Sosa                        _

Pedro is a Guatemalan Mayan.  He has been a community leader for many years, as a member of the Comité de Educación Integral and in the indigenous peoples’ movement. Pedro organized community programs that included schools for tailoring and shoe making, child nutrition, and a community health clinic. While in Mexico, Pedro translated documents from Spanish to Quiché to assist Guatemalan refugees. He has been a factory and janitorial worker in LA and Portland, a dishwasher, and a fast food assembly worker. Pedro volunteers with community radio and television Spanish language programming.  Pedro was a worker organizer with the day laborer project at Workers’ Organizing Committee for over two years, and worked as an Organizer at VOZ for four years.