YESICA J. MALDONADO, SERVICE DIRECTOR

Yesica J. Maldonado is the current Service Director and co-founder of PUEBLO, Center for Legal and Human Rights. In addition to managing the service sector of the organization, she handles the business transactions.  Prior to joining PUEBLO, Ms. Maldonado was the Arizona Program Director for LUPE (La Union del Pueblo Entero), a grassroots non-profit organization founded, by Cesar E. Chavez, to address the needs and problems that immigrants face beyond those at the workplace.  A union was needed and established, with the same founding principles  of the UFW, but this time applied to the community. 

Through LUPE, Yesica worked on such cases as the Veemac scandal, which resulted in successfully helping over 200 workers organize direct actions and recover over a quarter of a million dollars in back wages, collaborating with such organizations such as the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, SEIU (Service Employees International Union), and UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers), and Campesina.

While at LUPE, she was a founding member of the Somos America Coalition, where she volunteered numerous hours helping turnout members to participate in the April 10th march for immigration reform.  She has volunteered in a myriad of citizenship fairs, immigration forums, and engaging and recruiting LUPE members to participate during the Mi Familia Vota (My Family Votes) Civic Participation Campaign. 

Prior to joining LUPE, Ms. Maldonado worked for the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, where she focused on the Educating the Heart Program, training teachers on how to use Cesar Chavez core values in the classroom and promoting service learning initiatives.    

Ms. Maldonado was born in Salvatierra Gto, México, staying strong to her roots and having been exposed to the movement at an early age by her sister Angeles, Yesica has taken an active role throughout her life in advocating for social justice and fighting for the rights of working people. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and is in the process of seeking her Masters in Public Administration, both from Arizona State University. Her mission is to promote awareness of the growing injustices in the community and work for a healthier environment for everyone.

RAY YBARRA, ORGANIZER

Ray Ybarra is an co-founder and organizer for PUEBLO.  In addition to his work with PUEBLO, Ybarra is a human rights activist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and public speaker.  Born in Douglas, AZ, Ybarra's mother was born just a few miles to the south in the town of Agua Prieta, Sonora.

Ybarra co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary, "Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border” and created and coordinated the Legal Observer Project during the Minutemen's operations.  He has trained hundreds of volunteers and spent months following the Minutemen as they patrolled along the U.S.-Mexico Divide.

Ybarra has written about and given numerous talks on vigilantism, the militarization of the border and the growing immigrant’s rights movement at numerous universities including Stanford, Harvard, University of California at Berkeley, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and to community groups from Washington to Iowa.  In addition to receiving awards for his commitment to social justice, Ybarra has testified in front of local and state bodies as well as having his work quoted at the United Nations.  Ybarra is frequently quoted in both the national and international media and his work has been profiled in the Intelligence Report, Stanford Lawyer, and in a documentary that premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, 'Crossing Arizona.'

Ybarra attended Cochise Community College in Douglas, AZ and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2002 and from Stanford Law School in 2007.

CECILIA SAENZ, ORGANIZER

Originally born in Mexico City, Cecilia Saenz was brought to Arizona at the age of four.  Before attending Camelback High School, she was already active in the community through her volunteerism.  It was during her high school years that Cecilia began to get recognized for her involvement in the community; for example being awarded the Outstanding Woman of the Year for 2001 and 2002, leadership positions, amongst many other recognitions for various scholarships were only some of her earlier highlights.  Currently, she is a student at Arizona State University where she will be majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with emphasis in Spanish and International Political Science.

In 2006, Cecilia traveled abroad for academic purposes to the historic Czech Republic and surrounding countries.  Despite work and academics, Cecilia continues to volunteer her time on different projects.  One of the volunteer experiences which introduced her to the importance of voting was as a precinct captain for Arizona Latino Institute in 2004.  Three years later she would find her self knocking doors as a volunteer getting out the vote.  After only a week of so, she was hired as a full-time organizer with Mi Familia Vota/My Family Votes which is a campaign aimed at getting out the vote amongst low propensity Latino voters.  By the end of the campaign, she was responsible for organizing, motivating and coaching twelve precinct captains in the south phoenix area.  Currently she works for Beat the Odds organizing parents from different school districts and as a Program Assistant for the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation’s Educating the Heart program where it emphasizes on Service-Learning projects for students.  Moreover, she is an active participant of Somos America a coalition of immigrant issues and worker rights.  Cecilia also volunteers with the Hungry for Respect Coalition, a coalition dedicated to worker rights, clean stores and healthy communities.

Recently, she was awarded the 2008 Student Against Discrimination Organization Action Award by ASU’s Intergroup Relations Center.  Additionally, through the same center, Cecilia was accepted to a Human Rights and Peace Building Program to go to South Africa for five weeks during the summer of 2008!  United in solidarity, Cecilia believes that “Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above, all thou shalt not be a bystander. ” – Holocaust Museum

KARINA V. GUILLEN, ORGANIZER

Karina V. Guillen was born in Michoacan, Mexico.  Her passions are music, justice, and education.  She became involved in the movement after the passage of the mean spirited Proposition 300, which prevents undocumented students, who are residents of Arizona, from achieving the dream of higher education, by disqualifying them from paying in-state tuition.   She was highly concerned with the injustice of this proposition and the impact it was having on her classmates. 

Since then, she has taken a proactive role in the immigrants’ rights movement in Arizona and was an instrumental volunteer for the Somos America Coalition.  She has worked as a community organizer for the Hungry for Respect Coalition, at UFCW Local 99, and with the grassroots community organization Tonatierra.  Her work documenting the racism against day laborers has been instrumental.  Most recently, she has organized with the Macehualli Day Labor Center doing community outreach against Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio and the Pruitt’s Protests. 

Her work and commitment was also showcased during the Ya Es Hora Ciudadania Campaign where she provided a myriad of volunteer hours.  Ms. Guillen has played a fundamental role coordinating community immigration and educational forums that bring much needed resources to the immigrant community.

She is very excited to join PUEBLO and help mentor and engage other youth like her to the movement.  She believes firmly that “injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) and that the only way to change the conditions we are facing is to stand up and organize.  Karina V. Guillen is currently pursuing a Bachelors Degree of Interdisciplinary Studies.