Team

Executive Director

Angélica Salas

Angelica Salas is an immigrant from Durango, Mexico.  She came to the United States as a child to reunite with her parents, who came to provide a better life for their family.  Angelica comes to her understanding of immigrants and immigration first hand, she and her entire family lived in the country undocumented, experienced deportation, and were able to legalize their status.  In 2008, Angelica became a U.S. citizen.  She makes Pasadena, California her home, the first city she arrived at as a child.  She is married to Mayron Payes, an immigrant from El Salvador, and has two children Ruben and Maya Payes.

Angelica joined CHIRLA in 1995 and became CHIRLA’s Executive Director in 1999.  In her role, she has transformed CHIRLA into a mass membership immigrant-led organization that empowers immigrants and their families to win local, state, and national policies that advance their human, civil, and labor rights.  She has grown CHIRLA into one of the nation’s largest and most effective immigrant rights organizations that organize, advocates, educates, and provides legal services to all immigrants. She has spearheaded ambitious statewide and national campaigns to expand immigrant rights. She has helped found organizations and coalitions to advocate for immigrant workers, youth, and families.  Among her achievements include: winning in-state, financial aid and grant programs for California’s undocumented students, establishing day-laborer centers that become national models, winning drivers’ licenses for undocumented drivers, decoupling local police departments from immigration enforcement, expanding access to immigrant legal services and winning Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Angelica is a state and national leader in the advocacy for immigration reform and immigrant justice.  She was instrumental in the formation of and serves on the Executive Committee of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), two of the country’s largest immigrant rights coalitions.

Angelica is a recognized grassroots leader that plays a national leadership role in all major immigration reform campaigns. She serves as a national spokesperson for immigrant communities and immigrant rights campaigns. Angelica has sought expert responses from Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Univision. Telemundo, NPR, etc. Recently, Angelica’s work led to the House of Representatives passage of the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, a bill to give people with DACA and TPS a path to citizenship.

She graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Sociology in 1993.  In 2007, Occidental College awarded her an Honorary Doctorate for her many contributions making her one of the youngest persons to earn such an honor in the college’s history.

Managing Director

Zerihoun Yilma

Zerihoun Yilma is the associate director of CHIRLA. He is an immigrant from Ethiopia, who is committed to fighting racial, economic, and social inequality. He has worked tirelessly to bridge diverse immigrant groups with native-born Americans to bring immigration reform to the top of the American moral agenda.

Zerihoun has studied and worked in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors in Ethiopia, Botswana, Namibia, India and the U.S.

He currently serves as a Board member of the Californians for Human Immigrant Rights Leadership Action Fund, as the Board Chair for Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and as a Board member of Casa Libre Shelter/Freedom House (CHRCL).Before coming to CHIRLA, Zerihoun worked in financial services in Los Angeles and in Africa, where he managed small to medium manufacturing and service plants.

In Los Angeles, Zerihoun has helped shape several nonprofits: he is co-founder of the African Communities Public Health Coalition (African Coalition), co-founder of the Academia Moderna, a longtime member of Black Immigration Network (BIN) and has served as vice president of the Virgin Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral.

Zerihoun earned a Masters in accounting and cost accounting from Poona University and a BA in industrial management from Shivaji University in India.

As a social change leader, Zerihoun continually refines and expands his management skills through participation in leadership programs. He is a 2015-2016 Cross movement fellow at Rockwood Leadership Institute.

Executive Administrator

Areli Hernandez

Favorite Quote

“Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly”- Micah 6:8

Director of HR and Operations

Yolanda Jones

Yolanda Jones joined CHIRLA in 2013 and became its director of administration in 2014. She oversees office management, information technology, bookkeeping and the executive and administrative assistant staff. She oversees the work plan under the organization’s strategic plan. Before CHIRLA, Yolanda lived in Washington D.C. and worked for the National Council of La Raza and Center for Community Change. Yolanda was born and raised in El Salvador, and she came to the United States as a teenager to reunite with her parents. She has completed certificate programs at Montgomery College and George Washington University to complement more than two decades of nonprofit administrative experience.

Payroll and HR Administrator

Patricia Garcia

Favorite Quote

“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change…I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” – Angela Davis

Operations Administrator

Maribel Molina

Favorite Quote

“See it, Believe it, Achieve it.”-  Lori-Ann Muenzer

Program Coordinator

Maria Montes

Systems and Network Manager

Gebriel Dawit

Favorite Quote

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

IT Support Specialist

Batbayasgalan Enkhbold

Favorite Quote

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”– Maya Angelou

Receptionist

Sandy Lopez

Favorite Quote

“The Future depends on what we do in Present” – Mahatma Gandhi

Custodian

Victoria Francisco

Favorite Quote

“Aquí estamos y no nos vamos y si nos echan nos regresamos”

Call Center and Data Manager

Soila Rodriguez

Favorite Quote

“The way to right wrongs is to shine the light of truth on them” ~ Ida B. Wells

Electoral Field Manager

Karen Diaz

Favorite Quote

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” -Michelle Obama

Civic Engagement Coordinator

Raquel Cetz

Favorite Quote

“Always lead with love and work towards the liberation of our entire communities with passion, compassion, and dignity. ‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.’” – Rumi

Director of Communications

Jorge-Mario Cabrera

Jorge-Mario Cabrera joined CHIRLA in 2008 as director of communications after long experience in immigrant rights nonprofits. Before CHIRLA, he worked  at the National Alliance of Latinoamerican and Caribbean Communities, the Central American Resource Center, and Bienestar Human Services. He joined CHIRLA because he believes no family should be torn apart and no person should be dehumanized by this country’s immigration laws. Jorge-Mario has raised CHIRLA’s profile in the media as one of the nation’s premier advocates for immigrants.

Communications Manager

Tessie Borden

Favorite Quote

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner

Digital Media Manager

Ilgin Korugan

Website Content Coordinator

Andrea Rivera

Director of Community Education and Outreach

Miriam Mesa

Miriam Mesa joined CHIRLA in 2000 as an information and referrals specialist, was promoted to coordinator in 2009, and became the department’s director in 2016. She has received specialized training in immigration law, wage theft, intimate partner violence, LGBTQ issues, housing, access to benefits, worker’s rights, mental health awareness and the citizenship application process. She has extensive paralegal training in immigration law and is accredited with the Department of Justice. As a Cuban immigrant (she arrived in 1995), she intrinsically understands the challenges of immigrants. Miriam graduated with a chemical engineering degree from the University of Havana.

Immigrant Assistant Line Supervisor

Elizabeth Rodriguez

 Favorite Quote

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more! Then we think we can!”

Information and Referral Assistant

Daysi Flores

Community Education Coordinator

Jessica Huerta

Favorite Quote

“Mantente alejado de aquellas personas que tratan de menospreciar tus ambiciones. Las personas pequeñas siempre lo hacen, pero los verdaderamente grandes hacen sentirte que tú también puedes ser grande” – MARK TWAIN

Information and Referral Assistant

Esmeralda Morales

Favorite Quote

“The only problem is whenever I try to make a taco, I get too excited and crush it.” – Kevin Malone, The Office

Program Assistant

Julian Herrera Millan

Favorite Quote

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”.  – Alice Walker

Regional Field Coordinator, South LA

Grelia Vegas

Favorite Quote

“Social Justice starts in your heart!!!!”

Regional Field Coordinator South East LA

Elizabeth Alcantar

Favorite Quote

“A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire.”

Regional Field Coordinator, Orange County 

Katie Brazer

Favorite Quote

“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.” – Brene Brown

South OC Community Education Representative

Karen Hernandez

Favorite Quote

“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible”

Regional Field Coordinator, San Fernando Valley

Marisol Rubio

Favorite Quote

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Regional Field Coordinator Fresno

Brenda Ordaz

Favorite Quote

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” – Martin Luther King

Director of Development

Aurora Colindres

Aurora Colindres joined CHIRLA in 2019 and brings more than 15 years of development experience to the organization. Previously, she was director of development at the Los Angeles Parks Foundation, and before that at the Western Center for Law and Poverty. She was also director of foundation and corporate giving at Weingart Center Association, serving the homeless on Skid Row. As a young undocumented youth, Aurora helped process some of CHIRLA’s first applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Joining CHIRLA for her was coming full-circle. Aurora graduated with a BA in marketing from the University of Central Florida.

Individual Giving Manager

Michell Saucedo

Favorite Quote

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Development Associate

Ana Reyers

Favorite Quote

“Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.” – Kobe Bryant

Grants Manager

Julio Martinez

Favorite Quote

“Every journey begins with a single step.” ― Lao Tzu

Grant Writer

Sharon Park

Favorite Quote

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

Grants and Data Manager

Lauren Villa

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction,” – Audre Lorde

Director of External Affairs

Apolonio Morales

Apolonio Morales joined CHIRLA in 2014 as political director and transitioned to external affairs director in 2019. Previously, he was a labor organizer for the California Nurses Association/United Steelworkers’ Healthcare Workers Alliance and a community organizer for Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO) and Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action (BOCA), where he served as interim director. He was national immigration organizer for Faith in Action’s Campaign for Citizenship. A child of undocumented immigrants, Polo has dedicated his life to advancing pro-immigrant policies and changing the anti-immigrant narrative in the United States. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in English in 1999.

Campaign Coordinator

Shannon Camacho

Favorite Quote

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” – Dr. Cornel West

Director of Finance

David Lettas

Senior Accountant

Nancy Enriquez

Accountant 

Arvin Nazari

Favorite Quote

“Never regret a day in your life: Good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give lessons, and best days give memories.”

Interim Legal Services Director

Karla Navarrete

Favorite Quote

“ESTE ES MI PUEBLO ESTA ES MI LUCHA”

Interim Legal Services Associate Director

Maritza R. Agundez, Esq.

Favorite Quote

“Talk is Cheap… It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.” – Cesar Chavez

Managing Attorney, Clinical Programs

Karla E. Aguayo

Favorite Quote

“Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.” – Oscar Romero

Managing Attorney

Yolanda Martin

Favorite Quote

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” – Marianne Williamson

Staff Attorney

Karen Aguilar

Skadden Fellow/Staff Attorney

Christina A. Avalos

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Senior Paralegal

Angelica Escobar

Favorite Quote

“Enjoy the Little Things”

Staff Attorney

Perla Esquivel

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Paralegal

Liliana Ibanez

Favorite Quote

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

California Legal Immigration Fellow

Irving Partida

Legal Assistant

Aimee Negrete

Favorite Quote

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” – Audre Lorde

Senior Paralegal

Monica Vargas

“Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.” – Benito Juarez.

Interim Supervising Staff Attorney

Sandy Benitez

Favorite Quote

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama

Interim Managing Attorney (Family Unity)

Lourdes Pena Escandon

Favorite Quote

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

DOJ Accredited Representative

Ely Canseco

Favorite Quote

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” – Michelle Obama

DOJ Accredited Representative

Claudia Diaz Martinez

Favorite Quote

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

Paralegal

Nancy Estrada

Paralegal

Francisco Gutierrez

Paralegal

Belen Hernandez

Law Clerk

Daisy Mendoza

Supervising Fully-Accredited DOJ Representative

Sylvia Ortiz

Favorite Quote

“Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed” – Michelle Obama

Staff Attorney

Yunuen Trujillo

Interim Managing Attorney (Clinical)

Diana E. Vasquez

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.” -Proverbs 3:27

Staff Attorney

Zaira Villagomez

Legal Fellow

Bryan Alvarado

Favorite Quote

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” – MLK

Citizenship Coordinator

Fabiana Barcenas

Staff Attorney 

Navil Canal

Favorite Quote

“Laughter is timeless, Imagination has no age, and Dreams are forever” – Walt Disney

Legal Fellow

Jorge L. Galindo

Favorite Quote

“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

DOJ Accredited Representative

Bethzy Garcia

Favorite Quote

“The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.”  – Michelle Obama

Legal Fellow

Bolivia Iezza

Favorite Quote

“…for us the first and main task isn’t to fight against our compañeros, but with them to change the system we live in for another, in which men and women will have the right to live, to work, to organize.” – Domitila Barrios De Chúngara, Bolivian labor rights leader and political activist

DOJ Accredited Representative

Mayra Lopez

Favorite Quote

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Legal Fellow

Ana Lujan

Favorite Quote

“Without community, there is no liberation”- Audre Lorde

Paralegal

Leslie Melendez

Favorite Quote

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

DOJ Accredited Representative

Mercedes Montano

Legal Fellow

Alison Salazar

“Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.” Derrick A. Bell

Citizenship Coordinator

Gregory L. Simons

“Con tantas personas perdidas, llorar por las cosas sería como faltarle el respeto al dolor.  With so many people lost, to cry over lost things would be to lack respect for pain itself.” – Eduardo Galeano

DOJ Accredited Representative

Eden Velasco

Interim Managing Attorney (Student Legal Services)

Andres Guerra

“And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

DOJ Accredited Representative

Bryon Alvarez

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Paralegal

Angelique Arroyo

Favorite Quote

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know” – Aristotle

DOJ Accredited Representative

Gabriela Garcia

Favorite Quote

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” – Cesar Chavez

Paralegal

Brian Guzman

Favorite Quote

“The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

Legal Support Manager

Jose Mendoza

Legal Assistant

Sandra Provencio

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” –C.S. Lewis

Legal Fellow

Kimberly Ramirez

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” – Alan Turing, Queer Code Breaker of WWII for Allied forces

Legal Fellow, Student Legal Services

Nancy V. Gomez

Favorite Quote

“It is our choices … that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter.

Data Analytics and Evaluation Manager

Lorraine Tamburrino

Live, and let Live

Law Clerk

Lynette Torres

Remember, remember always, that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

Staff Attorney

Arturo Viscarra

“We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.” – Malcolm X

Legal Assistant

Alina Wesby

“I am no longer accepting the things that I cannot change. I am changing the things that I cannot accept” -Angela Y. Davis

Director of Marketing and Public Relations

Mauricio Ramos

Mauricio Ramos joined CHIRLA in 2018 as marketing manager and transitioned to director of marketing and membership in 2019, overseeing CHIRLA’s branding efforts and membership sales. Previously, he was director of marketing/communications at Giant Media Agency, director of digital marketing and PR at Fabric Interactive, and online marketing specialist at M80 Services. Born in Guatemala, Mauricio developed a passion for the Latino community in college as a Latin American Studies fellow. He graduated from California State University in Los Angeles with a BA in Latin American Studies.

Director of Membership and Member Services

Anabella Bastida

Membership Manager

Edgar G. Aguilar

Favorite Quote

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai

Membership and volunteer Coordinator

Zuleyma Barajas

Membership Campaign Coordinator

Veronica Villa

Senior Organizer

Pedro Trujillo

Organizing Manager

Diana Ramos

Favorite Quote

“Mirando  atrás, estoy lleno de gratitud,
 Mirando hacia adelante, me  lleno de visión,
Mirando hacia  arriba, me lleno de fuerza,
Mirando hacia  dentro, descubro la paz.”

– Proverbio Indigena

Organizing Campaign Coordinator

Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer

Favorite Quote

“Be nice to the people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down.”

Youth Organizer Wise-Up!

Kathia Garcia

Favorite Quote

“Pies para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar” – Frida Kahlo

Statewide Organizer CDN

Melody Klingenfuss Arteagay Minuet

Favorite Quote

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” (Psalm 23:4)

Orange County Organizer

Janeth Bucio

Favorite Quote

“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” – MLK

Northern Regional CDN Organizer

Eva Jimenez

Favorite Quote

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel

Central Valley CDN Organizer

Gloria Vallin

Favorite Quote

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” – Socrates

Los Angeles Regional Organizer

Ana Martinez

San Fernando Valley Organizer 

Maru Galvan

Favorite Quote

“Don’t wait for an opportunity, create it.”

Antelope Valley Organizer

Patricia Salazar

Favorite Quote

“Be you the change you want to see in the world, sharing your own humanity!”

High Desert Organizer

Mariela Jaquez

Favorite Quote

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

San Bernardino Organizer

Mireya Gonzalez

Favorite Quote

“Una nación no debe juzgarse por cómo trata a sus ciudadanos con mejor posición, sino por como trata a los que tienen poco o nada.” – Nelson Mandela

Central Valley Organizer

Leticia Lopez

Southern Regional California Organizer

Hugo Castro

Education and Outreach Domestic Workers

Elsy Perez

Director of Policy and Advocacy

Joseph Villela

Joseph Villela joined CHIRLA as a policy advocate in 2005. By 2010, he had moved up to senior policy advocate, and in 2011 he became director of the department. A committed government relations professional and political adviser with fifteen years of experience and established a successful record of accomplishment in developing and managing legislative and budgetary campaigns to improve the lives of California’s most vulnerable. More recently, he directed the development of CHIRLA’s 13-point Golden Promise legislative agenda, of which nine initiatives became law. He graduated with B.A in Sociology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2005.

Legal and Policy Counsel

Carl Bergquist

Favorite Quotes

“I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Murphy, dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944).

“Taken together, “the words of the President” help to “create the strong perception” that the rescission decision was “contaminated by impermissible discriminatory animus.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, concurring opinion in the DACA case, DHS v. Regents (2020).

National Policy Advocate

Luz Castro

Policy and Advocacy Manager

Esperanza Guevara

Favorite Quote

“We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.” – Cesar Chavez

Policy Advocate

Mariana Magana