Roberto Maestas

Roberto Maestas (July 9, 1938 – September 22, 2010) was an American social activist who was prominent between the 1960s and the 1990s in Seattle, Washington. Maestas was a member of the Gang of Four and one of the founders of El Centro de la Raza.

Biography Maestas was born in rural New Mexico and raised by his grandparents; In Seattle, he was one of the first Chicanos to attend Cleveland High School; he had to drop out to earn money, eventually receiving a high school diploma through an adult education program.

In the early 1970s he helped begin an ESL program at South Seattle College. In 1972, funding to the program was abruptly cut off which led to Maestas and a number of other activists to occupy an abandoned school building in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood which eventually became El Centro de la Raza.

With Bernie Whitebear, Larry Gossett, and Bob Santos of the Gang of Four, Maestas created the Minority Executive Director's coalition in 1982. By 2005, the organization coordinated the leaders of 120 nonprofits for minority communities, helping them organize funding.

Legacy Maestas was chosen as Seafair's King Neptune for 2004, a choice that surprised him and caused fellow activist Bob Santos to laugh uncontrollably. Maestas was the first Latino Seafair King, had never been to a Seafair Torchlight Parade, and disliked Seafair's use of the Blue Angels. Seafair's vice president said they selected him for his long history of community service, and Maestas said he would participate in honor of "the people". He took the role alongside Jeannie Nordstrom, of the Nordstrom family, as Queen Alcyone.

Maestas, along with the rest of the Gang of Four and the executive director of the Minority Executive Directors Coalition, received the 2005 Bridge Builders Award from Partners for Livable Communities.

There have been several attempts to rename El Centro de la Raza in his honor, all of them deflected by his widow, who is quite clear that "I know for a fact that he would not want that to happen."