By Laurel Rice

Running for balance. Running to heal. Running for herself. Running for him.

Estela crossed the finish line of the half marathon, the last Sunday in September 2012, wearing Roberto’s shorts as a reminder of the husband she lost two years earlier.

In 2008, he started getting ill and they both knew what was coming. There was a 12-year age difference between them, so she thought it was likely he would pass first. But one day he was just gone. She was prepared for his passing, but was she really? Could she have ever really been ready?

She lost her husband, best friend, and counselor, Roberto Maestas. The person she could bounce political ideas off of. After he passed, she got busier. For months she worked tirelessly for seven days a week until late at night. She needed work, and was able to hold it together, but at 11 p.m. when she was home at night without him, she would break down into shambles.

“Ortega, you have to be healthy,” she remembers him saying before he passed away.

So she started running. She takes care of herself now, and in some ways always has.

Estela Ortega has been the executive director of El Centro de la Raza since July 2009. Her packed schedule is booked out three weeks in advance. She works six days a week and has two offices.

“He would say Ortega you’re going to handle it and I said no I’m not going to handle it and I would start crying,” said Estela. “He said no you will handle it. It was really interesting because I did handle it.”

With him gone she still works diligently to carry on their vision.

“The vision of the people who occupied El Centro was to create community through multi racial unity to lead dignified lives while working to end poverty, racism and violence,” said Estela.

In Seattle’s Hispanic community, one of the biggest changes over time is that it is no longer affordable to live on Beacon Hill. This area has historically been an area with many Latinos live.

Four years ago a project was conceived and after two years of gaining enough funds and make necessary zoning changes, the a $42 million project with 112 housing units for low-income people and also new space for businesses. They will be breaking ground in March.

“There is a certain respect in doing this kind of work. El Centro was seen as a scrappy nonprofit,” said Estela. “Even though we were responding to peoples needs we were not responding in a big way, like housing.”

Estela was born into a poverty stricken family. Sleeping in one room with her two brothers in a rat-infested, broken down house in Texas. Polio and hepatitis infected her siblings. She spent days picking cotton in the fields to make money to help support her family.

In adulthood, Estela became involved in social justice work. She was living a single life in Houston when she was asked by Roberto, whom she had met at a conference years earlier, to come help in an occupation in Seattle. The peaceful protest was an effort to gain an empty school building to be used as a community center for the Latino community in Seattle. She decided to make it a long-term venture, quit her job, and move here.

“I’m going to be a part of people who are wanting to build a better world,” said Estela. “That’s what brought me back [to Seattle]. Who knows if it’s my fate or my destiny?”

Roberto led the occupation and was founder of El Centro de la Raza, with the help of four minority communities in Seattle. He was a visionary just like herself and together they worked to build multiracial unity at the community center.

“They really are heroes and role models in our community. They worked together closely along with many other people in building a wonderful organization,” said Miguel
 Maestas, El Centro’s associate administrator and Roberto’s nephew.

They weren’t officially married until September 18, 2010. Estela wanted to put it off even later, but the couple was married for legal purposes by a judge. Roberto passed September 22, 2010.

Even so, the couple had been married since 1972 after a beautiful indigenous wedding. She had two daughters with him. For the first seven years together they worked as volunteers, so money was tight.

Hilda Magaña is the Director of José Martí Child Development Center at El Centro. She saw Roberto and Estela work together for resources, change policies to better society, and develop a voice for the Latino community.

Estela has been asked to run for office, but she says the best place to do her work and make change is at El Centro.

“I could get caught up into the business of running a city and not the business of developing a community,” Estela said.

On her office cabinet sits an Olympic Torch from the year the games were in Atlanta. Roberto was asked to run the torch through part of Seattle. In Estela’s first half marathon, she wore the same shorts he wore during his Olympic run.

“One thing he used to say [when people asked] what’s going to happen when you’re not around anymore?” said Miguel in reference to Roberto’s feelings about El Centro. “He would say ‘nothing.’”