Lorena, Board Member

Lorena was born in California, but lived her teenage and early adult years in Acapulco, Guerrero. She is a graduate of Portland State University, and has been working in social services for over 15 years with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. In 2015, after 4 years of living in San Luis Potosí, Lorena and her family moved back to Portland, Oregon. Since then, she has been working with El Programa Hispano/UNICA and currently holds the position of Systems Navigation and Outreach Program Manager.

Lorena provides leadership support to the UNICA prevention team and sexual assault and trafficking survivor advocates. She believes that everyone has the right to live a life free from violence. Raising awareness around the barriers and injustices the community faces when trying to access services has always been a passion to her and she has advocated for equitable and inclusive services in the community.

Lorena’s goal is to support VIVA in having a firm foundation for long term growth and sustainability. She sees VIVA not only as an organization that is dedicated to defending the rights of migrants and refugees, but a place for community empowerment, justice and hope for future generations.

Iris, Board Member

Iris was born in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, Mexico. Her parents worked at the SEP, Secretary of Public Education. For that reason, she lived in various towns and cities in her childhood and adolescence.

Iris graduated with a degree in psychology from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL). She worked as Coordinator of the IMSS Mental Health Center with families from rural communities. In 2011, she immigrated to the USA. She began working in public schools as a paraeducator with Spanish-speaking immigrant children. She worked as a parent educator with Spanish-speaking families at the Latino Network in Portland, OR. She worked as the coordinator for the Kids! Best Start for Kids program, designed specifically for Spanish-speaking families.

She has supported motherhood, Women’s Empowerment, and research for medical, educational, housing, and legal resources. Now Iris dedicates volunteer time to VIVA, with the intention of continuing to support her community.

Dora, Secretary

Dora is originally from San Luis Potosí, Mexico. She graduated from the UASLP, Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as a public accountant.

Dora came to this country in 2001 and studied English as a second language at Mount Hood Community College. She worked for a while babysitting and then worked at Arevalo’s Enterprise as a Latino business accountant. Dora also worked as office manager and accountant at Latino Network.

Dora says, “I am part of VIVA because the migrant community is very important to me and above all because I like to help empower our people. But, also, because the work that VIVA does is very necessary for our migrant community, and I want to be part of this beautiful work that is being done”.

Maya, Board Member

Maya is from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. She worked for 10 years as a Civil Registry judge in Mexico. She moved to the USA and worked in a fast-food restaurant for three years, and then for nine years as a receptionist. She is now taking English classes and is a mentor at Transitions. She loves volunteering with the community and she is now part of VIVA’s Board of Directors.

Mark, Board Member

Rev. Dr. W. J. Mark Knutson has been Senior Pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon since December 1995. Augustana is a thriving multicultural sanctuary congregation in the heart of Portland, now in its 113th year. Augustana has grown from 243 members in 1995 to an almost 900-member congregation that is also home to several non-profits including Familias en Acción, the Society for Haitian Arts, Culture and Social Support, the Irvington Cooperative Preschool, the Well Arts Institute, Open Circle Native American Ministries and the Lift Every Voice Oregon Campaign to end gun violence. The Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice spent its first decade at Augsutana (through 2016) and the Community Alliance of Tenants its first 20 years (into 2019). Pastor Knutson has served on local and national boards, and has keynoted and conducted workshops in a variety of settings.

Mark is past chair of the Northwest Health Foundation Board, the Board of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and of Familias en Accion. He is on the Steering Committee for the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform. He was one of three statewide petitioners for the Freedom to Marry Ballot Initiative, and is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow. He is currently Chair and Convener of Lift Every Voice. In the January 2012 issue of Portland Monthly magazine, Mark was named one of the 50 Most Influential Portlanders. Augustana became one of the first New Sanctuary Congregations in the Country in 1996 and actively housed Francisco Aguirre in 2014 for 81 days while becoming a founding member of the National New Sanctuary Movement. Rev. Knutson has appeared on CNN International and CNN weekend as well as ABC’s Full Measure. Rev. Knutson was awarded the Vancouver Ave. Baptist Church Martin Luther King Drum Major Award in 2019; the Martin Luther King Leaders Award by the World Arts Association in 2018; the Heart of Sanctuary Award by the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice in 2015; was named Ecumenist of the Year in 2009 by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon; was named Distinguished Pastor by Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley in 2009; and received the Fortenza Award by Desarrollo Integral de la Familia for service in the Latino community in 2004. Prior to coming to Augustana, Mark served as the National Director of Youth Ministries in Chicago for the 5.3-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon, has an M. Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley and a D. Min. in Church Leadership Excellence from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C. Mark is married to Tamrah; their son Brandon earned his MBA at the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia after six years as a Senior Financial Consultant in Los Angeles.

Get in touch with Mark: mark@augustana.org

Francisco, Executive Director

We generally see biographies of leaders with an excellent curriculum showing their studies and professional achievements. We see the extensive education that they have received, that is recognized everywhere. Well, maybe my case is different. I do not have that kind of education, or those achievements. I do not have the biography that we generally expect to see in an executive director.

I am a Salvadoran farmworker, a day laborer in the United States. I graduated from the best school in the world, which is the school of the people. I arrived in this beautiful city of Portland at age 16, and I did not know how to read or write. However, in my mind I arrived in Portland as the great engineer, the architect, the lawyer, the great conqueror of dreams and ideas, the one who leaves a mark, and follows paths full of love for equality in every step he takes. In this beautiful State of Oregon, I learned to read and write these scribbles that we call letters.  I went from just knowing how to make my signature, to reading and writing words. Words that most of the time I take a letter off because in my opinion that letter is just an extra one that we don’t need.

For many it is a mockery, but for me it is a joy to see that I can read and write in this imperfect world. I am an Indian that can’t speak Spanish well either, but I am proud to speak it in my own way, knowing that whenever I speak it, somehow, I make myself understood, one way or another. I’m from San Miguel, El Salvador. I arrived in the United States in 1995 as an immigrant fleeing violence in El Salvador. I came in search of freedom, I arrived with the dream that one day I would no longer feel persecuted, and I am still waiting for that moment. When I arrived in Portland, I immediately started getting fully involved in the struggle to defend the rights of day laborers and migrants. I graduated as a human rights promoter in 1996.  My struggle for the rights of day laborers and immigrants in Oregon had an endless beginning because I am still circling around injustice, seeing how I can dissipate it, and for me it is an honor to do so.

My participation in WOC Workers Organizing Committee, beginning in 1996, was the start of the fight that I continue to carry out. One of my great teachers in the fight for human rights is Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Labor Network, who taught me that the roads we construct should be wide enough and full of love for the people we defend. My involvement in VOZ began after WOC was dissolved as an organization, and the day laborers were about to be left behind in limbo. However, there was a creative space to be able to continue the fight. I can proudly say that I am one of the founders of the VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project. My function was always organizing.  Others took care of legal issues, and together we managed to stabilize the organization of the workers.  I am still fighting to defend the rights of workers.

I participated in the struggle to achieve a workplace for day laborers in Portland.  In 1995, as I began my career in the day laborer struggle, the dream of having a workers center was already in existence, and in 2008 it was possible to fulfill that dream, thanks to the struggle of the workers, VOZ as the leading organization in the daily struggle, volunteers, sister organizations, and of course the goodwill and effort of former Mayor Tom Potter.

My involvement in the National Day Laborer Network helped me discover more tools with which to keep the struggle going. I am proud to be part of the Board of Directors at NDLON and be able to do something for the organization that is helping millions of migrants and refugees.

I was involved in some organizing work in California.  I helped organize day laborers in Cypress Park outside the Home Depot there, and become one of the volunteer coordinators of the day laborers center that was put in place at the parking lot of that Home Depot, after a big fight for the rights of the workers.  I worked with Mission Dolores Church in Los Angeles, working with grassroots communities Camino Seguro, Verde and volunteering in the Homeboy Industries program and Proyecto Pastoral in the Boyle Heights area.

My struggle continues now with the VIVA Inclusive Migrant Network. a new organization dedicated to defending the human rights of migrants and refugees. I continue to dream, to make trails and paths of freedom, and to show love for my migrant and refugee sisters and brothers. In the perfect world of many, I am still an illiterate, but in my world full of imperfections I am the man, the friend, the human being with the desire to help, to continue fighting with my people until we reach freedom.

Thank you, Pastor Mark and Augustana Lutheran Church and all the board members, for helping to build VIVA Inclusive Migrant Network.

Get in touch with Francisco Aguirre: francisco@oregonviva.org