championing our communities
at home in salem
Joaquín moved to West Salem more than fifteen years ago after an early childhood in the rural Marion County communities of Stayton and Shaw. He was among the first generation of Dual Language graduates in Salem-Keizer Public Schools and still lives within a stone’s throw of the school that brought his family into town.
He has served the City of Salem on the Planning Commission and Human Rights Commission under two mayors. On the HRC, he committed himself to helping our unhoused neighbors and protecting our diverse communities. Joaquín has been a vocal proponent of the recently adopted, nation-leading amendments to Salem Revised Code that made housing status a protected class, overseen the annual Community Belonging Survey that guides city priorities to make Salem a more welcoming place, and dedicated himself to the safety and belonging of 200,000 residents when bias crimes or incidents occur in our community. He also spent two school years on the educational equity advisory committee for Salem-Keizer Public Schools, the second-largest and most diverse school district in Oregon.
migrant justice
Joaquín, the son of an Indigenous migrant farmworker, has spent his entire life in the farmworker movement and working with his communities. He received some of his earliest community-based education accompanying his father while he worked at PCUN—the farmworker’s union—combating wage theft. At 16, Joaquín joined Causa of Oregon as a community organizer where he worked on long-time campaigns to protect the state’s sanctuary status and pass the Equal Access to the Roads Act that enabled undocumented Oregonians to gain access to driver’s licenses.
After college, Joaquín went to work at the Capaces Leadership Institute where he supports youth and family services like TURNO, serving youth leadership development in the Woodburn area, and the Anahuac Farm that works with migrant Indigenous communities in the Willamette Valley. The community has worked tirelessly to bring in millions of dollars in foundation, state and federal funds for programming and community infrastructure, and promote food sovereignty, Indigenous language revitalization, and cultural preservation programs for our peoples.
Mass transit
Joaquín, appointed by Governor Kotek and confirmed by the Oregon Senate, serves on the Board of Directors for Cherriots where he helps steward the agency as it serves more than 3 million annual riders in the mid-Willamette Valley.
As a wheelchair user in a route-scarce neighborhood who depends on public transportation, he is dedicated to helping the agency grow its services to an expanding rural demographic, meet the needs of elderly, disabled and migrant customers, keep costs affordable and electrify the fleet. Joaquín’s voting record has aligned with those values. He has voted to approve upgrades to paratransit services for disabled riders, expand the fleet by ten new battery electric buses, while advocating for service enhancements for West Salem communities.
economic justice
Former Senator Akasha Lawrence Spence successfully introduced the Economic Equity Investment Act in 2022 that directed a historic $15 million to advance economic stability, self-sufficiency, wealth building and economic equity among Oregon’s marginalized and disadvantaged families, businesses, and communities.
In 2024, when the future of the program was uncertain, Joaquín joined Representative Janelle Bynum’s office and formed a coalition with other CBOs to advocate for the program’s renewal. The 2024 legislative session closed with $8 million more for our communities across Oregon.
