IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS GROUP
Lourdes Martinez
Directing Attorney
Lourdes comes to Centro Legal with twenty years of experience at the grassroots level as well as the professional legal field. She was born in Mexico City and moved to Texas with her family when she was 13 years old. Her family’s experience inspired her to use her privileges as a bilingual and bicultural individual to become an immigration lawyer. After graduating from George Washington University Law School, she worked at the Tahirih Justice Center in Falls Church, Virginia, representing immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence. She later moved to California and became a legal educator at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco. Prior to joining Centro Legal, she spent six years as the Political Director at Mujeres Unidas y Activas in the Bay Area, working alongside immigrant leaders and organizers on campaigns for Domestic Worker and Immigrant Rights, as well as promoting the civic engagement of the Latinx community. Lourdes identifies as a Mexican woman of mixed heritage whose family history compels her to work to create a world where migration is not needed to flee displacement or persecution, but where it is nevertheless possible and celebrated. She lives in Oakland with her husband and their son, and enjoys painting, cooking and pottery.