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Marta Moreno retires from El Comite, but has no plans to stop working on behalf of Latino community

Marta Moreno earlier this month announced she was leaving El Comite after 40 years of serving in nearly every capacity of the advocacy group for Longmont’s Latino community.
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Marta Moreno outside of her Southmoor Park home. She is holding a stone replica of a burro. Burro is a nickname she was given years ago. (Photo by Monte Whaley)

Marta Moreno may be retired from El Comite but “La Burris” is not in the mood to fade away.

“There is still too much to do, too many people to help,” Moreno, 73, said from the back porch of her Southmoor Park home. “Retire. I don’t even know what that word means.”

Moreno earlier this month announced she was leaving El Comite after 40 years of serving in nearly every capacity of the advocacy group for Longmont’s Latino community. Most recently she served as case manager after being the group’s executive director.

Friends and longtime allies in Longmont’s Latino community also don’t see Moreno fading into the sunset. They agree she has too much fire left in her to cash in her activism. 

“She’s still a young pup, she still has a lot of fire and a lot of spark left in her,” said Victor “Vic” Vela, Sr., who served as El Comite’s first executive director. “She’s still got a lot to offer.” 

“She will always be La Burris to everyone wherever she goes,” Vela said. “The strong one that helps everybody.” 

Moreno helped form El Comite in 1980 after working on grassroots efforts to help the area’s migrant families. Moreno grew up in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Boulder County with her husband, Beto, who was recruited to work at IBM. 

After moving to Longmont in the late 1970s, she organized a petition drive to start a regular Latin Mass for workers who came from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. 

“We had 350 people sign the petition and the (Catholic) church’s bishops agreed to come out to the farms and do Communion, baptisms and serve the people who worked the fields,” Moreno said. “The farmers cleaned out their warehouse for us for the services. They were happy to help.” 

Moreno also sang in a Spanish choir and helped organize food and clothing drives for the workers. She helped them with their immigration papers and connected them to their families back home. 

“They (the workers) really had no voice so we tried to give them something they could rely on,” Moreno said.  

Moreno’s efforts were galvanized by the Aug. 14, 1980, shootings of two Latino teens by two Longmont police officers. The shootings outraged the Latino community, which decided to come together under one voice and organization, Moreno said.  

“We talked and talked about what we should call ourselves, and finally we decided the name The Committee would carry a lot of weight,” she said.  

The first time El Comite came out in full force was before a meeting of the Longmont City Council. “We went to the city council to begin talking about justice and respect,” Moreno said. “The police were there with their guns, thinking we were going to riot.” 

El Comite instead looked to work with the police and help them better understand the Latino community and its needs, Moreno said. “I told officers, if they needed help with families, with interpreting, we would be there for them,” she said. 

El Comite began fighting for health care, education and social services for Latino families. Moreno spent hours on the phone, trying to cut through red tape to help people in need, said Richard Lathrop, one of the El Comite’s founders. 

“I used to say Marta was the heart and soul of El Comite,” Lathrop said. “I have now added ‘glue.’” 

Nonprofits that spring up to address specific issues have short life spans, Lathrop said. But because El Comite — under Moreno’s direction — worked on other issues for Latinos it remains an important and viable group in Longmont. 

“... It is alive, embraced by the community and still together,” Lathrop said. “That’s in no small part because of Marta. I’ve lost track of the number of times when Comite’s name has come up, someone says, ‘Oh yes, Marta Moreno.’” 

Vela said Moreno also will be an important cog in a group he founded, Longmont Latinx Voice, which advocates for Latino causes.  

“I hope in her retirement she wants to help us out,” Vela said. “That would be great and it shows how classy Marta is.” 

“I will be there, if they need help, I will help,” Moreno said.