7 Latino Leaders Chosen for Awards

El Concilio del Condado de Ventura will honor seven Latino civic leaders later this month for their work and contribution to education, community service, youth leadership, culture, health and business.

Jess Ramirez, Luann and Jesus Rocha, Rosalba Jasso, Saturnino Carrillo, Robert Guillen and Gloria Chinea, all of Oxnard, will receive Latino Leadership Awards at a Jan. 25 banquet-dance.

Ramirez, a longshoreman and Oxnard Harbor District commissioner, will receive El Concilio’s award for community service. For more than 30 years he has been involved with a number of organizations, including Operation SHARE, which he founded, Neighborhood Youth Corps., the Hueneme Boys & Girls Club, the Commission of Human Concerns and Destino 2000.

Luann and Jesus Rocha, winners of El Concilio’s award for education, founded and operate El Centrito de La Colonia, a nonprofit organization that gives children of La Colonia a head start on literacy. Their most significant achievement has been the establishment of the community’s first computer-assisted literacy program for children.

Jasso, winner of the leadership award for youth, has worked as a voter-registration volunteer and organizer of protests against Proposition 187. Cultural arts award winner Carrillo is director of Ballet Folklorico Alma de Mexico and has concentrated on teaching dance to at-risk youth.

Guillen, winner of El Concilio’s business award, is executive secretary of the Ventura County Building and Construction Trades Council, director of the JOBLINKS program and financial/recording secretary of Painters and Taper Local 955.

Chinea, recipient of the health leadership award, is director of patient and community education for Mercy Health Care, where she has focused on Ventura County’s Latino community.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard. The dinner-dance costs $50 per person or $90 per couple. For reservations, call El Concilio at 486-9777.