Olga Talamante

Olga Talamante is currently the Director of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and serves on the boards of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, El Concilio of San Mateo County, and the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women in San Francisco.   Olga is actively involved in GELAAM, a Latino LGBT organization in San Mateo, the Latino Forum of the San Francisco LGBT Center, and the Greenlining Institute.  She has been a community activist for decades, working with public advocacy groups, service agencies and grassroots organizations. Olga has also worked with Head Start, the United Farm Workers, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Argentine Commission for Human Rights.
 
Olga Talamante has received many awards and recognition, including the “Most Influential Latina in the Bay Area” award, given by the San Francisco Business Times and the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. KQED TV named her one of the “Heroes and Heroines of the Latin Community.”  She received the Women Making History award from the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women.  Olga also was a recipient of the Hispanic Magazine Award in the area of Diversity and the DAISY award from the San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council for Distinguished Achievement in Inspiring or Serving Youth. For several years, Olga Talamante served as the Western Regional Vice President of INROADS, an organization dedicated to career and leadership development for Latino, African American, and Native American college students.
 
Olga was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and her family moved to Gilroy, California when she was a young child. After high school, Olga attended University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned a BA in Latin American Studies.  At one point during that era, Olga was a political prisoner in Argentina, and a mass movement began in the Chicano/Latino community to free her. Many students and organizers worked tirelessly along with Olga’s well-respected parents and family, to advocate for her release. Their success was met with jubilation.

Olga Talamante shares a fresh and unique style of leading progressive movements. She doesn’t use a top-down approach, but invites people to join her. In this way, she has expanded significantly every organization in which she has been involved.  Her astute analysis of political situations as well as incomparable leadership qualities have meant that Olga constantly seeks out new groups to partner with. Olga has always been an inspiring spokesperson for civil rights, a liaison between different communities, and a woman who unites forces in a common cause.  Her sense of humor and engaging personality make others want to be a part of the many causes she advances. Her gracious encouragement and development of leadership training has cultivated thousands of young people who are not only successful personally in their careers but who see it as their responsibility to be active in their communities. Without a doubt  Olga has stood as their role model.

We are proud to honor Olga with this naming ribbon on The Women’s Building, along with so many female heroines of our time. And just as Olga would probably have done, we raised more than enough money to pay for her naming ribbon so that we could also contribute to the naming of another Latina activist at the same time.  ¡Viva Olga Talamante!

Honored by Friends of Olga Talamante