About Renee

Civil Rights Attorney Renee Maria Saucedo is a native San Franciscan whose family history in San Francisco dates back to the 1920’s with her paternal grandfather arriving from Mexico working as a Longshoreman for decades on the City’s waterfront while settling and raising his family in District 9’s Mission district.

Renee has worked as a respected community leader in District 9 (Mission / Bernal Heights / Portola) for the past 15 years. Currently, Renee is the Community Empowerment Coordinator at La Raza Centro Legal, a non-profit, community-based civil rights law firm and also serves as its main organizer of the San Francisco Day Labor Program.

Renee has dedicated her work and community life in working with people and communities that have been historically disenfranchised, underrepresented, and politically marginalized by society. Throughout her life’s work, Renee has combined sensibility and compassion as an advocate for equal rights of the underrepresented and as a proponent of economic justice for the working class and poor.

History

Renee was born in San Francisco on December 22, 1963 to an immigrant Mexican mother and a Mexican-American father. She grew up in San Francisco, Saratoga, and in Mexico.

Since childhood, Renee learned from her family the value of hard work, educational achievement, and service to others. Renee put herself through the University of California, Berkeley and its law school, Boalt Hall, through a combination of family support and part-time jobs. In 1987, Renee received her Bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

As a law student, Renee began her community work in District 9 while interning at the non-profit community-based civil rights law firm, La Raza Centro Legal. Additionally, Renee was Chair of the Coalition for a Diversified Faculty where she helped organize a national law student strike in support of affirmative action for more representative faculties, and curricula in our nation’s law schools.

After earning her law degree from Boalt Hall in 1990, Renee successfully passed the California Bar exam in 1991.

In 1991, Renee joined the staff of La Raza Centro Legal, beginning an affiliation that continues currently.

Additionally, Renee was a Visiting Professor from 2000 to 2003 at San Francisco State University where she taught the history of the legal system, and another course on community organizing.

Affiliations

As a current member of the California State Bar Association, Renee has served on its Committee on Legal Services to the Poor from 1994 . 1996 .Current organizational affiliations include: Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.), Local 790; Mujeres Unidas y Activas (“United and Active Women”); Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (M.A.C.); San Francisco Living Wage Coalition; People’s Budget Collaborative; Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (L.C.L.A.A.); and Labor Immigrant Organizing Network (L.I.O.N.).

Personal

Renee is a ten year resident of the Mission District. She lives in District 9’s Mission District with her beloved Maltese dog, “Coco.” She divides her time among family, work and community responsibilities, and her hobbies include marathon running where she has finished three marathons.

Recognition & Awards

A wide range of groups has recognized Renee for her work in the community, including:

• Women of Color Resource Center’s “Sisters of Fire Award” (2002)
• Service Employees International Union, Local 790’s Latino Caucus’ “Community Service Award” (2001)
• Rockefeller Foundation’s “Next Generation Leadership Fellow” (2001)
• Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government/Institute of Politics’ Forum Presenter on “Coalition Building Across Diverse Communities - A Discourse with Women of Color Activists” (1998)
• San Francisco Minority Bar Association’s “Community Service Award” (1999)
• San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women’s “Women Who Make A Difference Award” (1997)
• National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies’ “Community Service Award” (1997) and
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s (M.A.L.D.E.F.) “Community Service Award” (1997)
  

Community Experience

Renee is respectfully referred by many in the community as the "Abogada del Pueblo” (“The People’s Attorney/Lawyer") due to her work in the community, including her extensive legal work, advocacy, and community organizing.

Renee’s community-based work has given her expertise in a broad range of issues in housing and homelessness; women’s rights; employment/worker’s rights; immigrant rights (like the City as a whole, District 9 is a gateway community to many immigrants, particularly from Latin America); day laborers; and immigrant workers; the “Consulta Popular” (community survey in District 9 regarding its priority issues); and legal issues regarding District 9’s youth.

Renee is a coalition-builder. She has consistently participated in solidarity with the LGBT community and with other communities of color around issues like police accountability, access and civil rights.

During 1996 to 1998, Renee served as Executive Director of Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights (N.C.C.I.R.) where she successfully ran an organization that advocated for the rights of all immigrants. While at N.C.C.I.R., her accomplishments included:

successfully advocated for the creation of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission;
availability of bilingual language interpreters at public hearings;
“Immigrant Day” at state capitol in Sacramento to lobby state officials;
advocacy of immigrant rights at the local, state, and federal levels of government; and
coalition-building amongst diverse communities to combat poverty, and Immigration Naturalization Service (I.N.S.) raids.

Since 2000, Renee has been the main organizer of San Francisco Day Labor Program where she has run an effective program that places immigrants in meaningful work. Program successes include: obtainment of a San Francisco immigrant worker center; organized the S.F. Day Laborer Association, and creation of an immigrant women's workers collective.

S.F. Government Policy Experience

Through her community-based work, Renee has been a leader on a myriad of citywide issues such as:

• Prop. L (November 2003) campaign that increased the minimum wage for San Francisco workers
• San Francisco Living Wage laws (Minimum Compensation Ordinance and the Health Care Accountability Ordinance) requiring businesses with a contract with the city, or property lease with the city or at the Airport must pay workers a living wage with benefits
• The creation of San Francisco’s Immigrant Rights Commission, serving as its Chair for its first four years
• Mayoral Task Force on Welfare Reform
• People’s Budget (community/grassroots priorities for the City’s budget)
• San Francisco’s designation as a federal “Immigration and Naturalization Service Raid-Free Zone”
• Non-criminalization of youth for standard disciplinary matters
• Prohibition of fingerprinting/ body imaging as barriers to homeless shelter beds
• Welfare reform
• The annual “Immigrant Pride Day Celebration”
• Community/neighborhood accountability of police
• Community planning of land use issues
• Anti-displacement/ gentrification issues
• The San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper recognized Renee for their “Public Power Hall of Fame” due to her support for the Prop. D (November 2002) public power campaign