Seattle’s Most Influential People 2018: Immigration Activist Maru Mora Villalpando
Even as she fights for her life in the U.S., Maru Mora Villalpando has not curtailed her activism one bit
By Naomi Ishisaka October 16, 2018
This article originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the November 2018 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.
After years of leading high-profile protests to defend immigrants in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, undocumented activist Maru Mora Villalpando got the knock on the door she always feared: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel ordering her to appear in immigration court. Mora Villalpando called it retaliation for her activism, ICE called it business as usual. After months of court hearings, in June, Mora Villalpando received a continuation of her case until January 2019, at which time she can apply for a green card. Even as she fights for her life in the U.S., Mora Villalpando has not curtailed her activism one bit—you will still find her on the front lines, fighting for other immigrants.
Follow Us
The Councilmember: Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Seattle’s youngest councilmember leads with a boots-on-the-ground approach.
Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Standing on Medgar Evers’ driveway. Looking over the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. At 16, Alexis Mercedes Rinck had heard stories of these Civil Rights Movement landmarks from her politically engaged grandmother, who was raising her, but in 2012, Rinck was there. And she was meeting the people—sung and unsung—of…
The Literary Leader: Christopher Frizzelle
The former Stranger editor launching a community-funded publishing company that puts its authors first.
The path to FrizzLit Editions began in the fraught days of March 2020. Christopher Frizzelle, then an editor at the Stranger, was searching for new ways to reach readers in a city that had all but shut down. “My brilliant idea is, we’ll do a book club,” he remembers. That first book club—a quarantine edition…
The Big Giver: Shari D. Behnke
The philanthropist pouring resources into the arts, hoping to inspire others to do the same.
Like almost everyone who has spent time at On the Boards, Shari D. Behnke has memories of shows that have deeply moved her. And then there are the performances she found so jarring that she walked out part-way through—few and far between, but still a hazard of frequenting contemporary performing arts. “That’s one of the…
The Explorer: Tessa Hulls
Her graphic novel won a prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
People who know Tessa Hulls won’t be surprised by her initial reaction to learning she’d won a Pulitzer Prize for her first book, the graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts (Macmillan, 2024). “I think I was in shock for a couple of months,” Hulls says. “I went into the backcountry for as long as I needed until…