Etel Calles

Community Outreach Coordinator

ecalles@eltimpano.org

Community-building and organizing have always been at the heart of Etel Calles’ journey to citizenship. Etel immigrated to Los Angeles from El Salvador at the age of 10 as an unaccompanied minor. She moved to the Bay Area to attend San Francisco State University, and has spent her entire adult life in the region, living in Marin County, Berkeley, and for the past 18 years, Oakland. Her focus is to empower immigrant families by providing reliable information, resources, and support—a mission that inspired her to co-found the organization, Immigrant Family Defense Fund, in 2016, and one that she continues to pursue as El Tímpano’s East Bay Community Outreach Coordinator. In her spare time, Etel dances Zumba and Baile Folklórico.