December 19, 1953 — March 24, 2020
Mission District activist Emilio Victorio Sánchez passed on March 24, 2020. After an inordinate several month delay to hurdle bureaucratic barriers to transport his cremation remains to his native Mexico City, family and friends convened an international Zoom memorial held December 19, on what would have been the 67th anniversary of his December 19, 1953 birth.
Emilio lived and worked in Mexico City until the mid 1970s, when he moved to San Francisco, where he dedicated over 30 years of volunteer community and administrative services to nonprofit organizations like Acción Latina in the Mission district, personal assistance to AIDS-positive carriers and homeless immigrants, and over a decade of input to the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals, among other beneficiaries of the largesse of his volunteer energy wealth.
Emilio brought an open-minded perspective from the sophisticated LGBT+ spectrum of Mexico City and immediately immersed himself in local gay social and cultural circles in the city. Upon receipt of U.S. citizenship he dabbled a bit in politics as well. Shortly after he settled here, Emilio honed his English language skills and subsequently earned an associate of arts degree in public health from City College of San Francisco.
For 19 years he was a consumer affairs representative for the California Public Utilities Commission, where he coordinated extensive bilingual communications, and for two decades donated bilingual translation services to the San Francisco Unified School District and other organizations. He was a proud member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000.
Emilio was preceded in death by his father, Emigdio Victorio; his mother, Teresa Sánchez; and sister, Yolanda. He is survived in Mexico by his sisters Virginia and María Luisa, numerous cousins, two generations of nieces and nephews, his godson Tonatiuh De la Rosa, and a wide circle of lifelong friends.
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