We’ve misplaced the loveliest human being.
A champion for the surroundings.
A voice for many who didn’t at all times really feel heard.
She at all times put Oxnard first.
The record of tributes and condolences grew ever longer on Saturday, as buddies and colleagues mourned Ventura County Supervisor Carmen Ramirez, a longtime legal professional and beloved public servant, who died Friday evening after being hit by a truck in a crosswalk in downtown Oxnard.
The 73-year-old, who was the present chair of the county’s board of supervisors, was the first Latina ever elected to the influential board, in addition to the primary to function its chair. A candlelight vigil to honor her was deliberate for Saturday at 7 p.m. at Plaza Park in Oxnard, the place she beforehand served on the town council.
“Now we have misplaced an unimaginable champion,” mentioned Linda Parks, a fellow supervisor and shut buddy. “Such a gaping gap.”
Oxnard police mentioned that the person driving the truck that hit Ramirez remained on the scene and had cooperated with investigators.
Born Maria Carmen Ramirez, she grew up one in all seven siblings within the San Gabriel Valley however went on to construct her life in Ventura County.
A graduate of Loyola Regulation Faculty, she started her profession as a authorized support legal professional within the metropolis’s La Colonia neighborhood within the late Seventies, in accordance with her marketing campaign web site.
“I used to be grateful to signify these with out the means to rent a lawyer,” she mentioned in a video, which she recorded in English and Spanish.
Ramirez, who spoke with The Occasions for a 2020 piece commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Nationwide Chicano Moratorium In opposition to the Vietnam Battle, mentioned that becoming a member of the demonstrations years earlier had been a defining a part of solidifying her burgeoning identification as a politically engaged Mexican American.
The moratorium, she mentioned, “gave me the view that we simply must battle for justice.”
Ramirez served, for a time, because the president of the Ventura County Bar Assn. and was later elected to the State Bar of California’s board of governors— now known as the board of trustees. She additionally served as a longtime board member for the Middle for Civic Schooling, a nonprofit that promotes the examine and follow of democracy, and was appointed to the Fee on State Mandates by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012.
When it got here to matters she felt passionately about — and there have been many, buddies and colleagues say — she didn’t mince her phrases.
When chatting with The Occasions in 2017, Ramirez, then Oxnard’s mayor professional tem, expressed her disgust on the historical past of contamination at an area seaside.
“It’s clear who will get caught with all of the soiled stuff,” she mentioned. “What different metropolis has three energy crops and a Superfund website on the seaside? The individuals of Oxnard have paid their dues.”
Parks, her fellow supervisor, mentioned she is going to bear in mind her buddy for her seemingly countless record of passions, together with social justice, good authorities and the surroundings.
“She walked the stroll,” Parks mentioned. “She would give donations to each trigger that got here earlier than us. A few of us would simply say good phrases. She can be on the market writing $25 checks.”
Ramirez led with a spirit of power and care, Parks mentioned, noting how impressed she’d been by her colleague final 12 months, as she navigated grieving her brother, who died of COVID-19, whereas concurrently sitting via conferences the place some individuals droned on about how they didn’t suppose coronavirus was actual.
Ramirez was the kind of buddy, Parks mentioned, who observed while you have been having a troublesome day and made it some extent to textual content you an image of flowers — perhaps a snap from her rose backyard or an image of a bouquet in a vase she’d seen in somebody’s residence.
“To me, that was such a kindness,” Parks mentioned. “We have been so fortunate to have her.”
Ramirez is survived by her husband, Roy Prince.
