Personal Profile: Adamino Ortiz

ACLAMO Founding Executive Director 

Adamino began assisting the neighborhood by helping to establish a small Mennonite congregation. He also joined a small group of community leaders from the Norristown area in creating an organization to address the needs of the Latino residents of Montgomery County, and from that seed, ACLAMO, Accíon Comunal Latinoamericana de Montgomery County came to fruition. Adamino was soon named founding Executive Director, a position he held for 27 years.  

Under his leadership ACLAMO grew from a small community based organization operating out of a church basement, to a full service, countywide organization operating out of offices in Norristown and Pottstown. Under his guidance in the early 1980s, ACLAMO became the very first Latino organization to become a full member of United Way in Pottstown and Philadelphia.  

Adamino's leadership and deep commitment to the community were soon recognized by the county, state and private human services community. In 1984, he was honored by the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission, and in 1993 was named "Executive Director of the Year" by United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. He was appointed to the Governor's Council on the Hispanic Community (later to become the Governor's Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs) and would go on to serve under five administrations of both parties over 16 years.

While always the optimist, Adamino has seen his share of suffering. In 1970, he met and married his first wife, Jane Yoder. Together, they helped establish a Latino ministry at their local church. Adamino and Jane were married for 22 years, and had a lovely daughter, Tina Marie. Sadly, due to a chronic condition, Jane passed away unexpectedly at an early age. Brokenhearted, Adamino faced his future with courage and much determination while focusing on the work of ACLAMO.  

An elder in the Mennonite Church, he also began serving in an international church mission to Cuba. "I fell in love with Cuba from the first minute," Adamino recalls of his initial visit to the island in 1993.  It was through that experience that he met schoolteacher and education administrator, Anita Ravelo. Anita was a Cuban-American immigrant who had herself unexpectedly become a widow. She and Ortiz courted and were married in what Adamino lovingly referred to the "Second Administration." Together in 1996, they formed a new "blended family" with their four young adult daughters.

Tragedy struck again in 2007, when Anita died suddenly. In their 11 years of marriage, through their frequent missionary trips to Cuba, Adamino and Anita accomplished much by helping to build churches and provide aid to the needy. It was at this time that Adamino decided to retire from his work at ACLAMO and continue focusing on his church activities locally, and in Cuba. At his retirement celebration in 2004, he was honored by over 200 people, including representatives of the Governor's Office, the Pennsylvania Legislature and several of ACLAMO's original founding families.

During his period of grief following Anita's passing, Adamino rediscovered a friendship that had been dormant for years. While visiting his family in Puerto Rico and working through the death of Anita, Adamino reconnected with a high school sweetheart, Ruth Lydia Gonzalez. Over the years they had occasionally been in touch through a mutual friend. In March 2009, during a trip to Puerto Rico (and 44 years after their first date!), Adamino married again and so began the "Third Administration."

After retiring from ACLAMO, Adamino received a ministerial license from the Franconia Mennonite Conference to do ministry in Cuba. Together, he and Ruth continue to work with their local church, and to make humanitarian mission trips to Cuba. With a very capable "green thumb" and a natural inclination to connect with others, he pursues his hobbies, including gardening and ham radio operation. He once successfully cultivated a lemon tree inside ACLAMO's Norristown center! Repeatedly, he used his ham radio license and skills to link isolated hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locations to family and emergency relief.

Adamino also continues helping ACLAMO in a supportive, volunteer capacity serving as Executive Director Emeritus. He and Juan Guerra, the current Executive Director, collaborate on development opportunities and board recruitment. From time to time, he volunteers at the Pottstown office and provides people in need with the kind of compassionate, person-to-person "trans-cultural" case management assistance for which ACLAMO has become known and respected over its 35 years.  

 "Adamino's youthful exuberance, his humor, and his deep faith are an inspiration to all of us who have the pleasure to know him," Guerra said.

Office Manager Lourdes Hernandez, who is also from Puerto Rico, has known Adamino for decades. "Adamino has been a role model to me," she said. "During my first years here in the mainland U.S., working at ACLAMO and trying to adapt to this language and culture, Adamino taught me the meaning of compassion and love of others."  

Though his life, this organization and its many community-service programs, Adamino leaves a much-valued and lasting legacy.