Ricardo Gallego: A Legacy of Care, Community and Love

For more than two decades, Ricardo Gallego dedicated his life to making sure people in San Diego’s Latino LGBTQ+ community knew they were not alone. A trained counselor, Ricardo began serving the community through Bienestar Human Services before joining The San Diego LGBT Community Center in 2004. Through his leadership with Latin@x Services, he became a trusted advocate, mentor, friend and, for countless people, a member of their chosen family.

His work was about much more than providing services. Ricardo created trust. He created spaces where people could feel seen, heard, respected and safe, particularly people living with HIV, immigrants, asylum seekers and LGBTQ+ Latinos who often faced barriers to healthcare and community support.

For those who knew him, that commitment was not simply part of his job. It was who he was.

Rosario Padilla knew Ricardo for 23 years. He first came into her life through her now-wife at a gathering where Ricardo was with his beloved Orlando. Their friendship became deep, filled with celebrations, travels, laughter, and the kind of support that comes from family.

One of Rosario’s favorite memories happened at her wedding, when Ricardo served as the ring bearer. When the judge asked for the rings, Ricardo suddenly realized he could not remember where he had put them. He searched frantically through his pockets until he finally found them and exclaimed, “Oh, I’m sorry, my loves! I’m sorry, I do have them!” The ceremony dissolved into laughter.

That story captures the Ricardo so many people knew: loving, affectionate, funny, and completely genuine.

But Rosario also remembers his instinct to protect the people he loved. At one retreat, when someone attempted to hit her with a chair, Ricardo stepped between them and took the blow himself.

“He was loving, affectionate, a humanist,” Rosario says. “He was much more than a person working in a space; he was an exceptional human being.”

Ricardo’s commitment to his community was already becoming a defining part of his life when he joined The San Diego LGBT Community Center in 2004. There, his work with Latin@x Services helped establish a culturally and linguistically welcoming environment where Latino/a/x LGBTQ+ people could embrace every part of themselves—their culture, traditions, language, spirituality, sexuality and gender identity.

For more than two decades, Ricardo built relationships through empathy and care. He supported people living with HIV, helped connect community members to medical, clinical and social services, welcomed immigrants searching for community and assisted asylum seekers looking for safety.

Some of his most meaningful work took place across the border.

In 2018 and 2019, Ricardo, Latin@x Services and Carolina helped support LGBTQ+ refugees arriving in Tijuana from Central America. Thousands had fled political violence, death threats and persecution because of who they were or whom they loved. LGBTQ+ asylum seekers were particularly vulnerable, sometimes facing discrimination even within shelters.

Ricardo helped bring organizations together, including The Center, RAICES, Al Otro Lado and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Through that collaboration, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and people living with HIV received humanitarian relief, legal assistance and case management.

With support from donors, volunteers crossed the border and filled Costco carts with socks, pillows, blankets, food, toys and other necessities. They visited shelters where people were exhausted from everything they had survived. Yet Ricardo understood that helping someone was about more than providing supplies; it was about recognizing their humanity.

It was Ricardo at his best: building bridges where others saw borders.

The Quezada-Torres family also met Ricardo in 2004 and remembers a man who immediately made an effort to care for their family and remain present in their lives. They describe him as “a true friend to everyone: altruistic, kind, and the owner of an enormous heart.”

They witnessed firsthand how tirelessly he worked to improve the lives of people living with HIV and those who needed medical, clinical and social services in both San Diego and Tijuana.

Even the smallest details remain part of their memories. Ricardo had a distinctive fragrance, an unmistakable scent that would announce his presence before he even entered a room. For the family, that memory remains connected to his smile, his warmth, and the joy he brought with him.

“Ricardo was much more than a friend,” the family remembers. “He was a special person who cared for us, accompanied us, and was always present.”

Hugo de la Torre met Ricardo 18 years ago when he became a participant in Acción Positiva, a group Ricardo facilitated. What began as a participant and facilitator relationship eventually became a close friendship and an extended family bond.

Hugo, co-founder and president of Viva Vivo Binacional, eventually had the opportunity to carry forward part of what Ricardo had built when he took responsibility for the group for a year after Ricardo retired.

Asked to describe Ricardo in one WORD, Hugo says, “Unconditional.”

“As a friend, you could count on him,” Hugo recalls. “And as a leader, he was one of those people the community could count on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He listened, accompanied people and made them feel that they were not alone.”

For Hugo, Ricardo’s personal influence was profound.

“Ricardo, thank you for opening the doors to your group, your life and your family. Thank you for your friendship, for listening to me and for teaching me, through your example, what it means to be present for our community.”

That may be the clearest description of Ricardo’s legacy. He did not simply create programs or connect people with resources. He created relationships. He understood that health, particularly within the Latino LGBTQ+ community, is inseparable from dignity, culture, language, family, identity and belonging.

He was a counselor and advocate, and a mentor. He was a leader, never standing above the people he served. He was a friend who became family.

Ricardo’s legacy lives in Latin@x Services, in the people he helped access HIV care and other vital resources, in the community leaders he mentored, in the organizations he brought together and in the countless people who felt safer because he was there.

“Being part of his extended family was a gift to me,” Hugo says. “Ricardo left a deep mark on my life and on our community.”

Rosario puts it simply: “Ricardo, you will always live in our memories.”

And he will—not only in memories of his smile, his laughter, his unmistakable presence or his enormous heart, but in the community he helped build and the people he taught to care for one another.

Ricardo Gallego spent his life reminding people that they mattered.

His greatest legacy is that so many people now carry that lesson forward.