Zita Cabello Barrueto

Zita Cabello Barrueto is a Chilean human rights activist, filmmaker, and educator who lives with her family in Foster City. Following the coup led by General Pinochet in 1973, Zita’s husband Patricio and her brother Winston were arrested. While Patricio was released, Zita eventually spent twenty years relentlessly searching for the truth about her brother’s death. In 1998, Zita brought a civil suit against one of her brother’s murderers and set a historic precedent as the first ever U.S. jury verdict for crimes against humanity. Zita produced a documentary film, Never Shall We Say “Never Again,” that challenges viewers to reflect on our roles in creating the world in which we live. Societies that use and tolerate torture exist because of the willingness of individual citizens to either participate directly in torture or to be silent. She is currently writing a book and a curriculum guide on similar themes. As a professor at UC Santa Cruz, and as a speaker at many Bay Area schools, Zita has dedicated herself to helping her audiences think about ways in which they can break the silence that surrounds torture and other crimes against humanity in our own societies. She has also given voice and hope for justice to countless Chileans.