Radical Love in Action: The Legacy of Luisa Buada

By: Samantha Villaseñor

The Center for the Critical Study of the Health of LatinX Communities 

Radical love, a phrase used by social justice leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and literarity

activists like Jesús Gómez and Lídia Puigvert is a term to describe and inspire individuals to live

by a transformative force that challenges systematic oppression through compassion, equality,

and fearless action. King utilized this philosophy in many of his most famous speeches and

writings such as “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “Where Do We Go From Here?”.  His core

idea was that love is not a passive emotion but rather one that inspires action and a persistent

force for justice that can confront and overcome systems of injustice. Gómez and Puigvert

explain in their book, “Radical Love: A Revolution for the 21st Century" how the decision to act

with courage and to resist oppressive social norms can profoundly shape not only one’s own life

but also the lives of those around them. When individuals embrace the strength of radical love,

they gain the power to dismantle traditional foundations of relationships that are often

constrained by gender, social class, or race (Gómez and Puigvert, 2014). In doing so, they are

able to live more authentically, liberated from immobilizing standards that limit human

potential.

The story of Luisa Buada, a community health leader, nurse, and retired founder and CEO of

several health centers around the Bay Area, embodies the boundless possibilities of a life

rooted in radical love. Her very existence is by a courageous act of radical love through her

parents interracial marriage that defy social prejudice and legal restraints during the time of

anti-miscegeneation laws which attempted to control and segregate even the most intimate

conditions of peoples’ lives. She was born to a white mother, a nurse at UC San Francisco, and a

Filipino farmworker father. Their marriage was an act of bravery and the kind of love that MLK

described as one of the greatest forces against hate and oppression, one that  resisted unjust

laws and racist ideologies. These laws had devastating consequences for many, particularly

Filipino farmworkers, most of whom were men who had immigrated to the U.S. and, tragically,

often died alone without ever having the opportunity to marry or raise a family. Gómez and

Puigvert argue that radical love breaks through the silence of conformity and creates new

possibilities aligned with equity and a dialogue of change (Gómez and Puigvert, 2014). Luisa’s

parents looked beyond the risks to their economic stability and social standings in order to live

a life that was authentic to their personal desires, an action fueled by the power held within

those who live by the freedom of radical love rather than restrained by social norms. 

In my Critical Study HLC’s interview with Luisa Buada, she expressed deep gratitude that her

father had the chance to marry her mother and raise their family, knowing how rare such a

union was at the time. Her parents endured many obstacles, living separately under the threat

of job loss if their marriage were discovered. Eventually Luisa’s mom left her job due to

pregnancy and in 1944, her parents purchased a home in San Francisco’s Bayview District, one

of the first neighborhoods in the Bay Area to remove ordinances that had prohibited non-white

residents from buying property. Their life was an act of social transformation that paved the

moral groundwork that Luisa inherited from them that created her into a fearless activist for

underrepresented and marginalized communities. 

Luisa’s parents instilled in her a noble understanding of love and resistance, values she carried

throughout her life and wove into her career and profound community involvement. Despite

facing racism in her early education such as her high school counselor who told her that

“people like her” did not attend college, Luisa was not discouraged and earned admission to UC

Santa Cruz. Although the Bayview was ethnically diverse, college offered her a broader

community in which she began to understand herself in new and empowering ways. She felt a

new understanding of her identity and this sense of self ignited her commitment to activism.

During her first year, on evenings and weekends she helped picket stores to boycott lettuce and

grapes in support of striking farmworkers. After participating in a caravan to Coachella to bring

donations to striking grape workers, she decided to volunteer full time with Cesar Chavez and

the United Farm Workers (UFW). Her work with the UFW proved transformative, shifting the

course of her career. While volunteering as a triage volunteer at the original Salinas UFW clinic,

she discovered her calling in nursing and the power of healthcare as a tool for justice. Similar to

the ideas of Gómez and Puigvert, Luisa harnessed the power to connect with others through

empathy to combat their struggles. She understood how healthcare went beyond a technical

profession and could be used as a tool for social resistance. Her care for farmworkers and

undocumented patients exemplified how acts of love and empathy can challenge a

discriminatory system that allowed for those who were members of underserved communities

to suffer. 

Throughout her career, Luisa embodied the principles of radial love as she led institutional

change for those who she witnessed suffer the most. Luisa went on to become a dedicated and

fierce advocate for poor, undocumented, and uninsured pregnant women who were denied

admission to the county hospital while in active labor. She spent many nights in the hospital

parking lot, waiting for women’s labor to progress and to then advocate for them to be

admitted when the baby’s head was crowning, about to be born. Luisa shared the deep pain

she carried for the mothers and infants who did not survive after being turned away, a pain that

only strengthened her resolve to fight for change. This anguish became fuel for her lifelong

passion of expanding healthcare access for vulnerable communities, particularly undocumented

and uninsured Latinos. 

In 1977, Luisa completed her nursing degree at UCSF  to continue her work with the serving

farmworkers in the Salinas Valley. While she was pursuing her R.N. degree, the UFW clinic in

Salinas unfortunately shut down. This setback did not slow down Buada’s determination to

break down barriers. Instead, she committed herself to working with other nurses and

advocates to create a non-profit community clinic in 1980, which became known as Clínica

Popular del Valle de Salinas. After gaining the skills and knowledge necessary to build a

community clinic from the ground up, and serving as its executive director, she went on to open

and run the Berkeley Primary Care Access Clinic (BPCAC) in 1991. Building on these successes,

she later co-founded Lifelong Medical Care in Berkeley as part of a merger between BPCAC and

Over 60 Health Center, a clinic serving low income seniors, in 1996. A major milestone in her

career was her remarkable leadership at Ravenswood Family Health Network, where she served

as CEO for twenty-one years. Although now retired from that role since 2024, she continues to

contribute as the Director of Capital Projects. In achieving these remarkable goals, Buada

actualized MLK’s philosophy  of justice and compassion being the foundation of community and

just society. Her leadership and success in serving these communities in need became a

platform for how radical love is not only a moral principle but a force for redefining healthcare

for all people. 

From birth, Luisa’s story has been one of fearlessness and resistance against social and

governmental oppression. From the courage of her parents who defied racial barriers to her

own challenges in expanding healthcare, she is a woman whose life demonstrates how life can

be a revolutionary force. The strength of radical love shines through Luisa and her work as she

took on every struggle with confidence and grace. MLK and Gómez and Puigvert teach how love

is much more than sentimental, but rather an active and a mechanism for resistance against

injustice. This is illustrated through the spaces Luisa created within healthcare even when she

herself was being pushed aside. Luisa’s unwavering commitment to radical love for her

community, extended to all people, regardless of race or class, has forcefully broken down

barriers in healthcare that might otherwise have remained.

The teachings of MLK, Gómez and Puigvert, and Luisa Buada remind us that radical love

continues to be an urgent need for our society. In the current climate which faces the United

States, Luisa’s achievements and progress for the health of the Latino community will never be

forgotten but is in jeopardy of returning. The unending struggles of undocumented Latino as

well as other immigrants has accelerated in recent months where damaging policies on

immigration, public health, and acceptance redefine the nation’s social and moral landscape for

the worse. New barriers to medical care, citizenship, and systemic discrimination have arisen

despite the great strides which leaders such as MLK and leaders in the community health center

movement like Luisa Buada, have made, yet their philosophies keep advocates vigilant and

unwavering. Their acts of radical love towards those in greatest need have left current and

future social justice leaders equipped with everything we need to overcome this moment of

hate and regression in order to continue to break down barriers old and new. 

Bibliography

Interview with Luisa Buada, RN BSN MPH by Dr. Clara Mantini Briggs, MD MPH and Samantha

Villaseñor, research assistant- Center for the Critical Study of the Healthy of Latinx

Communities 

Berkeley, CA April 5, 2025

Autor: Jesús Gómez, and Lídia Puigvert. Radical Love: A Revolution for the 21. Century. Editorial:

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and Striving for a Better World.” Wbur.org, 17 Jan. 2022,

www.wbur.org/radioboston/2022/01/17/january-17-2022-rb.

Zekveld, Richard. “MLK & Radical Love.” Covenant Fellowship Church, 2019,

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