One look at Lorraine Yglesias, 63, and you know she is a force of nature.
Elegant, fit and beautiful in her red top and tasteful jewelry, she says she prefers the term “rewiring” to “retiring,” two years after she left her post as director of multicultural and inclusive marketing at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Yglesias, who spent formative years—from age 2 to about 12—in Costa Rica, says she is just starting the fourth phase in her life and career.
When she moved to Los Angeles with her family, her first priority was to learn English and find her footing in a country that knew nothing about the Latin culture she was raised in. The immigration experience is at the core of her strength; Yglesias credits American TV—Sesame Street and old Hollywood films—for learning English. Even though they lived in a rough neighborhood, she could see the Hollywood sign from her home, and becoming an actress was her childhood dream.
“Then I realized that the real action happens behind the camera,” she says. Her first career was in international film distribution in Los Angeles, a job in which she thrived, traveling and licensing content. As the anthem of those years, she offers “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” the iconic 1983 feminist hit by Cyndi Lauper. “That was our song.”
Yglesias considers motherhood—her children are in their late 20s now—her second career, after she moved with her husband to the Central Coast; they live in Carmel Valley.
She found her job (phase three) at the Aquarium in 2003, and spent the following two decades making Monterey County’s number-one attraction more welcoming to Spanish-speaking visitors. Thanks to her efforts, the Aquarium is famous for being inclusive and is recognized as a Latino-friendly brand in the Bay Area.
Since retiring from the Aquarium in 2024, Yglesias has been spending time working with local nonprofits, such as the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and Big Sur Land Trust. She also works with Ventures in Watsonville, especially the nonprofit’s Futuro program, a worker-owned cooperative business structure and network that provides wealth-building opportunities for Salinas Valley working-class families. Yglesias’ interest is in economic justice and helping small and medium-size organizations that foster this ideal, and she has observed progress.
“I see pride in culture and less fear in expressing this culture,” she says. “A new generation of Latino leaders grew, strong and unified. I see Latina women at the economic table, opening small businesses and furthering their dreams.”