Irene Marie Gomez-Bethke

Irene Marie Gomez-Bethke, 86, of Woodbury, passed away Sunday, March 21, 2021.

Irene was the Former Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights, a Member of the MSP Archdiocese Deanery Council, among the Founders of Centro Cultural Chicano (El Centro), Founder and Executive Director of Instituto de Arte Cultura, and historical citations to the book, Latino Minnesota.

She was preceded in death by husband, Jack; parents, Jesse and Maria Gomez; brother, Joseph Gomez.

Irene is survived by children, Jack (Marcia), Mary, Julia, Patty (Rafael), Anita and Jesse (Raquel); 14 grandchildren; 21 great grandchildren; brothers, Roman, Robert, Richard and Eugene; many nieces and nephews.

Irene’s wishes were to be cremated before her services. Due to Covid safety protocols, a private family Mass and service will be recorded on Saturday, March 27.

Please visit the funeral home website after 5pm Saturday to view the service and Mass online.

Memorials preferred to the Metropolitan Center for Independent Living or charity of your choice.

Among Irene’s many gifts was love of family, commitment to Human Rights and her deep faith. She will be greatly missed.

Irene Gomez-Bethke
11:00 AM Saturday March 27, 2021
Rite of Christian Burial Mass
St Joseph’s Catholic Church, New Hope Minnesota
By
Jesse Bethke Gomez, MMA

Thank you for being with us today in honoring our Mom, Irene Gomez-Bethke. On behalf of my siblings Jack, Mary, Julia, Patty, Anita, our spouses, significant others, 14 Grandchildren, 21 Great Grandchildren and extended family members, please allow us all, to thank you for being here with us today in celebrating the life of Irene Gomez-Bethke, a daughter, a Wife, a Mom, a Grandmother, a Great Grandmother, a Sister, an Aunt, a Cousin, a Friend, a Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights, and, a trailblazer-pioneer-Chicana who through her life’s work, bent the arc of history toward a more fair, just society for the greater good and common good of all.
To know our Mom, was to know of her love for her Parents Jesse and Maria Gomez. Mom said throughout her life, that her role model was her Mom. During those early tough years after the Gomez, Ceballos and Martinez families settled into Minneapolis, Mom remembered there were always people who Grandma and Grandpa Gomez would invite into their home - people who had no shelter, no home, nowhere else to go. Mom would say that Grandma often would tell her that the people who would come and stay with them, were really the many faces of Jesus Christ. Mom learned what it meant to live by faith through the example of her parents.
In the Latino Minnesota book, published by Afton Press, featured our Mother, on page 78, it states: Quote - “Bethke-Gomez grew up in North Minneapolis watching her Mother take part in politics as an activist and campaign worker. Her Mother involved her in social justice early on, by having her translate for Spanish-Speaking defendants in court.” Unquote. Grandma Gomez also taught our Mom to pray for those who discriminated against her and to be proud in her Heritage. These early experiences overcoming barriers, and discrimination yet at the same time to be compassionate and welcoming made a lifelong impact upon her life in advancing social justice, human rights and human dignity. Mom lived by her faith and her love for humanity, she had a saying many of us saw by her life example “We are one race, the Human Race!”
Recently, I had ask my Mom what she remember from the first time she met our Dad, Jack Arthur Bethke. She said that she met him by way of her brother Roman Gomez. Our Dad, Jack, played tenor saxophone and b-flat clarinet in high school band with Roman. Roman had invited our Dad, Jack, to their home, and what she remembered the most was that he had white socks on. It’s kind of funny that this is one of the first things that she remembered about our Dad - was his white socks. Well, - they still fell deeply in love. I recall that our Dad had said that meeting our Mom changed his life forever because he was introduced to Mom’s parents Maria and Jesse Gomez. Dad was Lutheran at the time and chose to become Catholic so that they could be married in the Catholic Church and raise their children Catholic. They were married at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in North Minneapolis in 1953.
For my five siblings and me, growing up was a blast! We always had our cousins over, always had our grandparents Maria and Jesse over, and saw frequently our great uncles and aunts. Mom and Dad welcomed everyone to our home.
We recall to this day when Great Uncle Mike Ceballos and Great Aunt Cos, Great Uncle Tom Ceballos and Great Aunt Menda joined my Grandparents, our Aunts, Uncles and the Martinez, Vargas, Samels, Hernandez, and Devora families joined us at our Home and they played guitars and piano and sang songs of Mexico and recalled what the journey was like to this new land, Minnesota we call home.
Looking back at all those memories, I have heard from so many of you of how our Mom made you feel welcome, how she loved you and would have conversations that seemed to last forever.
So many of you have shared with us, that Mom was always there for you and kept you in her prayers. Mom made everyone feel welcome, special and important.
Please allow me to share a quote: “Look upon the present, because it is the past of your future;” sage advice given to Mom by Grandma Gomez. Mom lived her life with that wisdom. Mom would often say “Talk is cheap; it’s what you do that counts.”
Our Mom worked for the greater good and the common good in advancing a more just, fair and equitable society. Whether it was meeting Hubert Humphrey running for President, conversation with Vice President Walter Mondale, or inviting Senator Paul Wellstone to speak at events, it was common for Mom to be actively involved in shaping our world.
Mom spoke so warmly of Clyde Bellecourt, Denise Banks and Russell Means, towering leaders in the Indigenous communities on matter of civil rights, fairness and justice.
As Minnesota’s Commissioner of Human Rights, in the Administration of Governor Rudy Perpich, our Mother, Irene Gomez-Bethke led, the re-write of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, established Minnesota Human Rights Day on December 10, 1983, and instituted a plan that carefully eliminated a backlog of 3,000 cases she inherited at the Department.
Yet, her most profound contribution, echoes to her childhood when interpreting in the courts for Spanish-Speaking defendants. She was horrified by the treatment of defendants who could not understand English, she never forgot that.
As Commissioner of Human Rights, she worked tirelessly in advocating for the appointment of diverse judicial candidates with Governor Perpich.
Governor Perpich appointed Honorable Judge Isabel Gomez, Minnesota’s first Latina judge, Honorable Judge Manuel Cervantes, Minnesota’s first Latino judicial appoint to the Worker’s Compensation Court of Appeals, Honorable Judge Salvador Rosas, who retired as the mentor to new Judges in the 2nd Judicial District, Honorable Judge Michael Davis, who eventually became among the First African America judges appointed to the Federal Court in Minnesota, Honorable Judge Pamela Alexander who to this day is the youngest person ever appointed as a District Court Judge in Minnesota, and the appointments of Honorable Judge Alberto Miera and Honorable Judge LaJune Lange.
The contributions to advancing the cultural heritage of Minnesota’s Latino/Latin-X community was no less than her work in human rights. Our Mom was among the founders of Centro Cultural Chicano in Minneapolis and founder and Executive Director of Instituto de Arte Y Cultura.
Mom commenced in Minnesota the first ever Hispanic Heritage week, which later became Hispanic Heritage Month. She was a Board Member for the United Way of Minneapolis Area, Urban Coalition of Minneapolis and helped greatly the Hispanic Ministry of the St Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese. She worked to establish the first ever Spanish Speaking Masses in Minneapolis.
Upon our Mom’s retirement she donated her life’s work to the Minnesota Historical Society. I recall talking with Leigh Roethke, Historian and Author of the book, Latino Minnesota, in which I had the honor of writing the Foreword.
Leigh said that she would have never been able to write the book if it were not for the archival information that resides at the Minnesota Historical Society donated by Mom. In fact Mom has the most citations in that book which gives testimony to Leigh’s commentary on the importance of the historical contributions by and from Irene Gomez-Bethke.
Mom’s love for all of us, for all her Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, for each and every member of all the families, was and is never-ending. For the past six and a half years, we have had Family Rosary on Sunday Nights.
Each Sunday, Mom would pray for a particular family member by name, their situation whether for a cousin, an aunt, uncle, brother, God child, children of cousins, Mom kept her relationship with everyone in the families as constant and in her prayers.
Mom loved Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Christ the King. The replica image of Our Lady of Guadalupe you see before us, was donated to this parish by our Parents Jack and Irene.
Mom and Dad were Third Order Carmelites of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Throughout this past year during the pandemic, I had the great honor of serving as Eucharistic Minister to Mom. The highlight of her day, of her week was receiving the Holy Eucharist.
In as much as Mom learned in her youth to see Jesus Christ in everyone, it was the love for Blessed Mother and Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the King that she brought to everyone.
Now that Mom has exchanged her Carmelite Scapular for the wedding garments of Heaven, the love she has for the well-being of all, lives now in all of us her family and friends, and you are all family and friends!
Yet Mom’s work is not done, in many ways, life begins anew and knowing our Mom, she is actively at work in advocating for a better world, for a more just and caring society and for advancing the love we all have for one another, as in the words of our Mom Irene Gomez Bethke who says it best and has the last word, “We are one race, the human Race.”

Thank you for being with us today in celebrating the life of our Mom!