When the Blessed Sacrament Church was on the verge of being converted into luxury condos in the early 2000s and in 2020, Betsaida Gutiérrez was Jamaica Plain’s leading voice in preserving the building’s cultural and social identity. She led protests, community meetings, and strategized relentlessly to keep it central to the neighborhood. “She was this great organizer who kept things easy to understand,” said Harry Smith, an activist who has lived in Jamaica Plain since 1992 and who worked with Ms.
Gutiérrez on Blessed Sacrament, affordable housing, and local elections. Smith said she was tenacious in helping lift up her community. Ms.
Gutiérrez advised the most disadvantaged how to obtain loans. “Either you’re lending to our people or not, ” Smith said. Ms.
Gutiérrez died June 24 of a chronic illness, said her daughter, Nancy Rodriguez. She was 72. Advertisement Smith worked closely with Ms.
Gutiérrez and City Life / La Vida Urbana, a local grassroots organization, training community leaders and fighting against homeowner displacement. In the early 2000s, as several other churches faced the same plight as Blessed Sacrament, Ms. Gutiérrez united parishioners, activists, and neighbors to keep the church standing.
In 2010, the apartment complex developed by JPNDC on the Blessed Sacrament campus was named the Doña Betsaida Gutiérrez Cooperative to commemorate her efforts. The church represents only a fraction of her legacy. Born in Puerto Rico in 195.