Mariano is a journalist by profession, has worked with UU low-income housing in Florida. He also worked with the deaf, LGBTQ communities, AIDS-afflicted, the homeless, and the hungry.  He is Chair of the Manatee UU Fellowship’s Social Justice Committee. Trilingual, Mariano also volunteers with immigrants.  He has served as treasurer of low-income housing projects built with the support of Unitarian- Universalists.

Mariano J. Vera is a member of the Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bradenton, Florida where he chairs the Social Justice Committee. Mariano is a journalist and speaks Argentinian Sign Language (first language), Spanish, and English.

He is currently producing a Latino radio show with specific themes (women singers and songwriters, gay, international day of peace, etc.) broadcast locally on WSLR 96.5 Sarasota and syndicated to 21 radio stations through the Pacifica Network.

Mariano has belonged to Argentine social justice communities and worked with disadvantaged people in the US. He still works with progressive causes in his community. He grew up with Jesuit priests who addressed the Theory of Liberation and emphasized social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed people.

Mariano has worked at Jefferson Center Apartments in Sarasota, Florida, UU housing for low-income elderly people, and as an educator for AIDS research in Washington D.C. in the 1990s. He has also worked at Gallaudet University in the International Center on Deafness. Mariano worked with the AIDS afflicted during the Pandemic of the late ’80s and ’90s in Washington D.C., and with the LGBTQ community in the ’90s and 2000s, He actively participated in working with issues like homelessness, hunger, and Women’s rights. Mariano is now volunteering as a notary public, a Spanish to English translator, and an immigration forms specialist.

Mariano considers himself an incredibly lucky man. He says: “My parents were empathetic and at the same time due to their disability (they were both born deaf), they required others to be caring towards them as well.” Mariano also says: “I was fortunate when I met Tom, my current spouse. Tom is a bonanza of social justice battles and commitments, as well as a spirited fighter for social and racial equality.”

Mariano says: “The key to success in the volunteer universe is in the search for the opportunities during whatever social situation develops.”