Sea Mar Community Health Centers was organized by a group of Latino community leaders and health activists who wanted to develop a comprehensive health center for the Latino community in Seattle, with satellite clinics in rural communities in western Washington. They began in 1978 with one small clinic in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle. As of 2022, SeaMar has services and programs in 13 Washington counties, and continues its mission of serving low-income, underserved, and uninsured communities, specializing in the Latino community.

In 1980, the Sea Mar clinic, along with the International District Community Health Center and the Commission on Asian American Affairs, supported state legislation to provide better health care for the non-English speaking and speech and hearing impared communities. The bill would set up pilot programs to provide translators for health clinics serving those groups.

Pictured here is Antonio Sanchez, then the director of community services at Sea Mar. Sanchez referred to health care without bilingual translators as "veterinary health care," with providers unable to speak the same language as their patients. At the time, Sea Mar's clientele was 30-40% Hispanic and all but one of the clinic's doctors, nurses and para-professionals were bilingual, a rarity in health care, especially in rural areas.

Caption information source: SeaMar Community Health Centers website at seamar.org
Caption information source: "Health in Any Language" by Evelyn Iritani, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 11, 1980, p. B1.