On this date in 1963, Latino activist David Tamayo was born in Bello, Colombia, the oldest of five children raised in an extremely devout Catholic family that later moved to the U.S.
He played chess professionally to pay for his first year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a bachelor’s in computer science. That was followed by a master’s in management of information technology from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Tamayo’s career took him through roles as computer officer, director and eventually chief information officer at a major aerospace engineering company in Washington.
“I didn’t remove my religious blindfold until the ripe age of 43, when I became an angry atheist — angry at myself for not having recognized reality sooner,” Tamayo told FFRF in 2026. He joined FFRF’s Executive Board as a director at large in 2020.
“I realized that although Hispanics make up about 20% of the U.S. population, a lack of equal access to educational resources and a deeply religion‑infused culture often kept — and even encouraged — Hispanics to remain poor, subservient and confined to the lowest-paying jobs society offers,” Tamayo said.
“The desire to help young Hispanics become critical thinkers led me to co‑found Hispanic American Freethinkers in 2010 with [his wife] Hypatia Alexandria,” he said. “Nothing produces more freethinkers than a strong secular education.”
It was the first and only national Latino 501(c)(3) educational organization of its kind. Tamayo was vice president of the Reason Rally 2016, former host of the TV show “Road to Reason — A Skeptic’s Guide to the 21st Century,” founding director of Camp Quest Chesapeake and host of Contrapuntos Podcast. He also became a U.S. citizen.
He mentioned fellow Colombian Fernando Vallejo as an exemplary freethinker. “I’ve read many of his books, especially loving ‘La Puta de Babilonia,’ which has a very detailed history of Catholic Church abuse throughout history.” Vallejo’s “El desbarrancadero” (The Precipice) is described as using devastating caustic wit in a scathing indictment of Pope John Paul II. “God is an excuse, a foggy abstraction that everyone uses for his own benefit and molds it to the extent of his convenience and interests,” Vallejo said while accepting the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize in Venezuela in 2003.
