Matias has been a very active member of the Black Creek–Humber River Community for almost 20 years.
He started community organizing even before that while at university, where he helped to start and was President of the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) at the University of Toronto while a student there. This group is now located in 5 campuses across Ontario, over 25years later. As a political organizer, he has managed 12 political campaigns and has held several positions, elected and otherwise at different levels of politics. For over 10 years, he founded and was the President of a charitable organization called CONOSER. This organization developed funding for scholarships and bursaries, as well as developed academic support programs for Latinx youth in the Jane and Finch community through a program called Teach2Learn. The programs were free of charge for students of lower income families and range from tutoring for children, to parenting workshops.
Matias worked for many years at City Hall for Councillor Perruzza, as Chief of Staff more recently. Before that, he worked as the first Executive Director for the DUKE Heights BIA for four years, an award winning business improvement area, where he developed first of their kind programs in sector development, employment supports and communications, with partnerships with organizations such as Osgoode Hall Law School and the Metcalf Foundation. Through his work at City Hall and the BIA, Matias has brought in projects to the area in the tens of millions of dollars. These include projects to rebuild green spaces and parks, public realm improvements, public art projects, public roads, public sewers, exercise pods in parks, adding new playgrounds, rebuilding libraries, rebuilding utility infrastructure and more. He also had significant impact in organizing around youth and children’s programs. Matias has personally supervised academic and volunteer placements for over 100 youth over his career. He has also created youth programs for hundreds of youths and through organizations and programs he has helped to start, he has helped to create opportunities for thousands of children and youths. These include programs events where kids have received free bikes, laptops, backpacks and more, lunch programs and breakfast programs in different schools in the area,bursaries and scholarships.He graduated from the University of Toronto with a double major in Political Science and Ibero-American Studies and from the University of Alberta with a Masters in Political Science Theory. Matias was born in Uruguay and immigrated to Canada in 1991 with his family at the age of 11. He is the first Latin American to be elected to the TDSB in 25 years, since 1997.