Based on the authors' synthesis of the multicultural literature, this article proposes that for organizing to succeed in bilingual multicultural environments, three roles-organizer, interpreter, and multicultural mediator-must be filled Moreover, the authors consider it difficult and unwise to have the functions of all three roles filled by the same person, as this can lead to conjlicts of interest and a concentration of power in one person that can threaten democratic processes and lead to gatekeeping. The case of the organization of a federation offive housing cooperatives in a multi-ethnic district of Los Angeles is presented to examine how residents and the cooperatives' leadership grappled with the organization problems and learned to solve them through recognizing the importance of the organizers, interpreters, and multicultural mediators and the need for keeping these roles separate.
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