In the 1980s Otero was president of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos and Lesbianas Unidas, politically active groups in California.
[6][7][8] Otero has participated in local activism to remind people about Tucson's past and connection to Mexico,[9] and examined the impact on people living in neighborhoods targeted for urban renewal.
[10] In 2010, their book La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwestern City focused on an urban renewal project in Tucson, Arizona which targeted the most densely populated eighty acres in the state and the changes that occurred during the project.
[13][14][15][16] In 2019 their book, In the Shadows of The Freeway: Growing Up Brown & Queer, combined personal memoir and family history with historical archives.
[19] In 2019, Arizona’s César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition awarded Otero the "'Sí se puede' Legacy Award" for their activism and scholarship focusing on bringing awareness to the history of Arizona and Mexican Americans.