“I got a master’s in history because I thought teaching was the way to go,” Martinez said. “People said, ‘You are pretty good at this, so why don’t you go for a Ph.D.?’ I didn’t know what that was, but it sounded good. I wanted to learn more. For my Ph.D., I ended up at the University of New Mexico because my focus is in Latin American history with an emphasis on Mexican history. Based on the expertise they had, the University of New Mexico was the right fit for me. It was in Albuquerque.”

When Martinez finally earned her Ph.D., she headed for Indiana.

“I went to work at a Quaker college for a postdoc,” Martinez said. “That is where I learned teaching based on the Quaker values. I went to Earlham College. Then I saw a whole other way of thinking about life-long learning. You are always learning and have curiosity.”

It was also during this time that she first visited Wisconsin — or at least passed through it enroute to a camping trip in Canada.

“The only thing that I knew about Wisconsin was of course snow, cheese and later I learned about beer,” Martinez said. I thought, ‘Okay, this is a perfect combination.’”

And then she came to Washington State University where she got a post-doc position and then a tenure-track teaching position before entering the administration.

Martinez traveled a lot of this journey alone, ever since being a 16-year-old exchange student in San Antonio. But what made the journey bareable and even exciting were her connections to community and non-profits.

“In order to navigate this country, I always relied on non-profits,” Martinez said. “Non-profits had always been my North Star to be able to navigate the culture and the resources as I went through college. Even when I got through my Ph.D. program in history, I was always connected with the community and non-profits.”

Martinez started to get restless again and began to evaluate her life and career.

“Administration was not where my heart was because most of my time was not so much on the research side, but more on community engagement and community development,” Martinez said. “I like working with an organization, very close to a Latino organization. And it got to the point where I had to make the decision between academia — which is in crisis right now on different levels — and non-profits. I had to make the decision if I was going to do a career shift, this was the moment when I still had energy and I am still relevant. And it was non-profits. Non-profits have been the thing. I looked around to see what opportunities were out there based on what I was interested in.”

And so she started to find out what opportunities were out there using the Internet. And she found the Latino Academy opportunity. Martinez got through the door just as it was closing. They were already interviewing, but she got into the process and was the last person to be interviewed.

“It was my first extended time in Wisconsin and Madison,” Martinez said. “And the more I read about Madison, the more I read about the history of this space and everything, the more I liked it. It felt right. It’s like when something feels right in your bones. I even tested it. I asked my realtor friends, ‘Hey look at this job description. What do you think?’ Everyone said, ‘This is you.’ I said, ‘Okay. Got it.’ It’s very idealistic, in a way.”

What attracted Martinez to the Latino Academy were the ripple effects that its services had on not just the individual, but also on the entire community.

“The investment that we have to do in our community is what led me to the Latino Academy,” Martinez said. “We have people who are coming with so many skills. And they are so underserved and overlooked so commonly. I wanted to really make a difference. I could see not just impacting the families. When we support a person with ESL or GED and certification and they earn more money. And then they get a house. You are transforming that person, that family and that family is more likely than not sending support to the home country. You see that the impact is going at the micro, local level because you are supporting the economy, but there is also the international level. You are transforming so much with the help the Latino Academy provides. That is where the change really matters.”

Martinez could also use her experience and background to create and maintain the collaborations the Latino Academy needs to be successful.

“The other thing is this organization is small, but mighty because they are so well respected in the community,” Martinez said. “The collaborations that they have are connected to the community. I am working with academia because it is connected with community colleges. It is connected to technical colleges and the university. We have collaborations with them. It’s connected with different levels of the government. The connections and the impact it has is enormous. To me, I found that I had a lot more influence and more opportunity to do what really matters than the ivory tower that separates you, good or bad.”

While the services of the Latino Academy are open to everyone, they attract many immigrants who are starting out. When Trump announced his mass deportations, it impacted some businesses and organizations with an immigrant clientele for fear of being in a public place when ICE raids were being conducted. The Latino Academy’s service numbers held their own.

“It’s always a concern for us,” Martinez said. “Even before we knew what steps that were going to be taken by the new leadership, we had that concern because we didn’t know if people were going to be afraid of receiving services or reaching out for help even if they are eligible for them. So far, it seems that we are maintaining steady service. People are still coming through. And people are still coming to us for support. Now we have a combination where some of our classes are online like ESL. Some classes are in-person to be able to support the needs of individuals and be ready to pivot in case policies change.”

Immigrants — documented and undocumented — come in all shapes and sizes and have different skill levels and come from all over the world. Yet stereotypes have been created to such a point that if two undocumented people stood side by side, one might be considered to be documented and the other not. It’s all about perception.

“Immigrants come from any part of the world,” Martinez said. “But it is racialized in this country. You have Canadians who are undocumented. But they are not perceived as the threat or they are not perceived at all because of how we racialize ‘The Other.’ And we have Native Americans where this is their homeland. We are the immigrants. And yet because of their phenotype and the way they appear, some of them have been targeted as being ‘Other.’ There are individuals who are going to be perpetual foreigners. It doesn’t matter what you do because you have the phenotype of otherness based on the imaginary of this country.”

Even what is considered to be white in American laws may not hold up very well with reality.

“I think it is really interesting to look at the history between the way that the Irish — especially in the sense that St. Patrick’s Day is coming around — became white and how Mexicans continue to be brown,” Martinez observed. “Historically, Mexicans after the Mexican American War were the first non-Europeans to receive citizenship in this country. And in that time period, in order for you to receive citizenship, you had to be recognized as being white. So Mexicans were classified as being white as such. During that time period, the Irish were not considered to be white. They were considered to be more associated with African Americans at that time. As time evolved, Mexicans continued to fight for whiteness in the legal sense while the Irish became white.”

What is white in appearance is not white in the eyes of the law

“Have you looked at the legal definition of whiteness,” Martinez asked. “The federal definition of white includes Northern Africa, as well as the Middle East. When you think about the physical characteristics of individuals of those areas, they are not light-skinned, blue eyes, blond hair as you would think of Europeans. And yet, they are classified so that someone from Saudi Arabia will be classified as white. Someone from Egypt and so on will be classified as white. That’s what happens when you try to classify individuals. It doesn’t work. It’s very problematic when trying to classify individuals in those ways.”