Alvarez’s leadership in her community catches attention of local paper.
Photo by Rebecca Holt
From TJ Spartan Martha Alvarez’s humble beginnings in the town of San Pablo in Guanajuato, Mexico, to her role in several Latino organizations, she has repeatedly demonstrated her inclination to take on challenging leadership positions and make them look easy.
“Growing up in a small town was a bit hard. I remember having to get up early in the morning to walk a couple kilometers to school, then coming home, feeding the chickens and goats or helping out in the corn and bean fields and then going out to play at sundown,” said Alvarez. “I have a lot of cousins and uncles that are just a couple years older than I am. We used to play soccer, climb trees, and go bird hunting with slingshots. A lot of my fondest memories are those I shared with all my cousins. We were a tight-knit family.”
Alvarez, who moved to the United States eight years ago, first lived in Coachella Valley in Southern California before arriving in Denver in 2002. “We used to move around a lot during the summers but would always come back to Denver during the school year,” Alvarez said. “I visit Mexico at least every other year. We still have a lot of family down there, like my great grandmother, my grandparents and ten other aunts and uncles and all their kids. We have a huge family.”
After witnessing a Latino man being wrongfully tackled by police officers in South Federal Blvd. in Denver, Alvarez became more inclined to get involved in the community, so that instances like those could be made known to the public. “The incident lasted about two-minutes, but a couple months later I was watching a feature on police brutality against immigrants on Univision (a Spanish channel on TV) and I saw the same guy from Federal talk about what had happened,” Alvarez explained. “It turns out that he was an immigrant and the police had arrested him for not having a driver’s license and because he couldn’t understand what they were saying to him he didn’t get out of his car. The incident got me thinking that maybe I should do something to help.”
Alvarez saw a flier for La Raza (our people) Youth Program and immediately filled out the application. “By the 2nd semester of my junior year I was already beginning to get involved, thanks to the opportunities La Raza provided,” Alvarez said.
La Raza is an all Latino community of students who promote higher education for Denver teens. The community also organizes many events for the Latino community in Denver along with CIRC (Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition). In addition to being a member of La Raza, Alvarez is also a CIRC events assistant, helping organize student movement for the Denver Reform and promoting the Dream Act to congress.
“I went to the La Raza Leadership conference. It was a statewide event organized at the Metro State College fair. There were cultural workshops, break dancing and other entertainment. More than 5,000 students attend every year. It was fun,” said Alvarez. “We met some really interesting people and learned about their experiences as students.” The most recent event Alvarez worked on was the Corky Gonzales symposium. “We worked with Escuela de Tlatelolco (a community based private school) to organize an event for deceased Chicano activists from Colorado.”
In recognition for her work, Alvarez was honored on the La Voz website as student of the week. “La Voz is Spanish for ‘the voice.’ La Voz is a Colorado newspaper that focuses on reporting on the Latino issues to the Latino community,” Alvarez explained. “They usually highlight outstanding Latino businesses, immigration and other similar issues.”
Alvarez is heavily involved within the TJ community. She has been a National Honor Society member for two years, which led her to doing work for Denver Health hospital, helping the homeless with the Denver Rescue Mission, and volunteering for events for Iglesia de Guadalupe church. She is also the chairwoman of M.E.Ch.A, TJ’s first Latino organization. Furthermore, she enjoys writing for the Thomas Jefferson Journal as the People Section Editor, and marching with JROTC as their supply officer.
After high school, Alvarez has plans to attend the University of Southern California, CU Boulder, or CSU Fort Collins. “I want to go to college in California because I love the weather and the time I spent there as a little girl,” said Alvarez. “CSU is my second choice because I can picture myself there; in order for me to go to any school I have to feel like I would be happy there.”
Even with a full schedule, Alvarez still manages to have time to relax with friends and family. “I’m not really sure how I balance everything sometimes. After a while you just fall into a routine,” said Alvarez.
Edward Salazar, Alvarez’s Hispanic/American History teacher had nothing but praise for her. “Martha never quits,” said Salazar. “She embraces all new topics and ideas in class and works well within the cultures she’s in while advocating for a world vision.”
Alvarez’s magnificence will continue on well after she has left Thomas Jefferson high school, and she will continue to lead her generation into a more successful future. “I don’t know what I want to do in the future; there is so much I want to do and I’m still trying to figure out how to do it. “
