Banker Uses Her Skills to Benefit Others : Gloria Martinez: Banking Consultant

Believing that what matters is “who you know,” Gloria Martinez has prospered from the numerous business contacts made during her many years in banking and business clubs.

Recently, she has turned that philosophy around to help others prosper as well, teaching immigrants about the basics of banking and setting up other workshops for them.

“You spend most of your life basically taking, whether that be in experiences or opportunities, and the next half of your life you have to spend time giving back,” said Martinez, 46, of Costa Mesa.

“But you can’t make a difference in the world, you can only make a difference in your world. With this, you’re not taking a militant stand or being an activist, you’re just creating a better environment for one person to take care of himself.”

Martinez, mild-mannered and articulate, worked her way up from being a part-time loan officer to become assistant vice president of what used to be Citizens Bank in Costa Mesa. In April, she became a consultant for Bancforce Inc., which helps local banks improve their operations and find temporary workers.

In addition to working, attending club meetings and spending time with daughters Kerianne Schmenk, 23, and Teresa Schmenk, 21, Martinez loves to dance. It is a hobby she developed after her 17-year marriage ended in 1984.

“It’s an, ‘I’d rather dance than eat’ kind of thing. Any kind of dancing is my kind of thing, two-step or ballroom, but I don’t have much time. I took lessons and became a West Coast Swing junkie, dancing four nights a week,” she said.

As a girl, Martinez said she learned her first lesson about discrimination when her family moved to Long Beach. Neighbors began circulating a petition in an effort to get the family to move.

“At that time we didn’t understand discrimination,” she said. “We had lived on the farm in Dominguez and for someone who’s 8 years old and trying to understand why people don’t want you to live there . . . you don’t forget something like that because it’s the first time of feeling different.”

But her parents, Guillermo and Esther Enriquez, taught their four children that hard work could earn them a place in society. When Martinez’s father was laid off from Ford Motor Co., family members worked in the radish fields.

She took that work ethic with her as she rose through the ranks at Citizens Bank, eventually becoming a supervisor of 115 employees.

“Part of my philosophy and responsibility was to sustain an environment that would not require a union--by providing good benefits and the little things, like bringing in flowers on birthdays--to create that affinity for the company, so that a third party couldn’t bring anything to the table,” Martinez said.

After all these years, Martinez has increasingly learned to enjoy her success. She takes vacations in Palm Springs and is proud of her car, a silver 1990 Volvo.

“I really had to use a lot of restraint not to put ‘Silver Bullet’ ” on the license plate, she said. “I was thinking of the Lone Ranger . . . of always saving one silver bullet.”