GRANADA HILLS : Mexican Immigrant Seeks Aid for School

Touring an elementary school in her hometown just south of the Arizona border, Isabel Martinez watched a group of Mexican children go about their daily exercises--singing their country’s national anthem, reciting language assignments and playing in the tiny schoolyard.

As children gathered around her to find out what life is like in the United States, Martinez noticed the white marks of vitamin deficiency streaked across their faces and thin arms. She thought of her own childhood in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, and of the Oklahoma couple who’d inspired her to make something of her life while traveling through that part of the state of Sonora.

Martinez, owner of a Granada Hills loan processing company, decided it was time to return the favor by doing the same for these malnourished children.

So she made plans to begin a private collection fund for the school and a nearby orphanage when she returned home. She asked friends and business connections to assist her in acquiring food, clothing, school supplies and any other essentials that would allow the children a fair shot in life.

“My sister does medical research in San Luis,” Martinez said. “While I was visiting, she mentioned how the children are suffering from malnutrition and that she and her friends were looking to assist the school.

“She and I were in the same situation as they are when we were growing up. I consider it my duty to make sure someone else has a chance.”

Martinez said she was given her chance at the age of 7. An Oklahoma couple with car trouble had rolled into her father’s small auto-repair shop and, while he fixed their car, the pair befriended Martinez and her five brothers and sisters, who lived next to the business.

Struck by the meager conditions in which the family lived, the Oklahoma couple returned the next year with gifts they had promised the children. Isabel received the typewriter she had asked for.

“My family was very poor, and the whole town lived a humble existence,” Martinez said. “You have no idea how much that typewriter has meant to me all these years.”

Practicing constantly on her new gift, she eventually was typing 110 words a minute.

Martinez immigrated to the United States in the early 1970s and used her typing skill in various clerical jobs. And she learned about computers, English and business management as time passed. Finally, she landed a job in the loan-processing industry.

“Where I am now is really due to somebody having taken the time out to give a child a chance,” Martinez said. “If I had come to this country with no foundation to base my presence here on, I would be just one more number.”

Martinez acknowledged that only a mass effort can provide the momentum to make a difference in the lives of the children of San Luis Rio Colorado today. Though her friends and fiance are working diligently with her to gather items to send to Mexico before winter sets in, it will probably not be enough.

“A lot of people come across the border out of desperation to feed their kids,” Martinez said. “With the way things are here (politically), they’d probably be better off staying home. If we can all help them to create their own economy by providing them with some essentials, they would be able to survive where they are.”

For information or to make contributions to Martinez’s private collection fund, call (818) 366-4904.