CGP Community Stories

SM = Ms. Sonia Martinez

NR = Natalie Reyes

[START OF TRACK 1, 0:00]

NR: 

This is Natalie Reyes interviewing Ms. Sonia Martinez in her office at the Mohawk Valley Latino Association, Inc. on November 18, 2019 for the Cooperstown Graduate Program’s Research and Fieldwork course. Ms. Martinez, can you introduce yourself?

SM:

Yes. My name is Sonia Martinez. I am the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Mohawk Valley Latino Association.

[TRACK 1, 0:30]

NR:

Ms. Martinez, when and where were you born?

SM:

I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the 1950s.

[TRACK 1, 0:48]

NR:

What year did you come to the United States?

SM:

1972.

[TRACK 1, 0:55]

NR:

Can you tell me about the experience of immigrating to the United States?

SM:

My experience? Oh my god, it was a shocked culture from walking down, back then you had to walk out of the airplanes at the airport. JFK [John F. Kennedy Airport] was very small. You had to walk out. It was May and we had to walk out in a very bad snowstorm. I had sandals. I had a little summer dress. My father was not prepared [laughs] for us to arrive in a snowstorm. That was our first shocking experience in the United States. You know, there was a lot of good and bad experiences. I came with my two siblings, my brother, my sister and they were younger. I [pause] I had to take care of them. I felt like I was, you know, that’s when I started being a mom because I had to take care of my siblings. We were very close. We’re still very close today. But yeah it was very shocking. The snow, then coming to the Bronx, the South Bronx. It was in the evening, it was dark, and we were like, “Oh my god, what are we doing here. We want to go back home.” We were telling our father that we wanted to go back, that we didn’t like it. Yeah, that was the first day.

Then going into schools, it was very different than DR [the Dominican Republic], very different. We had to learn the new language and we had new friends. It was a very difficult two years, I would say, for us. But then, you know, we got accustomed to things. We didn’t go anywhere. My father was a very strict Dominican father. He wouldn’t allow us to go anywhere without him. He was very overprotective, I would say. He was a good dad, but he was overprotective of us.

[TRACK 1, 3:46]

NR:

As a young adult, what organizations or protests influenced you to continue the work you do today?

SM:

As a young adult, no. I was extremely shy and because of the language barrier, I didn’t join any organizations. That actually came later in life. After I started learning more of the needs of my community.

[TRACK 1, 4:32]

NR:

Did you stay in the South Bronx?

SM:

No, I actually went to high school and I moved upstate. I’ve been here ever since.

NR:

Where upstate?

SM:

I live in Utica, NY. But when I came to college, I went to Herkimer Community College and then from there I stayed, got married, raised my children, and I have been here ever since. I love it. I love upstate.

[TRACK 1, 5:10]

NR:

As one of the Co-founders of the Mohawk Valley Latino Association, Inc., can you speak about the mission and goals of this non-profit organization?

SM:

Of course. I’m a co-founder, along with three others. There was two Dominicans and two Puerto Ricans that we got together every weekend at my kitchen table to discuss the needs of our community and of course the Latino population. This was based on personal experiences from all of us—things that if you went to the DMV, you went to the grocery store, you went to a school, you know, there was no one there to speak your language. We knew, but we saw on a daily basis this issue increasing in our community, so our mission is to educate and empower our Latino residents in the Mohawk Valley.

[TRACK 1, 6:38]

NR:

Can you speak more based on the other co-founders of this association?

SM:

What would you want to know about them? What type of work they do? Who are they?

NR:

More like, who are they? What services do they basically partake on for this association?

SM:

They…the others… was a businessman, he owns his own business. He actually does interpretation and translations as his job. So that was easy for him to help with that. The other two were more, they worked in offices, different than the business owner. But also, you know, their personal experiences, we had a common bond, that common bond is why MVLA exists today.

[TRACK 1, 8:07]

NR:

What are some of the events or programs MVLA organizes for the Utica community?

SM:

So what we did was besides doing services for the community, we have an association and with that association, we create cultural events, because we have the association we meet with members of the association to update them on things that are going on in the community—where there are events, groups, information, things that we all should know. But because of, again the language barrier, they don’t know, they don’t search for this information, you know. We do the Hispanic heritage month events, we do a festival. We are in our 14^th year. We also do a Gala event which is like a fundraiser for the agency, but we also raise the awareness of the good things of the economic engine that our community brings when they’re members of a community. We do that by giving awards to small businesses. We also recognize those other agencies, organizations, people, and volunteers that help us with our mission. It’s a great time.

[TRACK 1, 10:04]

NR:

What are some of the challenges MVLA has faced?

SM:

Money. As a non-profit, non-profits will always suffer money issues. That’s our biggest challenge, which we still face today.

[TRACK 1, 10:32]

NR:

Can you speak more about the services that this organization provides for the Utica community?

SM:

Well, we basically have human services. We help the members of our community with immigration, free legal advice sometimes. We have a couple of partnerships with immigration lawyers that are Latinos so that means they speak the language so they are able to help them one-on-one, privately with the client. We do some of the documentation for immigration. We do petitions. We do family petitions, we do citizenship also, but anything a little bit more complicated than that, I always refer them to an immigration lawyer. There are other legal services that we refer the client to, you know, whenever they need an attorney, whether it’s a criminal lawyer or a lawyer to help them with some issue with their driver’s license or Social Security benefits, things like that, workers comp. We have two lawyers that we work with. We also do translations of documents. We don’t charge a very high fee like other translation services do. They charge by the word; we don’t do that because we understand that our community, they don’t make a lot of money, you know, so we make sure they get that service at a very low cost. When somebody needs a job, they come here. I help them complete the application. I will call the company for a follow up. I create their resume if they don’t have one, an employment letter. I help them with unemployment; to file for unemployment benefits. I help them with the Department of Social Services, applications, issues. Also help them with health application forms. We have a partnership with MVP healthcare. They come to our office twice a month for anyone that needs help with choosing a health plan. We do that. There’s so many things, so many things that we help with. This is just a few [laughs].

[TRACK 1, 14:02]

NR:

Can you tell me about Utica’s Latino or Latinx community?

SM:

The community is a vibrant community, and it’s growing, you know, by leaps and bounds. We started this in 2003 and the population was 4%. This year, I just learned, I went to a conference last week and we’re like 15%. I’m just talking about the city of Utica. We have about 15,000 Latinos. I just learned that, and I can’t even imagine what the 2020 census is going to show. Besides the fact that when something happens like, Hurricane Maria has brought a lot of Puerto Ricans to our city. They come, you know they’re coming every week. Just about an hour ago I received a call from someone I had given my card to in Puerto Rico because I was there a week ago at a conference. She was a taxi woman. She started talking about, you know all the things that Puerto Ricans were suffering. I gave her my card and said when you decide [to leave], because she said she was going to leave, she knew that, but didn’t have a date set yet, so I gave her my card and she called me today [to say] that she’s coming. She said she’s probably going to leave in January because the island is in very bad shape. The cost of living, sales tax is 11%, minimum wage is $7.25. The governor, yesterday I think it was, announced that the electricity rate was going to go up 47%. How can someone with a paycheck of $7.25 earn enough to turn the lights on and cook? It’s sad, very sad. When I was there, I still saw a lot of blue tarps and a lot of houses that were still not repaired. So we’re getting a lot of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans.

[TRACK 1, 16:57]

NR:

What challenges did you and your colleagues face while developing this non-profit organization?

SM:

Of course, funds, but we’re a very resilient population and you can’t say no to us. We will get there somehow, somewhere. We did fundraising events and we started talking, networking with our local representatives. We would just go in. We went to the mayor’s office. We went to the county executive. We went to the politicians, you know, the state politicians and spoke to them about our needs and that they needed jobs, and they did. The assemblywoman then—her name was [unclear]—helped us get an office and establish that. Little by little, every year, we would get more attention until today 16 years later.

[TRACK 1, 18:18]

NR:

Can you tell me about some of the other organizations you’re involved with in Utica, NY?

SM:

In Utica? Oh my god (laughs). Well, I’m involved in about five different boards and they all have different missions in the community. I’m a board member of our local, it’s a clinic, it’s called Upstate Family Healthcare and I joined that because of course health. I’m also a member of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, which is a local art museum. I’m also a member of the local NAACP of Oneida County Utica branch. I’m a board member of the YWCA Mohawk Valley. In other boards I have like an advisory role, like Young Scholars Program which helps young students. I’m in an advisory capacity here. There’s another program called On Point for College, which helps high school students attend college. I’m also a member of the Upstate Latino Alliance, which is in every upstate major city. From Albany to Buffalo there’s a Latino agency that helps the community. Each of us, CEOs and executive directors have joined together to form an alliance and we created a summit that happens every year where we showcase our needs of our community and we invite elected officials, community members, who’s who in the community that can help with our mission. So, we have this every year. This year it was just held in Syracuse. Next year it will be going to Buffalo, NY. The following year, it will be in Utica. So, every city has a five-year span that we host this summit. That’s just a little bit. I’m sure I forgot somebody [laughs].

NR:

Can you explain why you’re a part of these organizations?

SM:

I’m part of them because I learn how to help my community and for the networking opportunities. It is very important, very important to network. I wish young kids would do that. I think kids from middle school to college they should try to network with anyone they can because that’s the only way that you are going to succeed in life.

NR:

Can you talk a little bit more about being on the Munson-Williams-Proctor board?

SM:

That’s one of my most recent journeys as a board member there. They asked me to be on the board because their trying to be more inclusive and serve the community that the institute is in, that the museum is in, right? So, they had done a community survey and they had found that African Americans, Latinos, and Asians don’t go to the museum because they don’t see it as something that they can afford to go. But the museum does a lot of different events. Most are free, the people don’t know that, so they’ve invited some of the leaders, diverse leaders in the community to become a part of the board because of that. Because they want everyone to have the same access to what they have to offer to everyone in the community, doesn’t matter if you’re low income, if you’re black, you’re white, you’re Asian, you’re Latino, it doesn’t matter, you should be able to feel free to come in and see what they have to offer. So, I’m very proud of that.

NR:

Can you talk more based on the Gala that you guys have?

SM:

The Gala. Well, like I said before, it’s our only major fundraiser and we love to showcase and celebrate our culture. We make sure that we have Latino foods and other foods. We make sure we have Latin music. Who doesn’t love to dance to Merengue, Salsa, Bachata? We invite everyone, everyone in the community. It’s well attended, and we like to recognize and showcase our community. Our Latino small businesses because you know they’ve been here for a long time and they don’t get the attention that they should. In the city of Utica where there is about 65,000 people and you have a small city, you have a community that has over 70 businesses and they don’t really get the acknowledgement that they should. Yeah, we have a lot of restaurants. We have a lot of barbers, hair salons, daycare, women that are doing home businesses, bakers. We have construction companies. There’s a lot of different things. We have a car wash, you know, so many different things and they don’t get the acknowledgement, you know.

NR:

Can you talk more based on how the youth is a part of all of these events or the organization?

SM:

THAT! Is my passion. That’s my second passion. I formed a youth group. They’re called Ritmo Caribeño. The reason I formed the group was to help our youth not forget their culture because a lot of them when they come here, they’re little or they’re born here, they forget that they’re Latinos. They forget that they’re Dominicans. They forget that they’re Puerto Ricans. They forget their language. That’s the first thing they do. They forget their language even though they hear mom and dad, aunts and uncles, grandma, grandpa, you know, speak Spanish all the time. By the time they’re five years old they enter the school system, and, in a year, the Spanish is cut off. So that’s the reason I formed the group. My mission with that is to increase their awareness of their Latin heritage through music. They dance. They do a lot of performances in the area and outside the area. Their called Ritmo Caribeño and they’ve been in existence for ten years. No funds, yeah, they do a lot of presentations in the schools. You know, like schools sometimes they have a Hispanic heritage event or international night, they call it, so the students know the kids that are participating in it so they ask them “Can you come in and dance and stuff?” [laughs]. They get invited to a lot of those functions and also community events. Festivals. They, of course, dance in our festival. They’ve danced at the theater here, we have. They’ve danced at the Munson-Williams-Proctor at major events. They’ve danced for a couple of major artists that requested a culture group to dance as their opening act. They’ve done that. And I take them from 5 to 18 years old. And they love it. We do different things. It’s not just about dancing. We also do volunteer community service when there is an area that is dirty, we go, and we clean it. There’s an annual clean-up in the community and we do that. We also take them to special events in the community, like Munson-Williams-Proctor, for instance, when they have something going on, the theater, since I have the network with the people that run these businesses, I go and beg them for free tickets. Like this Friday, they’ll be going to see Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer show that’s coming to our community. I spoke to the Executive Director, he said sure, and he’s giving me the tickets for them to go and see it. Things like that. They’re going to be participating for the first time in our city, they’re going to have a New Year’s Eve party out on the street. They’re going to be dancing. The only youth group that will be dancing. They do a Christmas show.

[TRACK 2, 0:00]

SM:

This Saturday they will be dancing. There’s a big community event that’s been going on for 30-something years. I’m the volunteer coordinator for that so they get to dance there too. Keep them busy. The only problem is that the kids don’t stay. They might stay for three years tops. The parents, they get tired and I don’t know, somebody gets tired. The kids don’t. They love coming, you know, because I do so many different things with them. I take them on college tours. The ones that are in high school, I take them to our local colleges. You know, some of them have never stepped foot in a college and that sparks that initial experience, “Oh my god I can do this. I can go to college.” That’s what I do with the youth.

[TRACK 2, 1:16]

NR:

What collaboration work do you do with the local colleges or with college students? And the advice that you give them as young adults that are reaching out to look for their careers?

SM:

Yeah, I get invited sometimes to Utica College, Hamilton College. They have a Latino social club and they invite me to some different things. I will advise them that, you know, keep your education because it is very important. The more you learn, the more successful you’ll become later in life. You might think, “Oh my god this is SO much work,” “I’m tired,” “I want to go home” [laughs] but it really pays off. I wish I could’ve kept going to college. I only went for two years and I stayed there. I wish I would’ve had someone to say to me you need to continue your education, further into, I don’t know, business management or a bachelor’s degree in something else. But I didn’t have anyone like that. I barely made it to college because of a teacher, my high school math teacher pushed me. That’s the reason I ended up in this area because of my high school math teacher, that said, “You know, I think you’re smart enough that you can go to college and make it.” But after that I didn’t have anybody else. I wish I would’ve had that opportunity.

[TRACK 2, 3:50]

NR:

Have there been any graduate students that have asked you for any advice or have volunteered for any of these events that the association has?

SM:

Yes, I’ve had some students. When they come back. They have come visited. Some of them have participated in the youth group and they come back and they tell me, you know, they want to give back to the association for doing some of the things that we did with them. Their mentorship. They have. I’ve had students. Well, I have one student that’s in Hamilton College right now and I see her all the time. When she comes home, she always makes sure that she comes to see me. I have another student that went to Mohawk Valley Community College and then she left the area and then she came back and she called me right away, you know. She’ll tell me, “Let me know if you need anything. I’d like to volunteer.” They do, they do. They’re very grateful. It makes me feel really good about that.

[TRACK 2, 5:21]

NR:

Are there any past students that have come to try teaching for the Mohawk Valley Latino Association?

SM:

No, because most of the kids they don’t stay here, in the area, unfortunately. I try, I tell them, you know that their community needs them that they should come back and really stay here but they don’t, you know. Eventually they will. Everybody comes back, eventually.

NR:

What have the youth told you about, like their opinions, based on the group you had created for them? How does that turn out to be for them? What have they said about the experience?

SM:

I don’t ask them about that. That’s a really good question. I have to make sure I do, but I feel that because they keep coming back, you know they want to do this, that they enjoy the group. But I will ask them.

NR:

Besides the dancing and the volunteering work, have you ever thought of a teaching of like cooking experience for them? Teaching them about the spices and certain things like that?

SM:

Cooking? No, that’s a really good idea though. I have to make sure I talk to the dance coordinator so we could do something different. It would be nice like over the winter months now that everything is kind of quiet. After the events that we have lined up, we have like three events from now to December 31^st, I’ll make sure that we do something for the months because of the snow. And there will be plenty of snow days from school, you know [laughs] that will be a very nice thing to do.

NR:

Since you work with the museum across from the Latino association, how do they or have they ever talked to you about bringing local artists into the museum?

SM:

That’s in the works. They have a committee for events and that’s one of the committees that they put me on [laughs] because they want to do something different. Definitely. They do a big festival in July, the first 10 days of July they have an outside art show. They have music and they have foods that people can buy, and usually they bring a cultural group. They brought Cuban dance and performers and I think they brought a Puerto Rican band before this.

NR:

To end the interview, what advice for graduate museum study students would you give to us for future museums?

SM:

I would say to stay involved with your local museums and always talk about what you would like to see them bring to the community, you know, because I learned so much on my tour of the museum, so many different things that they have, so many different arts, programs, and classes, that the community doesn’t know. I think it’s up to the new generation to talk to the community. It starts at home. Talk to your parents and then who knows at a family gathering, you don’t know who might be listening, you know, not just your family, your friends. It’s all about, just talking about what a community museum has to offer.

NR: 

Thank you so much for letting me interview you for this project.