We’re looking forward to introducing you to Martina Robles Gallegos. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Martina, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
I get out of bed at around 7:00 am and prepare my breakfast that now consists of a fruit and vegetable smoothie, with a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of pink salt. I then prepare what I call an eggadilla: Two beaten eggs ‘Fried with cream cheese. I then add shredded Mozarella cheese and fold the egg ‘tortilla’ like a taco and flip it over if I feel it is necessary.
I then feed my hungry kitty that was waiting patiently but still asking for her food.
I then sit down to have my smoothie/eggadilla breakfast. After finishing my breakfast, kitty is ready to go pee-pee, poo-poo, caca afuera. If the weather is nice, she does her business then sunbathes till I tell her: Go in the house! I go in the house with her; wash dishes, and throw the saved dish water in my little garden.
If I have phone calls to make, this is when I start taking care of them. I then sit at my kitchen table to practice my Italian, something I’ve been doing since the near fatal stroke back in 2012.
I may do other chores like laundry or gardening if I don’t have appointments or have to go to the Senior Citizens Center for Folklorico practice. In the evenings I may call a friend, and on Tuesdays I may participate in the Cobalt’s Poets weekly poetry reading, but lately, I have been too sleepy to participate, so sometimes I either only listen, or I skip it altogether. The no-sleep ordeal got even worse after a July aneurysm embolization that was detected via an MRI/MRA almost exactly 13 years since the massive, hemorrhagic stroke.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a former undocumented immigrant who became a bilingual elementary school teacher, and I was the only truly bilingual teacher at the school site where I taught a first/second combination group for almost twenty years. Teaching at the district and site was an incredible and sometimes painful challenge from the beginning, facing racism and discrimination for being, ‘the Mexican teacher.’ But that “Mexican teacher’ was someone parents requested for their children year after year and also recommended me to their relatives.
Both my students and parents were always involved in after school programs and events; for example, students performed at School Board Meetings, School Talent Shows, and other activities with other second grade and Special Day Classes. I stopped teaching after a work injury, followed by the stroke nobody expected me to survive, but I did, and after rehabilitation, I resumed and successfully completed my Master’s degree in TESOL: Teaching English to Students of Other Languages. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to use my degree, but I did volunteer at different elementary schools, my local hospital, and also did online and in-person tutoring.
During this time, I told my former high school teacher with whom I was and am still friends, that I was keeping a journal about my work experience, and what had happened to me, and she told me: Martina, you have many experiences and stories to share with the world; keep writing, and one of these days we’ll publish your work. And like we say in Spanish, listening to that, me cayo como anillo al dedo, and she started sending me links to calls for submissions, and like we say in English: The rest is history. I haven’t stopped writing or publishing since, and she and I have read poetry together in person and online, and we have also been published together in different anthologies, including the ones she was the editor for, The Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology (year), and my work has been published in several of the Altadena Poetry Anthologies and many others.
I eventually joined and volunteered for a Senior Citizens Center to socialize as part of my therapy, but things went sour, and I joined another one where I started practicing Folklorico dance, but it was very challenging for me, and I was initially just doing skirt work sitting down, but that only lasted a couple of days till I decided that if I wanted to continue, it’d have to be on my two feet, and that’s what I did. I’ve been performing with the group at other Senior Citizens Centers, Adult Care Centers, Nursing and private homes, and other City events.
On occasion, I attend karaoke parties at friends’ house or Senior Citizens Centers, and I do our monthly poetry reading at my local library. Sometimes I go back to practicing guitar, ukelele, or piano at home by myself, too.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
I started school at nine years old because there was neither preschool nor kindergarten at the time, but I also had to help my dad work in the fields. I loved the idea of being outdoors but felt the work was too much for the little person I was.
School was difficult because I was always hungry, but I was lucky that my only teacher would feed me fried eggs with onions, and I thought it was the most delicious food in the world. Then I realized I really wanted to learn but couldn’t and didn’t know how. I really felt and thought I was dumb, and cruel classmates did call me names and bullied me. I never thought I’d graduate from elementary school, but I did.
It was only after the stroke I realized I was or am really smart, and a few other things that almost make me laugh.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I believe there have been more times in my life I almost gave up, especially what I’ve been going through for the last twenty-five plus years living in what I thought was part of my ‘American Dream’ I worked so hard to get, my own home that has become an absolute nightmare, with abusive neighbors left and right; neighbors who’ve been stealing my property and utilities to engage in illegal activities nobody ever did anything about, and neighbors who’ve sent me to ER for things they’re responsible for but don’t care.
Besides this nightmare that almost caused my life, the loss of my mother when I was in high school was one of the greatest tragedies of my life, or so I thought till I lost a sister when I was at the university. Yes. I almost gave everything up both times, again.
Or the time a student whom another so-called-teacher rejected and was ‘dumped’ in my classroom and ended up terrorizing both, my students and I for an entire month, with the principal walking by and ignoring everything till one day the student blew up and attacked me: kicking, biting, spitting, and grabbing me by the neck and throwing me against some sharp shelves. I’d let office staff, principal, site rep, and district administrators know what was going on and asked for help that never arrived. I wanted to quit but stayed because of the rest of the students and parents who always looked at me for support and advocacy, even though advocating for them came with a price, and after the assault, someone from the district office gave me her “personal guarantee that my students would get help.” I’m still waiting.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
What usually gets me in hot water is when I speak truthfully, but people call me a liar, and it’s even worse when they do it in public. What I have experienced is that most people believe the actual liars and not those who tell the truth.
I keep saying that in order to get or stay out of trouble, you just have to be a good liar and have people to support your lies: Look no further than THW.
It’s beyond exasperating to know I’m telling the truth, and people know it but refuse to admit it.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing?
I feel what I will regret is not having enough courage to stand up to abusers who know exactly what they’re doing and who they’re doing it to but don’t care.
And I actually try to take care of abusers, but things never work out, or those helping don’t follow through or do the wrong thing for me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Selbor2015
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/martina.gallegos.188
- Other: TikTok: @jasmine1997202
Image Credits
Picture where I’m wearing a jean jacket: Picture credit: Anne Slagboom.
I, Martina Robles Gallegos, certify that I took all or most of the pictures or have permission to publish them as I wish. The only picture taken by a professional photographer is the one referenced at the beginning of this paragraph.
