Meet Martina Robles Gallegos of Oxnard, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Martina Robles Gallegos.

Martina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I emigrated from Mexico to Altadena in 1978 when I was fourteen years old and spoke no English and very bad Spanish. The mere fact that I spoke Spanish badly would come back to haunt me when I started school as a junior high school student. An American friend whom my older sister worked for and lived with enrolled me in school, but I had no idea what to expect or how others would view me.
Most of my teachers spoke mostly English, except for one from Cuba who was fluent in both languages and was one of the sweetest teachers ever who always used terms of endearment whenever she spoke WITH us because most teachers spoke at us. There was also my math teacher, Mr. Schilling, who was also another sweet, loving human being.
Needless to say, because of my lack of English, I struggled in all classes. Had it not been for a visiting teacher from a local high school, I wouldn’t have been promoted to high school, but this teacher talked with my teachers, and without knowing who I was because she’d never met or spoken with me, asked my teachers to please give me a chance and promote me to high school.
To much surprise, because I knew I wasn’t doing well academically, I was promoted to high school, and my very first ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher was Mrs. Reyna, the same teacher who’d visited my jr. high and asked my teachers to give me a chance and promote me to high school.
This gentle, petite teacher became my greatest support, counselor, advisor, and confidant throughout high school, and we’re still friends to this day, even though we don’t speak as often, but we still keep in touch via social media.
She’s also the person who got me into writing and publishing after I survived a massive, near fatal hemorrhagic stroke nobody expected me to survive, but I did, and after hospital rehabilitation, I resumed and successfully, very successfully completed my Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages), and I volunteered at local elementary schools and did in person and online tutoring for children and adults.
I kept writing as a form of therapy and started participating in virtual and online poetry events. Now, besides the weekly poetry Zoom events, I also participate in a monthly poetry event at my local library.
After the stroke and getting my Master’s degree, I also joined a Senior Citizens Center as a participant and then volunteer because I’d learned volunteerism helped heal my brain. Unfortunately, things at the Center didn’t go as planned or promised, and I ended up joining yet another Center and also a Folklorico group made up of older women. We perform at different Senior Citizens Centers, Nursing Homes, Rehabilitation Centers, private homes, and other community events, but we do so as City volunteers.
Unfortunately, everything I’ve accomplished has been overshadowed by the horrible housing experience I’ve experienced living in an HOA.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not a single thing I’ve ever done has been a smooth road, unfortunately.
In high school, class and school mates made fun of me for speaking what they referred to as “peasant” Spanish. One or my only counselor and some teachers sentenced me to a life of drugs, gangs and told me I’d be a high school drop out, and that I was no college material: She showed them and proved them all wrong!
I also lost my mother before I graduated from high school and my sister before I graduated from the university as a bilingual, credentialed teacher, but at the university, I was severely bullied by two then four students, and when I reported the bullying to half the campus, including Department Chairs, campus police, and newspaper, nobody did anything. I really wanted to quit and go home to no home.
Even some Hispanic teachers picked on and bullied me when I spoke up.
The harassment, racism, discrimination, and abuse continue till this day, and for over twenty-five years now, it has been happening nonstop, thanks to the HOA, managers, neighbors whom local police embolden, and others whom nobody holds accountable and get away with committing crimes against my property or I.
I use all my experiences and keep writing to keep my sanity because it is hard to believe there’s nobody out there who can or is willing to help me: There’s the one neighbor stealing part of my property and refuses or ignores my requests to remove her stuff from my property, and she and other members of her family may have compromised my garage because they built a pot farm under it and were and possibly are still stealing my utilities, but this is a very long and convoluted story, so I’ll stop here.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I never imagined I’d one day be writing or become a published author, and I still don’t call myself an author even though I’ve been published quite a bit online, in anthologies in the United States, Canada, India, and soon in Europe: France and Spain.
The way I started writing was by journaling about my work experiences and then the stroke that almost killed me.
When I got home from the hospital I noticed I was bursting with rage, ire, and a strong thirst for justice after everything I’d experienced at work even before I was even hired as an elementary school teacher.
I was being yelled at and discriminated against during my first visit to the District Office then at the school site as the principal interviewed me and gave me the third degree for being Mexican, speaking with an accent, and not belonging to any of the established clicks on campus. Looking back, I should’ve walked out and run right there and then, but I didn’t, and that was the biggest mistake of my life because those two experiences were a clear foreshadow of what was to come.
I’m known for speaking up even when people would much rather silence me for good. I also feel the need to speak up when I see or live experiences or injustices against myself or those around me, and people don’t like that. I’ve been told: Be careful what you say out there: you may get sued. My thinking is, as long as I know I’m speaking and telling the truth, they can come sue me.
I’m proud that I didn’t succumb to the sentences I got in high school, and that I worked very hard to get everything I have without any specific help from anyone. I’m known for writing about social justice and the issues that affect my immigrant community, and during these times, I have a lot to write about, but it is very hard, difficult, and exasperating because there isn’t much I can do to change what’s going on.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
The best thing to do to find a mentor or networking is to be actively involved in our respective communities. I used to participate in peaceful marches, protests, community events, meetings, City Council Meetings, and volunteerism, and that’s how I began to meet other people with shared interests.
Now I also use social media, and that’s also how I started participating in poetry events locally and globally.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Selbor2015
• Facebook: http:/www.facebook.com/martina.gallegos.188
• Other: TikTok: Jasmine1997202!

Image Credits
I, Martina Robles Gallegos, certify that I on the rights or have permission to use the pictures as I please.

Picture where I’m wearing a blue dress and have green plants background: Credit: Annie Slagboom, August 2023 at Oxnard College park.
Picture where I’m wearing a red scarf: credit goes to Alberto Alvarenga, Colonia Library, SEPT 2025
Picture where I’m wearing the Blue dress and black blazer: Credit goes to Delia Arias, ColoniaLibrary, November 5th, 2025.
The rest are selfies or I have no idea due to memory issues due to the stroke.