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Migrant advocate comes home to Hispanic Center
By Theresa D. Mcclellan
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- When the state government briefly shut down on Oct. 1,
everything changed for Martha Gonzalez-Cortes, a Kentwood resident and
child of migrant workers who had become Michigan's top advocate for
migrant farm workers.
Last year's shutdown lasted only four hours, but the job uncertainty it
created "did me in. it changed my life," said the state director of the
Office of Migrant Affairs. She began looking for another position.
That search has brought Gonzalez-Cortes full circle, back to the
Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, where she left the director's post
five years ago when she headed for Lansing. Next month, she'll return as
the local center's chief executive officer.
"I was concerned about structuring this to be productive for me and the
center. It's safe to say I'll be one of the youngest and the most
well-compensated Latinas coming to the city," Gonzalez-Cortes said,
declining to reveal her salary.
One observer called Gonzalez-Cortes, "the best director of the center."
"She was the one who put the center close to the community," recalled
Andres Abreu, editor of El Vocero, a local Spanish-edition newspaper.
Gonzalez-Cortes was with the center from 2000 to 2003, when she left to
start making her daily commute to Lansing.
"I was the one who wanted an exciting new opportunity in Lansing, and it
was everything and more. But I didn't want my family to pay the price,
so I decided to make the commute. But five Michigan winters and two
children later, I started re-evaluating priorities," she said.
Then a committee from the Grand Rapids center's board of directors
approached her on Christmas Eve, asking her to come back. After much
negotiating, she accepted.
Her last day in Lansing will be Feb. 8.
As she prepares to return here, people point out it's not the same
center she began running in 2000.
Gonzalez-Cortes said the center has shifted "to stronger programming in
education arenas ... and a stronger mentoring component for the youth."
Gonzalez-Cortes has degrees in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and
Stanford University. She and her husband, a butcher, have two small
children.
At 35, she has seen a lot and believes there is much to address.
"There is a way in which hate has gone mainstream and is being directed
at people of color, Latinos and immigrants that is damaging.
"As much as I'm coming home to Grand Rapids because of a good career,
I'm also coming back knowing there is a certain type of community I want
to raise my kids in. We can do better, we can build better
neighborhoods, and I'm really excited about coming back to do that."
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