Sister Elisa Martinez
For the past 23 years, Sister Elisa Martinez has been involved with Soledad Enrichment Agency (SEA) in Los Angeles, whose mission is to provide high-risk youth and their families with alternatives to gangs, drugs and violence.
In 1975, while she was directing the Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of Boise, she met a religious brother who was the director of SEA, then in its third year. He shared stories of the young people and families affected by the culture of violence and drugs in Los Angeles, and about SEA, which was founded by a group of mothers whose sons had been killed by gang violence.
He told about the program's mission to give at-risk youth an opportunity to succeed and the ways in which that goal was being achieved.
Intrigued, Sister Elisa connected with the brother each time she visited her mother and sister in southern California. He took her to the neighborhoods and she began to know the people there. She was offered a job with SEA and presently serves as Assistant Executive Directress of the program.
"When I came on board," said Sister Elisa, "I found that I had a lot to learn about the gang culture and the families who live in these neighborhoods."
She began her work by visiting families during the day and going to the streets in the evenings. "I would go out and find a gathering of gang-involved youth and begin visiting with them," she said. At first, they were suspicious of her actions.
"They looked at me like I was some kind of crazy woman or a narc (police informant)." Despite their reluctance to accept her, Sr. Elisa kept going back.
Her involvement with gang members has given her a deeper understanding of the conditions faced by those who live there. "I discovered mothers who were ashamed because the community criticized them for having a son or daughter affiliated with a gang." These mothers feel alone and trapped.
Many of them raise their children alone and work long hours for less than minimum wage to pay rent and feed and clothe their families and the children. Their unsupervised youth are searching for love, family and respect "and they create it in the only way they know how – through their 'homies,'" she said.
For this reason, one of the goals of SEA is to work with parents to strengthen the family unit and build parenting skills through education. Soledad Enrichment Agency includes SEA Charter School, a California public charter high school for at risk youth, whose students have dropped out of or been expelled from traditional schools. They come from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with heavily entrenched gang activity and tend to perform at a lower academic level than their peers.
Their families may suffer from alcohol and drug addiction, poverty, teen pregnancy, unemployment and domestic violence. When students enter SEA Charter School, they know that it could be their last chance to lift themselves from the surrounding culture.
The school's program includes character education, direct instruction, community service, individual learning plans for guidance and assessment, the use of technology and a highly structured outdoor program.
These innovative programs, high staff-to-student ratio, a wide scope of support services and a focus on individualized attention enable the students to succeed.
While some students are able to catch up with their peers and re-enter the public school system, others complete their education and graduate from SEA.
As a member of the Monastery of St. Gertrude, Sister Elisa finds opportunities to demonstrate core Benedictine values of healing hospitality, grateful simplicity and creative peacemaking in her work with the youth and their families. Although SEA is not affiliated with a religious institution, it is Sister Elisa's experience that these values are essential to the success of the program's purpose.
She finds that, as a religious Sister, she has "pull" with both the families and the gang-involved youth. When teens contacted her to follow up with the mother of one of their friends who was killed, she found additional opportunities to minister to them. They gathered at the site where the youth was killed, bringing candles and flowers, and the situation became an ideal time to reflect with them and allow them to open up to her.
"The families here have taught me the resilience of faith," reflects Sr. Elisa. "Regardless of shootings they may have witnessed or been victims of, they continue to go on without complaining. Despite the poverty they are experiencing, the tragedy they are involved in, they inevitably express their trust in God – that he will lead them to better times."
Her training for SEA staff members provides them tools for their challenging work in the neighborhoods. Her master's degree in social work qualifies her to counsel families and individuals and she makes herself available to respond to their spiritual needs, as well.
Sister Elisa sees life through the eyes of the people she serves. "They are teaching me to have faith in a better tomorrow and to be grateful for the many opportunities I have been given. I am also much more aware of the responsibility that we religious sisters have to reflect peace, hope and strength as we walk together with society."
Sister Elisa attends immigration rally
On July 29th at approximately 5 a.m. in the morning, Sister Elisa Martinez stood amidst over five hundred people at Dodger Stadium. The group represented a variety of community leaders and 32 unions, from teamsters and longshoremen to nurses and letter carriers.
Soon they all boarded 11 buses and began the seven-hour trip to Phoenix, Arizona to raise their voices against the Arizona immigration law, which makes it a crime to lack immigration documents at any time.
“It opens the door to racial profiling,” said Sister Elise, “because the police would look for brown people.”
Sister Elise, a Benedictine Sister of St. Gertrude’s, fulfills her mission in South Central Los Angeles. She is the Assistant Executive Director of Soledad Enrichment Action that provides educational and family support to high-risk youth.
“People are scared, so scared…afraid to come out of their homes,” Sister Elise said. “Racism has gone up in every way, in everybody.” Policies such as Arizona’s, she believes, are contributing to the atmosphere of fear and suspicion. And that is why she chose to rally.
When they arrived, they were welcomed by equally large numbers. “They welcomed us crying,” said Sister Elise, “they were so grateful.”
The day proceeded in a Catholic church close to the state capital with testimonials and a strong call for the Latino community to register to vote. “We are the majority here,” said Sister Elise, “and we can change things.” The afternoon culminated with a march to the capital in a light rain that softened the Arizona heat.
Then, after being fed by their Arizona allies, it was time for the group to return to Los Angeles. And so at approximately 5 p.m. – twelve hours after they first boarded that morning – everyone got back on the bus to make the 7-hour trip home.