Padres Unidos

"When the work is divorced from the community, when the people don't have full ownership, we trade the efficiency of 'the work' for the long-term goal of building a real movement for justice and new leadership." - Pam and Ricardo Martinez, Padres Unidos

Join Leadership Talks on Friday, March 24 at 1 pm ET for a live, online interview with Pam and Ricardo Martinez, co-directors of Padres Unidos, and 2005 Leadership for a Changing World awardees. The Martinez' will discuss strategies that ensure educational equity, immigrants' rights, and student involvement in education policy.

Read the transcript from March 24, 2006 Leadership Talks Archive

In 1991, Pam and Ricardo Martinez helped establish Padres Unidos. Although based in Denver, their first major victory, that continues to resonate throughout the United States came in Houston. The Martinez', working with a legal team, helped organize over 600 families in Houston to fight a Texas law barring undocumented immigrant children from public schools. Hundreds of people — most of them undocumented immigrants — repeatedly packed the courtroom to insist on the right of every child to a public education. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Texas law unconstitutional, ensuring the right to education for undocumented children throughout the United States.

In 2003, Spanish speakers in Colorado public schools faced another formidable challenge when an "English for the Children" amendment was presented, with the intent of ending bilingual education. Padres Unidos mobilized its members to, went door to door explaining the issues, spoke before community groups and got out the vote. The amendment was defeated and Padres Unidos' critical role in the successful effort served as a model for similar campaigns in other states.

Padres Unidos has multiplied its reach with the addition of Jóvenes Unidos, the student arm of the organization. Jóvenes Unidos compiled information about unfair discipline against Latino youth in area schools and demanded change with their "Education on Lockdown" report. The student group also is engaged in the campaign to gain children of undocumented workers the right to attend Colorado public universities at in-state tuition rates, and is pressing for a national law that would ensure this right nationwide.

Pam and Ricardo Martinez believe their success stems in large part from two words: slow down. "We have learned the importance of not outstripping people, of not getting separated from the base, and not falling into the temptation to 'just let the staff do it.'

Both Ricardo and Pam Martinez see their roles moving toward those of "intergenerational learners and trainers, passing on what we know as well as learning from the new generations as they come forth." The emerging vision is for a training center to serve home-grown organizers and to build a broader movement in Colorado.

For more information

Padres Unidos Leadership for a Changing World profile