Martinez, Jose Leonardo, 1971-

For Leonardo Martinez, the United States was never meant to be a destination—it was merely a short stop along the way as he awaited the day he could safely return to his family in El Salvador. Now a man who embraces the occasional Big Mac from McDonalds but never turns away a Salvadoran pupusa, Leonardo has embraced both places as home with memories that took him from his humble upbringings in Santa Lucía to the bright lights of the city of Las Vegas.

In his oral history, Leonardo looks back on his youth living in a rural area of El Salvador where he was taught from a young age the values of hard work and the responsibilities that come with adulthood. Forced to work and abandon his studies, he found teachers in people like his grandfather who taught him the value of sharing and living in abundance. He talks about the poverty he witnessed growing up and being scolded for giving away school supplies from the family grocery store to those who didn’t have enough to buy shoes with their uniforms. As the eldest in his family, he always looked out for others and talks about taking on the responsibility of caring for his siblings and mother.

Leonardo’s story is also one of survival. His reflections on the armed conflict of the 1980s in El Salvador reveal a treacherous era of where torture was a normal occurrence and corruption was expected from both “sides” of the war. Being taken by members of the military

v

while on his way to school, Leonardo sheds light on the experiences and persecution that many Salvadorans sought to escape when migrating to the United States. His 41-day migration includes trekking in jungles in Guatemala by foot, riding through towns in Mexico on the train known as “the Beast”, and along unknown streets in San Diego in the trunk of a Ford Crown Victoria.

In Los Angeles, he found a city that more than a place where stereos and cars were stolen on a regular basis—it was a place where he felt free. Arriving with the full intention to save enough money to return to El Salvador to start a truck driving business, Leonardo kept the work ethic he learned from his father and dedicated himself to working. He takes us through his occupational history which include washing trailers in Calabasas and truck driving for Staples along the streets of Beverly Hills in the mid-1990s. His oral history includes testimonies of harassment by Los Angeles Police Officers, building relationships with the Salvadoran community of East Los Angeles, and balancing work with school as he earned his GED in the evenings in West Los Angeles, where he would also meet a Colombian woman named Rocio Rodríguez, who would later become his wife and the mother of his only daughter, Nathalie.

Always seeking a better financial future for him and his family, Leonardo’s journey took him to Las Vegas in the early 2000s to be apart of the economic boom of the housing market. He shares the highs and lows of his career as a loan officer and realtor as he went from accepting housing loans for low-income families to evicting families from their homes daily during the market crash of 2007 & 2008.

Seeking a path that aligned more with his interests and gave him the means to continue supporting his family in Las Vegas and El Salvador, Leonardo became a truck driver for FedEx. He talks about the opportunities it gave him to take his wife and daughter to El Salvador for the first time in 2016 and his experiences going back to a place he had left 34 years prior.

Despite the hurdles of his youth and young adult life, Leonardo Martinez is a man that continues to overcome challenges and move forward. His oral history is one of perseverance, resilience, and family. As a proud Salvadoran and American citizen, Leonardo still aspires to return to El Salvador to retire and—as his oral history demonstrates—continues working hard to make his dreams a reality.