Former Fort Worth ISD school board member Jesse Martinez, 80, recalled speaking Spanish with a friend on the M.G. Ellis Elementary school grounds. A teacher slapped him across his mouth and told him, “You’re an American. That’s why you need to learn English. That’s why you Mexicans will never amount to anything.”
But his first-second grade teacher Alice Contreras took him under her wing, encouraged him to study, and made allowances for his asthma attack absences. Jesse learned early about abuse and kindness on school grounds. He shared his memories recently as he undergoes hospice care.
Jesse grew up poor and sickly, but his loving mother Margaret instilled in him an indomitable spirit to look at the world positively. He needed that positive mindset to deal with the hard knock Northside upbringing. His mother confided to Jesse that a doctor told her he wouldn’t live more than a year. She prayed and cared for her son with devotion, carrying him through several near-death, emergency room episodes…