Maximizing the American dream

HUMBERTO CASPA

Five years ago, Maria E. Robledo walked into her new office thrilled

to start her new administrative job.

She found in her office a computer desktop and other equipment

neatly placed on a wooden desk. Most of the resources were found

there, except a co-worker to speak with and an established system to

rely on.

She took the challenge and proceeded to fulfill her American

dream.

Robledo works for the American Heart Association, a nonprofit

corporation. She started out with the job of reaching out to the

Spanish-speaking community and was recently promoted to vice

president of cultural health initiatives.

When she walked into that lonely office five yeas ago, she was

aware of the implications of her job, especially the responsibilities

and her credibility within the Latino community.

She was firm, energetic and ready to operate an incipient program

set up to, as described in her career profile, “target audiences

(Latinos) with culturally appropriate health initiatives.” In other

words, to teach Latinos and other minority groups ways to prevent

cardiovascular diseases. According to the American Heart Association,

it is the leading cause of death in America.

Despite much success, the Latino community in Costa Mesa has

proved difficult for Robledo to reach.

Now, she’s stepping up her efforts here and is holding a program

just up the road in Santa Ana, where she will have a number of Costa

Mesa volunteers helping her get the word out.

Although her duties in the association involves helping out

Latinos, her job isn’t necessarily exclusive to this group. Everyone

who wants to use her outreach program and services is welcome.

“Ours is an inclusive nonprofit organization without direct

governmental assistance,” she said.

If the numbers are any indication, Robledo’s performance, as

director and as vice president over the last five years, shows how

inclusive it has been.

She outgrew the association’s expectations by many folds,

initially by increasing her yearly budget from $10,000 in 2000 to

$360,000 in 2002.

By now, Robledo and Lucy Cuevas, her assistant, may be close to

surpassing the $1-million mark.

Robledo credits divine inspiration for her career path.

“This opportunity came down from heaven,” she told me. It wasn’t

something she had ever planned on or thought about getting into while

attending college in Guadalajara, Mexico.

But deep in her heart, she knew a dream job was waiting to happen

in the United States.

Robledo isn’t the typical immigrant who arrived in this country to

make a living, earn some dollars, send half of it back to Mexico and

perhaps return home.

Furthermore, unlike most new immigrants, she didn’t wash dishes or

work as nanny or operate heavy-duty machines at assembly lines and

factories. She did, however, consider working odd jobs if the

situation demanded it, but “it never presented itself to me like

that,” she said.

After receiving a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in education

from an accredited public university in Guadalajara, she established

herself easily in the workplace. Somehow, though, despite earning

decent wages, she never felt fulfilled with her career endeavors.

Then she realized it was time to move on.

From the beginning, Robledo understood the nature of the American

system. Without English, her life wouldn’t simply take off. And

without a business background or computer knowledge, she couldn’t

stand out in a saturated labor market. Professionals are coming out

of universities by the thousands nowadays.

Robledo is one of the few gifted individuals who learned English

in a very short span of time. It only took her a year of classes at a

private school in Santa Ana to hold a fluid conversation with her

teachers.

In her second year, she was already taking regular courses at

Rancho Santiago College. Later, she transferred to the Grazadio

School of Business, a Pepperdine University satellite, where she

earned a degree in business management. Now with three college

degrees, she was up to further challenges.

One might suspect that Robledo’s families in Mexico were

subsidizing her professional activities in the United States.

“Most of what I have today, I did it in my own terms, although my

family usually backed up my decisions -- more morally than

financially,” she said.

As for her work at the heart association and targeting Latinos in

Costa Mesa, her goal for 2005 is to break the 4,000 screenings set in

2004. She is focused on running a cholesterol screening event

Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints,

located at 3401 Greenville in Santa Ana. Screenings are free.

In addition to the event, there will be other community groups

joining the American Heart Association. Robledo advises all of us to

spend an hour or so of our time to go to the event, get tested, find

the results, and be aware of our health.

Then it is up to us to follow the rules.

Our hearts need attention, not only to feel the inner sensations

of lust and love, but also to run our own body and soul.

See you at the event.

* HUMBERTO CASPA is a Costa Mesa resident and bilingual writer. He

can be reached by e-mail at hcletters@yahoo.com.