American diplomat
Vilma Socorro Martinez
(born October 17, 1943) is an American lawyer, civil rights activist and diplomat who formerly served as the U.S. Ambassador to
Argentina
from 2009 to 2013 under President
Barack Obama
.
Biography
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Early life
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Vilma Socorro Martinez was born to Marina and Salvador Martinez, a
Mexican-American
couple living in
San Antonio, Texas
. She studied at the
University of Texas at Austin
. After receiving her bachelor's degree, Martinez went on to
Columbia Law School
and graduated in 1967.
[1]
Legal career
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Vilma Socorro Martinez then joined the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
(LDF). At LDF, she defended a number of poor and minority clients.
[1]
She also served as the attorney for the petitioner in the case of
Griggs v. Duke Power Company
, a landmark action that ultimately went before the
U.S. Supreme Court
and helped establish the doctrine of
affirmative action
. In 1970, Martinez became an equal opportunity counselor for the
New York State Division of Human Rights
,
[1]
where, she created new rules and procedures governing the rights of employees.
In 1971 she joined the firm of
Cahill, Gordon & Reindel
in New York City, where she worked as a labor lawyer. She was among the first women to join the board of the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
(MALDEF). Soon afterward, in 1973, Martinez was hired as the advocacy organization's general counsel and president. She directed a program to help secure an extension of the
Voting Rights Act
to include Mexican Americans among the groups it protected. In 1975, Congress agreed to extend the existing provisions of the Voting Rights Act to include Mexican Americans.
[1]
Martinez was the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in a 1974 ruling from the Tenth Circuit Court that guaranteed the right to a bilingual education for non English-speaking children in the Portales, New Mexico Municipal School District. The case, known as
Serna v. Portales
,
[2]
was brought by Romana Serna on behalf of her daughter, Judy Serna, who attended the Portales Municipal School District. The ruling was enforceable in all states within the U.S. Tenth Circuit: NM, CO, UT, WY, KS, OK. The decision expanded the language rights of public school children outlined in the
Lau v. Nichols
[3]
U.S. Supreme Court case, which was decided earlier the same year. The
Lau
case mandated schools, not students, bear the responsibility of addressing the language needs of the students; however, it gave little guidance as to how. Bilingual education was a mere suggestion. The
Serna
case made explicit the right of minority language students to be taught at school not only in English, but in their home languages. In addition to a right to a bilingual education, the case asserted the students' right to a culturally relevant curriculum and to have as their teachers, administrators, and other school staff competent adults whose cultural and linguistic identities reflected those of the minority students. At the time of the suit, there were no teachers or other staff at any of the district's schools who were Spanish surnamed, or who spoke Spanish, or who could teach in Spanish, even though 34% of the students in the district's four elementary schools and 29% and 17% at the junior and senior high schools, respectively, were so identified.
From 1977 to 1981, Vilma Socorro Martinez joined an advisory board that reviewed appointments to ambassadorial positions around the world. In 1982, Vilma Socorro Martinez became a partner at the law firm
Munger, Tolles & Olson
, specializing in resolving labor disputes.
[1]
Since the 1990s, she was a consultant to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
, and a lawyer delegate to the
Ninth Circuit
Judicial Conference.
US ambassador to Argentina
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In 2009, Vilma Socorro Martinez was named
United States Ambassador to Argentina
, the first woman to represent the
United States
in
Buenos Aires
as ambassador.
[4]
[5]
She had never been to Argentina before accepting the position.
[6]
Her role included the diplomatic management of the
NASA
-
CONAE
project that launched the
SAC-D
satellite into space,
[7]
[8]
She ended her tenure in Argentina on July 4, 2013.
[9]
In a
leaked diplomatic cable
, she described
Mauricio Macri
, who intended to run for the
2011 elections
, as "uneducated".
[10]
Il also appeared that he asked Vilma Socorro Martinez to be stiffer with then-President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
.
[11]
Other roles
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- 1976-1990:
Board of Regents
of the University of California (and Chairman from 1984 to 1986)
[1]
- 1983-2007: Director of the board of
Anheuser-Busch
(first corporate donor to MALDEF)
[1]
- 1993: Director of the board of Fluor
[1]
- 1998: Director of the board Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad
[1]
- 1998: Director of the board of Shell Oil
[1]
- Director of the board of Sanwa Bank California
[1]
- Director of the board of Bank of the West
[1]
- Member of Washington D.C. based think tank the
Inter-American Dialogue
[12]
- Member of
Walmart
's Employment Advisory Panel
[1]
Awards
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Personal life
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Vilma Socorro Martinez is married to an attorney, Stuart Singer, and has two sons,
[1]
Carlos and Ricardo.
See also
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References
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External links
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Charge d'Affaires
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Minister Resident
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Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary
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Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary
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