Lupe's Promise: Poplar Youth Center Opens

• BY ESTHER AVILA eavila@portervillerecorder.com

• Originally published on Mar 22, 2022 by The Porterville Recorder HERE

POPLAR – What began as a vision and a dream has become a reality for the small community of Poplar. On Saturday, they held a grand opening of Central Valley Empowerment Alliance’s Youth Leadership Center which has been named “Lupe’s Promise.”

Holding hands and standing in a circle, Poplar youth, along with children and adults, recited “Our Promise” — an oath led by Isabel Rodriguez and Jaime Pablo, CVEA Youth Organizers, during the emotional grand opening of the youth center in memory of Lupe Martinez, a 17 year old youth who touched the community and youth with her life — and her death.

“Her presence is still with us and every young adult will fulfill the promise of Leadership, Unity, Power and Education,” said Mari Perez-Ruiz, CVEA Executive Director, as she explained what the letters of Lupe’s name stood for just prior to the start of the program.

In attendance was Lupe’s family — her mother, siblings, aunt and grandmother.

“When I first heard, it was overwhelming,” said Lupe’s mother, Nereida Hernandez. “So many emotions.”

Martinez was a runaway, she explained, who ended up in a group home where she died by suicide.

Now her mother is advocating for troubled youth.

“We are losing children. They fall through the cracks and there’s nobody there to advocate for them,” she said. “I hope this will bring light to the problem.”

The emotional grand opening had many in the audience and at the podium in tears.

“Lupe was one of the first youth that ever touched us,” said an emotional Arturo Rodriguez Leon, master of ceremonies, as he fought tears. “This is a moment to take time to regroup and reset.”

Perez-Ruiz then took the microphone for a few opening remarks.

“It’s been a pretty emotional day,” she said. “Central Valley Empowerment Alliance began as a vision. Someone defined it as an expression of ‘Radical Love.’”

Perez-Ruiz talked of how it opened two years ago, but then a fire on July 9, 2021, burned one of their buildings — the same building now rebuilt as the CVEA Youth Leadership Center and named “Lupe’s Promise.”

She talked about the original opening in June of 2020, when they addressed some of the most vital and necessary needs of the community.

“The first time we opened, we saw between 400 and 600 families come in,” Perez-Ruiz said referring to the weekly food giveaway and free medical care offerings they host. “Two months after that, we opened the Larry Itliong Center. We wanted to make sure and lift him, and the Filipino community, and the role they played in our collective history.”

That was when Lupe Martinez came into their lives.

“She was a beautiful, bright 16 year old who had been missing,” Perez-Ruiz said.

Rodriguez Leon had gone to the river banks to pass the word she was missing and to see if anyone had seen her.

“A few hours later, we got a call from Lupe,” Perez-Ruiz said. “She came but we did not have the resources needed and we were not able to provide her with what was needed.”

Lupe Martinez ended up in a group home out of the area, she said, and on November 12, they received word of her passing.

“So we made a commitment to our youth. We want to make sure every youth has the ability to have the dream,” Perez-Ruiz said.

Now Lupe’s Promise Youth Center serves as a reminder and as a fulfillment of the dream.

The center is fully furnished, she said, thanks to Visalia Unified School District. The Center has 10 desks, 20 computers and laptops, a piano, and more.

Currently there are 13 youth going through an internship program at the new center, where, apart from doing homework, they're learning to plan for the future and have been learning about starting a savings account.

“And on Friday, five of our youth went to get their driver’s license,” she said. “We are thankful for these gifts.”

Perez-Ruiz also acknowledged Lupe’s family.

“Lupe’s family is here and that means so much,” Perez-Ruiz said. “Her mother, Abuela, little sister, aunt and brother. Lupe is here with us. She lives within us and everything we do here is in her name. She will never be forgotten.”

Rodriguez Leon then introduced several speakers — youth organizers and youth peer leaders — Isabel Rodriguez, Jaime Pablo, Kassandra Maciel, and Alexandra Vila.

They talked about their vision to help other youth to prevent such tragedies, and helping others in the community when they feel as if they have no one to turn to and no one to help them, and said they can’t wait to make an impact in their small community.

Also speaking were Community Leader Sylvia Almanza, and CVEA Board of Director Cynthia Bonta.

“We are not perfect. We also make mistakes but it’s what we do with those mistakes, and how we help others,” she said. “I’ve been given a gift to work with people here — to love them, unconditionally, not by color or language but by the person inside.”

In the end, she said, all people are the same and all must be provided with strength to end with a powerful group.

Banta touched on a few words — Promise, Possibility and Power.

“A promise to change a life in the community of Poplar. A beloved community is special,” she said. “Possibility. We believe anything is possible. It’s just a matter of finding a solution to a problem. Find good in people to share and spread. And power — one doesn’t create it. It comes out of other things you do.”

Bonta called the youth center a safe place, a trustworthy place, a place to find freedom and a place to be true and authentic to oneself while being a support to each other.

“Have a contract with yourself — not for what you can do for yourself but for what you can do for others,” Banta said. “You’re invited to love us, to love yourself and to love your community.”

Rodriguez Leon then addressed the crowd, once again overcome by emotions.

“It’s hard to talk. We’ve worked with youth before and other who were lost but no one had impacted me like Lupe,” Rodriguez Leon said. “There’s this oath, this promise, we want to take as a community. We need to acknowledge our young people are having a hard time.”

And after the recital of “Our Promise” in memory of Guadalupe “Lupe” Martinez, the program continued with the presentation of a proclamation by Tulare County Supervisor Larry Micari, the cutting of the red ribbon at the Lupe’s Promise Youth Center, and the releasing of a white dove.

Tours of the center, and a meal, followed the ceremony.