Garcia and Martinez: Legacy of service remains
True public servants are a treasure, their dedication and hard work something to be appreciated by all who benefit. Sometimes that public appreciation comes after they are gone, as it will for two New Mexicans who recently died.
Both served their communities in government: Mary Jane Garcia as a longtime state senator from Doña Ana County, and Jimmie Martinez, as a member of the Santa Fe City Council and Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education. Their impact will be felt long into the future.
Garcia, 87, was a trailblazer, serving as an elected state senator and eventually majority whip at a time when women were elected to few positions of power. She remained in the Senate for 24 years, fighting for the protection of children and families, introducing and passing Megan’s Law, the Deadly Child Abuse Act, the Family Violence Act and the Missing Children’s Act.
Martinez, 82, worked at the local level.
He won his first term on the school board with the backing of the National Education Association’s local chapter — he supported collective bargaining while his opponent did not. That’s because Martinez came to public service with the perspective of a working man; he owned a gas station but also worked as a clerk at Safeway. In his view, workers deserved the power to bargain. Just as firmly, Martinez believed strongly that education was a path to a better future. That’s why, at 58, Martinez took the time to earn his college degree.
Garcia was born in the village of Doña Ana and served in the Legislature from 1988 to 2012. At that time, the Roundhouse didn’t have a women’s bathroom set aside for the use of female lawmakers as it did for male senators and representatives. Undaunted, she went to work, at one point sponsoring legislation that eventually outlawed the practice of cockfighting in New Mexico in 2007 — a fight that took almost two decades.
She persisted.
Martinez also knew the value of digging in, particularly in being an early backer of what became known as the Santa Fe Living Wage Ordinance. He had moved from the school board to the City Council by then — for a time, he served on both — and remained committed to the idea that workers should earn decent wages. Passed in 2003, the ordinance to increase basic wages went into place in 2004, but only after the city won a lawsuit and an appeal. It was not an easy battle.
Both used their time as elected officials to improve the lot of the people who gave them the job. They worked hard despite opposition and, occasionally, ridicule. The bill to ban cockfighting, for example, was treated as a joke in the early days of Garcia’s crusade. The boys in the Senate loved emphasizing the first syllable.
Current District 36 Sen. Jeff Steinborn said, “New Mexico has lost one of its great public servants in Mary Jane Garcia.” In announcing her death, Doña Ana County stated her “legacy will forever be etched in the fabric of our community.”
As for Martinez, a tribute on his online obituary page sums him up, including both the bluster and the focus that was part and parcel of the man. It described a day Martinez stopped at a soccer game. “Immediately,” the contributor wrote, “He gave the refs a piece of his mind for some bad calls. He then turned to the bench and told us to continue our education and not be settling for a minimum wage job. He did not know any of us and yet was not afraid to tell us how it was. I saw him several years later and told him I graduated college. He gave me an ‘atta boy’ and a punch to the gut.”
The tribute ended like this: “I’m so sorry for your loss. I don’t think you all realize the impact he had on so many people in the Santa Fe community.”
Impact. That’s the legacy of these true public servants. New Mexico and Santa Fe are grateful.