Margarita Vasquez Martinez ’20

Margarita Vasquez Martinez draws on her Trinity experience and her own passion for justice in her work as a paralegal in the anti human trafficking unit of Colorado Legal Services. “I’m committed to helping victims of crime, putting to work the skills I learned at Trinity with my experiences working and volunteering with at risk populations. Those experiences have allowed me to work effectively across diverse cultures and communicate with people from various backgrounds effectively and respectfully.”

Margarita Vasquez Martinez proudly identifies herself as an indigenous woman, from the Zapotec community of Oaxaca, Mexico. She speaks Spanish, Zapotec, and English. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity in 2020, with a major in international affairs. Through Trinity, she pursued opportunities to gain hands-on experiences that she applies to her work today: She interned on Capitol Hill at the House of Representatives and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC, and completed an internship with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Migration and Refugee Services. She was selected to participate in the highly competitive and prestigious Junior Summer Institute fellow at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to completing her Trinity degree, she worked many physically demanding jobs in order to afford college. As a young girl, she worked in the fields of Eastern North Carolina during her summer vacations. She believes that this position at Toxic Free NC completes a full circle where she is making impactful changes for an at-risk community of which she was also a member.

Prior to joining Colorado Legal Services, she worked in the community as a health and justice organizer for Toxic Free NC, a nonprofit working towards a toxic-free North Carolina that is part of a just and equitable global community where human and environmental health are valued, respected and enjoyed by all. Toxic Free NC’s mission is to engage North Carolina in initiatives that advance environmental health and justice by advocating for safe alternatives to harmful pesticides and chemicals and, in her role, she is central to that outreach, working in collaboration with the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry.