Местный тележурналист Оскар Мартинес, сын мигрантов из Мексики, получил награду за освещение событий в Уорthingтоне

WORTHINGTON — You might not know Oscar Martinez by name, but you’ve likely seen his work. He’s a media technician for Studio 3, the local TV channel for the City of Worthington and the Worthington School District. He won a Hometown Media Award recently for his coverage of the April 2025 National Guard Signing event at Worthington High School. More importantly, though, Martinez was born and raised in Worthington to Patricio and Fransisca, immigrants from Durango, Mexico. ADVERTISEMENT His parents immigrated before Martinez or his two older siblings, Patricia and Alonso, were born, first settling in California and then moving to Worthington for work, with various aunts, uncles and cousins. “They all moved into this one trailer,” Martinez said. “Like three different families living in one trailer.” Martinez was born in Worthington, the first baby born in Minnesota at the turn of the century . You don't realize how (lucky) you are to be from Worthington sometimes until you leave Worthington and you see how separated the country is. “I'm grateful I was born here,” Martinez said. “You don't realize how (lucky) you are to be from Worthington sometimes until you leave Worthington and you see how separated the country is.” “Sometimes I feel like the world's very black and white and then (Worthington is) this array of the world.” Martinez’ life is colored by his experience as the child of immigrants. “I have a lot of empathy for immigrants,” he said. “(I) have a special place in my heart for any kind of immigrant that comes to this country, no matter if it's from Sudan (or) Mexico, anywhere part of the world,” Martinez said. “To be honest, immigrants make the county function.” ADVERTISEMENT “My parents are now both citizens but when they came to this country they came illegally,” Martinez began. He said his parents told him, later in his life, about how they crossed the desert to get to the U.S. “My mom said, when she walked the desert, she sprained her ankle. If it wasn't for my uncle, who pretty much helped carry her and dragged her here, she would have been dead in the desert and I would have never been born,” Martinez said. “It's a crazy thought to me that they took this risk (so) that I have opportunities to live a better life now.” He recalled how his parents came to America with nothing and worked themselves to exhaustion for their family. “They work their butts off at these jobs that they can only get because they don't have social security or (a) proper education,” Martinez said. “You see your parents get off work tired and (it’s) implemented that you have to go to school so you can get a job and not slave away.” “When you're first generation, I feel like you're given an opportunity, a path that your parents weren't given,” Martinez said. “But there's no direction. When you're first generation, I feel like you're given an opportunity, a path that your parents weren't given. “You're figuring out this whole life of being an American (and then) when you're at home, it’s living your life as your culture, which is Mexican.” “All the time I feel like you're doing twice the job,” Martinez said. “It's like you're running a race that's both back and forward.” ADVERTISEMENT As hard as it was, he’s grateful. “It makes me appreciate where I am now.” “The only thing that troubles me (is) there's no guide,” Martinez said. “I'm walking in the dark and hoping that I eventually step on a path.” From the age of six, Martinez had a clear vision for his future: culinary school. “It was either that or becoming a superhero,” he joked. “I wanted to be a cook,” Martinez said. His grandma taught him how to cook. Before her direct instruction, he learned by watching her. In high school, he worked at a local restaurant where he began to see the reality of being a chef. ADVERTISEMENT “I would see how stressed the chefs are… Every cook I've seen on TV or I met in real life always smoked cigarettes because they're always stressed,” Martinez said. “It derailed (my) wanting to be a cook." “I cook for family and friends because I love it. I don't want the passion to go away because of the stress.” If he wasn't going to be a chef, though, he needed to switch gears. That’s when Patrick Mahoney, a social studies teacher at Worthington High School, stepped in. He gave Martinez an idea that hadn’t crossed his mind: "Why don't you become a teacher? You're great at talking to people (and) you’re great at helping people.” “That man gave me direction,” Martinez said. “He made me his Teacher Assistant… I was a student teacher for an ESL class and I would help these English learners (with) their English work. “I knew how they felt,” he shared. Martinez himself was in ESL classes until sixth grade — long after he was fluent in the English language. “I could understand where they were (coming) from.” ADVERTISEMENT When he graduated high school and started classes at Minnesota West in Worthington, Martinez called himself a “Worthington boy down to the toenails." He wanted to become a teacher. However, as time wore on, it made less and less sense. “For how much I'm paying for school, how much I'm getting paid for being a teacher, I just didn't see the correlation.” he shared. The cost of school was a surprise. “When I was born, the City of Worthington gave my mom a slip from Minnesota West,” Martinez began. The golden piece of paper was one of the gifts he received for his monumental birth. “My mom saved it for 18 years because she didn't speak English … She told me that the City gave me a free scholarship to Minnesota West,” he said. “My whole life, I believed it. I'd tell my friends, ‘I'm set. I'm going to Minnesota West, free full-ride scholarship.’” During his senior year of high school, he brought the slip to his guidance counselor to figure out how to cash it in. ADVERTISEMENT “She said, ‘This is for one credit.’ And I'm like, ‘Oh, like one credit to Minnesota West, like one person.’ She was like, ‘No, one class credit.’” The certificate was valued at $171.53. “My mom saved a slip for 18 years thinking it was for my full-ride scholarship, but it was for one credit, which didn't even cover a book.” “Luckily, I worked throughout high school, so I had a little bit of money saved,” Martinez said. “I remember the moment I turned it in … I remember this paper my mom held for 18 years, saved it for her life, thinking (it would) give her son a full-ride scholarship, turning it into Minnesota West. They looked at it, stamped it, cut it in half.” The situation “Put me in a blender of like, ‘What do I do now?’” he shared. “In college, I just kept switching what I wanted to be because I truly didn't know,” Martinez said. “I really only went to school because that's what was expected of me.” “(For) a lot of children of immigrants, the job process is usually one of three choices,” Martinez said. You can go to school and get a desk job, join the military or go straight into the blue collar workforce. Those options are “all we know,” Martinez said. “I chose the way of school.” “If I could have a conversation with me back, I'd tell myself, ‘Don't go to school until you know what you want to do.’ You're just spending money on a race that you don't even know where the finish line is,'" he shared. “I worked so many jobs just to pay for school,” Martinez said, listing off gigs as a DJ, a security role at JBS, accounting, repairing phones and making custom shoes as a few of the jobs he's had. “I've always had (a) work mentality,” Martinez said. “One thing me and my siblings all got passed on from my parents is work ethic. “You always have to work. If I'm not working, I'm doing something to earn money from side jobs. It's always a work-work-work mentality. “At one point. I felt burnt out from doing so much that I told myself I need to appreciate life more,” Martinez shared. “Life's so short. I've had near-death experiences in my life that made me appreciate life.” One experience came four years ago when he was driving home from Sioux Falls after visiting his brother. “It started raining ice on my drive back. A few miles past Adrian, my truck started spinning out and I flipped upside down in a ditch. “I had a concussion and for a month all I could do was sit in a dark room,” Martinez said. “All I could do was think. “It made me appreciate life more,” Martinez said. That experience made him give himself rules for his life that boil down to prioritizing being in the moment. “If I ever go to a concert or an event, I cannot record more than one minute of the event … because I'm there to enjoy it,” Martinez said. “Enjoying things, going outside, breathing the fresh air, taking my niece to the park. “I tell myself, if I'm not crying blood, I'm OK,” Martinez said, referencing a Spanish phrase his grandfather used to say when he or his siblings would get hurt: “I can smile, I can laugh, I can breathe … try to give (life) 100%. There's some days, I can't give it 100%, I only have 80% in me (but) I'm giving it what I have.” Martinez eventually took on a youth career connector job where he got to work with youths, many of whom were first generation, preparing for their next steps after high school graduation. “I set them up with job shadows or schooling with what they want to do,” Martinez said. “A lot of times I told them, ‘Don't feel pressured to go to school because that's what you think is expected of you. Figure out what you're passionate about or what you truly do like before you go.’” He stressed that high school was the perfect time to experiment and try new things. “Join clubs, join activities, join sports, everything and anything, try it. There's no shame in not liking it, dropping it, because you discover something new,” Martinez said. “In high school, I tried joining everything and anything and talking to everybody and just trying to learn so much. I always took pride in (that) I knew a little bit, enough, to keep up a conversation with anybody.” One of those explorations, for Martinez, was Trojan News. “It was pretty much a video class,” Martinez explained. “I’d go out and do these news stories or interview people in the hallways and I'd make them silly and funny and as entertaining as I could.” “Anything I didn't know, I’d just Google it or YouTube it. I learned how to use (a) green screen by myself. I learned how to do slow-mo, voice over, all these things that I found so interesting,” Martinez said. “I just fell in love with it.” He took the class all throughout high school and video editing became a hobby of his, making videos when he traveled or went to family events. “I've never been big into the saying ‘Things happen for a reason’ … I don't think everything needs to have a meaning,” Martinez said. “Some things are just some things. But sometimes you're in the right place at the right time.” Two years ago, Martinez received a call from Anne Foley, a co-manager of Studio 3. She told him there was a position open and someone had recommended him for the role. She asked him if he’d be interested. “At the time, I didn't have a job. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life next,” Martinez said. “I applied, I interviewed, and I got the job. I didn't know I could get paid to do something I enjoyed.” Martinez said his American Dream has changed over the years. “The American dream became, to me, (to) make and find opportunities for myself and make a living doing what I like,” Martinez said. He said he’s watched his parents “work 12-hour shifts every day (and) you see them just working until their body can’t anymore.” “It puts more of a drive on me to succeed,” he shared. “I've been blessed with the opportunity to be born here, and privileged to grow up in the town of Worthington,” Martinez said. “I hope I (can) make my parents proud, make my community proud, make my people proud.” “Thank you to my parents, to my siblings, to my family, my friends — everyone that's helped me to get to a point where I am in life and everyone in the future,” Martinez said.