When it comes to leadership and giving back to her community, there is not much that Teresa Martinez has not done.
Arriving in Polk County in the early 1970s as an exile from the oppressive communist regime in Cuba, Martinez has made her mark on our county in numerous ways. After 12 years as a language teacher with the public school system, she founded the Institute of Spanish Communication Inc. in 1989. ISC is the publisher of the ¡Viva Polk! Magazine, the only print Spanish media published and distributed throughout the county.
She is the author of “Success in Exile – Five Decades of Cuban Stories," a bilingual short story book about the lives of 25 Cuban families and their struggles to flee the island. Martinez is the producer and host of “Hablemos” (Let’s Talk) on WQXM RITMO 99.9 FM and 1460 AM. She is one of the founders and directors of the Lakeland Institute for Learning, a school dedicated to special-needs students that opened its doors in July 2015.