The Arc of Leadership - Part 4
Written by Tim Buckley, November 2024
Capaces is a Spanish word meaning capable, or competent. It is also the name of a nonprofit in Woodburn, with sister organizations including Mano a Mano and the Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE). These organizations specialize in helping to resource the Latino communities in the Willamette Valley.
Leadership training is built into each of these organizations because one generation of leaders cannot finish all that is needed to secure a financially stable future for everyone. CBEL’s Neighborhood Family Council Director, Eduardo Angulo, was a co-founder of SKCE. Among his many skills, Eduardo provides CBEL the experience and knowledge in succession planning. His leadership is key to ensuring new generations of leaders behind him.
Maribel Mora-Martinez is one of those leaders, a product of that multi-generational leadership process. The daughter of immigrant parents from Sonora, Mexico, Maribel is bilingual, a prerequisite for her job as CBEL’s new Lead Connector for the Neighborhood Family Councils (NFC). Her parents worked multiple jobs while raising three children. “From my mother, I inherited determination and an ethic for hard work and being independent,” she said. “I got my outgoing personality from my dad, the ability to get along with just about anyone, and that has helped me to be a good networker.”
Maribel and Eduardo, together with Darian Owens and Destiny Lagos are CBEL’s staff for the five NFCs. “I joined the Kennedy Neighborhood Family Council because our youngest daughter is a student at Kennedy Elementary,” she continued. “I had been on the school’s Parent Club until the pandemic, so the Family Council is a way to keep networked to the school and build relations with the principal, teachers and staff.” As part of the Council, she volunteered at Kennedy’s first Fun Friday event, where she worked alongside Eduardo and others. “It was fun to see the families together,” she added, “but more importantly, it was an effective method of bringing people together to relax, meet new people and access new community resources.”
Eduardo Angulo (left) and Maribel at an NFC event
A CBEL staff position opened up, as Eduardo’s lieutenant, and he asked her to consider applying. She pondered it, prayed about it, spoke to her husband Felipe about it, and then decided to say yes. She was following in familiar footsteps. After only a few weeks at CBEL, Maribel volunteered to step into the role as chair for the Kennedy NFC, responsible for leading Council meetings and mobilizing volunteers to organize its events.
Raised and educated in the Willamette Valley, Maribel saw her mother managing multiple jobs while raising three children. Maribel being the oldest, she was part of the glue holding things together at home while her mother worked full-time at a restaurant. “While I was at McKay High School, I didn’t have the time to join things after school,” Maribel said. “I was at home caring for my younger siblings and helping around the house to help ease the load on my mom, during the time between her divorce.”
Maribel wed Felipe (a native of Veracruz, Mexico) when she was 19. After graduation, she secured a job as an interpreter and receptionist for Walsh and Associates, a Keizer law firm. Even with her full-time position with CBEL, Maribel continues to work for the law firm, and is now a legal assistant there. She and Felipe have two daughters. Galilea, 14, is a freshman at McNary and Irlanda, 10, is in fifth grade at Kennedy Elementary.
“I usually get up earlier than the rest of the family and can work several hours a day at home for the law firm before getting the kids ready for school and then jumping into my job with CBEL,” she said. “Felipe is hugely supportive too, providing transportation for things like school and soccer practice. He works full time for Canteen, a food and beverage distributor for corporate cafeterias, like Lowe’s and Costco,” she added.
“All the work I’ve done up until now has prepared me for this responsibility,” Maribel said. “I don’t get intimidated by important people and I don’t freeze up under pressure. I’ve become comfortable speaking with people of all kinds and I don’t get very nervous in front of groups.”
“We have a really good team and we get a lot accomplished,” she added. "There is a lot of flexibility because Eduardo understands the importance of family. He is a great supervisor because he truly cares about us and the work we’re doing. It’s a style of leadership I will use as we continue to expand our work in 2025, helping Family Councils to grow and networking with the many community partners we have attracted to our work.”