Caron Martinez has not only worked internationally in cities like California, London and Mexico City with the Foreign Service, but has done a variety of jobs for embassies and has had amazing experiences across the globe. Currently teaching College Writing, Creative Writing, and Composition at American University, Professor Martinez is a master at communicating. She hasn’t limited herself purely to teaching. In her spare time, she’s researching and writing a historical fiction novel set during the time of the Mexican Revolution, inspired by stories told by her grandmother. Take notes, collegiates, this woman knows firsthand the importance of taking risks and being open to all this world has to offer.
Her Campus AU: You’ve worked all over the world. Can you give an overlay of your career?
Caron Martinez: Teaching is my third career. When I graduated college, all I knew was that I wanted to travel internationally, and I didn’t think I had the stamina to be a Peace Corps volunteer. I didn’t have the financial background to go into banking, so I took the Foreign Service Test. Nations had always fascinated me. The idea that nations can behave like people, I thought was fascinating. I wanted to be in that world and I wanted to live overseas. My first foreign service tour was Quito, Ecuador, and I was able to go to the Galapagos Islands twice. From Ecuador I went to Mexico City, where I met my future husband and I survived the 1985 Great Quake, which was an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1. My job there was to work closely with the ambassador to give speeches on what was happening, to welcome Nancy Reagan, the First Lady at the time. It was my passion to work in politics, but within a context of media, public relations and education. When I got married, we moved to California and had our first two children. I never thought I’d see the inside of an embassy again, and then my husband, through his work, was transferred to the London Embassy. That’s when I got my first Master’s at the LSE. I learned about groups and how they worked together, but in an international context, which was really fascinating. I went into PR for a while, using my Spanish. We came back from London and I got an MFA in Creative Writing. That’s what landed me my jobs at UMD and here at American.
HCAU: Obviously there’s a lot to pull from, but what was the most memorable part of your career?
CM: I think the work around Mexico City and the earthquake was the most memorable, and it was memorable because I was suffering. I thought I was going to die, and my family didn’t know whether or not I was alive for three or four days. But I knew I still had a job to do. Americans were streaming to the embassy for shelter and trying to get the word out to their families that they were okay. That kind of cutoff from communication is unthinkable now. But I got to see the resilience in me, and to see the best and worst of people that come out in times of tragedy. You start to ask the big questions, and that experience stuck with me for a long time.
HCAU: Did that experience help direct you to what you wanted to do later on in life?
CM: I think it reinforced for me the value of family. I knew for me that no matter what I did professionally, it would be empty without children and a husband. I had to find a balance, and it’s hard for women. I think it’s easier than it’s ever been to try and negotiate those things, but I knew no matter what I do I wanted that family. It sounds old-fashioned, but don’t neglect having people to love in your life, no matter what you do professionally.
HCAU: What was your favorite place to live?
CM: Mexico City is an impossible place to understand. The Mexican eye for beauty is unparalleled, but their tolerance of ugliness is unbelievable. It fascinates me. But London is a place I could live the rest of my life. The man who said, “When you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life” was so right. It’s definitely a favorite place of mine.
HCAU: What do you enjoy most about being a professor now?
CM: Definitely talking about ideas and having the light go on in a student’s eyes when they understand something new. Writing has been a huge part of my career choices and my success in each of those choices. Writing, communicating and critical thing are absolutely fundamental to anything anyone’s going to do, and I can sell that to students. I can authentically say that we all need to know how to write. Communication is essential to humans and I hope I help my students do that more.
HCAU: If you could give advice to AU students, what would it be?
CM: Don’t worry too much about what you’re going to end up being. Don’t forget that you’re a student. Be a sponge. Be outside your comfort zone and try to find connections between different areas, because that’s how the world is. Do internships; AU is such a good place to do that. But don’t start to worry about where you’re going to get a job when you’re a freshman. And study abroad, definitely study abroad.
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