A San Jose organizer wants respect from Salinas, but local organizers say she hasn’t earned it.

The San Jose organizer created viral fundraisers for Salinas, but people want to know where the money is going.

Dear Readers,

Maybe you’ve already seen the picture—two young girls, outside a Taco Bell in Salinas, devices propped on their laps, using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi connection to do remote learning because they don’t have internet at home. 

In this week’s issue of the Weekly, there’s a story about that photo and the family pictured, and a San Jose woman, Flor Martinez, who helped promote a national headline-making fundraiser for the mother of those two girls. Martinez has been a prolific fundraiser and volunteer, raising over $200,000 to benefit farmworkers and their children, doling out school supplies and personal protective equipment for Monterey County farmworkers toiling in smoky conditions due to wildfires. 

But with the outpouring of support came questions and controversy, as Martinez continued to hype her fundraisers and her nonprofit. It turns out she has only taken the first step in seeking nonprofit status, filing articles of incorporation with the California Secretary of State.

Specifically, she got heat from local activists who wanted to know where the money was going and why she thought she could solve problems that nonprofits and other hyperlocal organizations were better equipped to tackle. In response, Martinez did what she does best: She went on social media. There she outlined vague plans about establishing a foundation or nonprofit (depending on the post), where the money will be allocated and why the money was stuck in limbo, as well as promoting the launch of a website. 

She did not publicly post a paper trail. She did not post how her nonexistent nonprofit/foundation would be fiscally sound and responsible with handling the money. She reshared her personal mission to change a broken immigration system. It appeared that she, alone, was going to deliver. 

With her message out in the world, she also went on the attack, along with her partner Jay Hayes, on social media. In a private message exchange, Martinez pressured Salinas native Jessica De La Torre to give her number, after Hayes publicly menaced De La Torre, threatening to pay her a visit in Sacramento, where De La Torre currently resides.  

Past Martinez’s inability to engage with the community she claims to be serving, there is a problem of giving funds to an operation that claims to be a nonprofit, but technically isn’t.  

"If they claim to be associated with a nonprofit, you want to [search] that information out and find out if it's a legitimate nonprofit. Do your due diligence," Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni says. She notes the Community Foundation for Monterey County, for example, sets up funds to support various grassroots efforts, and "it's always a good idea to go through them, because the money is going to go where it needs to go."

Larry Imwalle, executive director of the Action Council, which acts as the fiscal agent for a number of nonprofits, says nonprofits have to tow a legal line—or face consequences. 

"If you're a nonprofit you have a certain legal structure and if you don't abide by that structure, the Secretary of State can come in, investigate, halt your nonprofit status…there are all these rules and regulations to adhere to,” Imwalle says. 

The work that Martinez has done is visible and highlights issues that run deep in the county, there is no denying that. And though Martinez hasn’t posted correspondence or receipts of her fiduciary behavior yet, she has sent them to the Weekly (past our print deadline), confirming at least one of her GoFundMe fundraisers is under review by the platform and that a Venmo representative has confirmed she cannot withdraw more than $19,999.99 weekly. But as prolific as she is at promoting fundraisers, she hasn’t made these receipts public, wanting to wait for the launch of her website. 

“I just want people to respect my professionalism,” Martinez writes in a private message on Instagram to the Weekly. “And obviously it’s frustrating but I will stand my ground and when everything is said and done everyone will eat their doubt.”

But according to some of her critics, respect has to be earned, especially by someone coming from the outside. De La Torre writes in an email to the Weekly, “I believe Martinez was unprepared for the voices of Salinas to question her and her backlash showed what type of person she is and how inadequate she is to serve the community of Salinas.” 

- Marielle Argueza, Staff Writer, marielle@mcweekly.com and Mary Duan, Managing Editor, mary@mcweekly.com