Several Council 8003 members receive awards
Michelle Alvarado named LULAC Educator of the Year
.Socorro, New Mexico was the site of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) State Convention. The one-day event held on Saturday, June 13 was well attended and had Representative councils from Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Alamogordo and Silver City.
Reelected to serve as the New Mexico State LULAC Director was Javi Marrufo of Silver City. Others elected to state offices included; Lynn Godoy Baca, treasurer, and Marivel Medel, Deputy for Young Adults. Fred Baca was appointed District III Director for the region that includes Silver City and two Las Cruces Councils.
Hosting this year's convention was Otero County LULAC Council 8105 from Alamogordo. Serving as Otero Council President is Joann Vullo. The council also osted a luncheon as well as a dinner along with an auction in a beautiful setting on the campus of New Mexico Tech University.
Serving as delegates from Council 8003 were; Fred Marquez, Marivel Medel, Manuela Jenkins, Lynn Baca and Oly Perez. Marrufo and Fred Baca also had voting rights by virtue of being Present and Past Directors.
Topics of discussion included membership drives, immigration, fundraising, voting drives and various local Issues unique to each Council area.
The convention was fortunate to have present Roman Palomarez, the National LULAC President. He spoke on the need to increase the number of members and Councils.He also invited everyone to the National LULAC Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, which was set to begin on Wednesday, June 17,2026. Palomarez spoke on the many lawsuits LULAC National is currently pursuing relating to voting, civil rights , education and in the area of building coalitions to have a greater national voice.
Special awards included three Silver City recipients—Educator of the Year was presented to Silver City educator Michelle Alvarado; Fred Marquez was named Man of the Year and Oly Perez as as Woman of the Year.
Silver City was selected to host the 2027 New Mexico State LULAC Convention., whichalso hosted the events in 2024.
Marrufo conducted the business session in the afternoon which included elections, individual office holder reports and other topics critical to State LULAC. Marrufo presented a PowerPoint Strategic Plan aimed at growth, organization and specific goals.
Regular LULAC business and concerns were discussed at length. Two resolutions relating to recruitment and one on the State LULAC joining a coalition to help move forward the Yazzie-Martinez Education Act. Serving as secretaries for the convention were Oly Perez, and Marivel Medel.
