QUE PASA
Newsletter of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico
December 2020
Member Spotlights: Raquel Ortega and Nathalie Martin
By Gabriella Smith
It’s time once again for this issue’s member spotlight! This time we talked to Raquel Ortega of the Mesilla Valley Chapter and Nathalie Martin of the San Juan Chapter.
Raquel is a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the Commission for the Blind. She describes herself as hard-working and loyal. She became a Federationist because of the stories she heard from other members, which inspired her.
Raquel was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and she learned she had Juvenile Onset Macular Degeneration at age nine. In the 4th grade she moved to Gila, New Mexico and began attending a small school in Cliff. She had a good school counselor there who connected her school with NMSBVI, so she was able to get large-print books and a large-print typewriter. At age twenty-five, she went to Alamogordo to get intensive blindness skills training.
Raquel is the Mesilla Valley Chapter president, which she says is challenging, but she enjoys the position nonetheless. She says that it has been a lot of work getting new members, and there has been a learning curve to it. She was placed into the position when the previous president left, and she says she had never been in that type of leadership position before. Raquel’s goals for the future are to continue doing exactly what she is doing. Her goal has always been working with people who can’t see. She believes she is in a good place in life and has found peace and happiness.
Our second spotlight member is Nathalie Martin. Nathalie is a busy mom of three kids, thirteen chickens, two cats, and two puppies. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, in Canada. She moved to the United States and spent ten years in Nevada, where she met her husband. She later moved around because of her husband’s job, ending up here in New Mexico.
Nathalie began losing her sight around age twenty, when she learned she had the beginnings of Myopic Degeneration. Her vision would continue to decline over the years until she had her second child. She left work to become a stay-at-home mom around the same time when her sight declined enough that she had to stop driving.
Nathalie is the president of the San Juan Chapter, and she says she became president before she knew much about the chapter or the NFB itself. She says that she seriously considered not doing it, but decided to take a chance. She has never regretted it. Because the San Juan Chapter is more of a chapter at large, it presents certain difficulties. For example, she says it is harder to organize fundraisers due to the chapter being unable to meet in one place. The chapter has members in Farmington, Shiprock, Crownpoint, and other towns. Nathalie is currently working with the Commission for the Blind so that she can return to school to finish her bachelor’s degree, and she plans on working in blindness rehabilitation.