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Idaho Hispanic commission director retires after 28 years with agency • Idaho Capital Sun [1]

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Date: 2025-02-10

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As the daughter of migrant farmworkers, Margie Gonzalez experienced firsthand the struggles many Hispanic families face.

“I know what it’s like to suffer,” Gonzalez told the Idaho Capital Sun. “I know what it’s like to live in poverty. I know what it’s like to have a father who’s undocumented. I know what it’s like to lose a sibling because of not having health insurance.”

Like many Hispanics, her identity and experiences shaped her career as the executive director of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a small, three-person state agency. After 28 years, Gonzalez retired from the commission in January — an agency focused on connecting Hispanics across the state with resources to advance education, employment, and health care access.

Idaho’s Hispanic community is the largest and fastest growing demographic, Gonzalez said, making the commission’s work essential to communicate the needs of the community to public officials. The commission has focused a lot of its support on Hispanic youth, as most of Idaho’s Hispanic population is made up of children and young adults. In 2021, 39% of Idaho Hispanics were under the age of 20, according to data from the commission. Through outreach and events, the commission encourages youth to break generational cycles, pursue post-secondary education and take on leadership roles in their communities.

Over the decades, Gonzalez became a well-known and trusted source within Idaho’s Hispanic community, becoming what colleagues described as the “eyes and ears” of Idaho’s Hispanic population, or even “la madrina,” or godmother.

Gonzalez said her decision to retire is bittersweet, but it is one made with the future in mind.

“I probably could have been here another five or 10 years, but I want young people to step up to these positions,” she said. “I want them to carry on the work that we’ve done.”

From humble beginnings to a trusted source among Idaho’s Hispanic community

Before working at the commission, Gonzalez’s career focused on early childhood programs – a career largely inspired by her father’s illiteracy.

Born and raised in Washington, Gonzalez’ mother was from Texas and her father from Mexico. As one of 10 children vying for attention from her father, Gonzalez as a child would teach her father how to write his name after he got off of work.

As her parents would migrate for seasonal farmwork, there were times where she lived with her family in a train car in Washington, or in a Utah shack where sheep were kept.

“The farmer put us in this home that wasn’t a home,” she said. “It was a room where they kept the sheep so my dad and mom could work for him. When it was snowing in Utah, my mom would put our underclothes in the holes of the shack so the snow wouldn’t come into the room.”

“Margie has been instrumental in fostering success for Hispanic communities all throughout Idaho. On behalf of the State of Idaho, I want to thank her for her decades of dedicated work for Hispanic Idahoans and wish her all the best in her retirement.” – Idaho Gov. Brad Little

Despite those hardships, Gonzalez moved to Idaho in the ‘70s to attend Boise State University, eventually becoming the executive director of the commission.

Under Gonzalez’ leadership, the commission traveled to every county on rotation meeting with local governments, schools and law enforcement to advocate for the Hispanic community.

Looking back, Gonzalez said she is most proud of the outreach she has done to meet Idaho’s Hispanic families and understand the issues they are facing.

“That’s been the best thing in my career, eating tacos and visiting with our families, letting them know that I’m always going to fight for them,” Gonzalez said. “Letting them know that they have a voice with me.”

A compassionate and committed leader

Lymaris Ortiz Perez, the administrative assistant of the commission, has worked alongside Gonzalez for 21 years. A highlight of the job has been seeing Gonzalez consistently engage with Idaho’s Hispanic community.

“She actively listens to concerns and diligently seeks resources to address the anxieties of the Hispanic population … providing them with valuable information,” Ortiz Perez told the Sun. “In her role as a director, it is often challenging to find a leader who exemplifies compassion; nevertheless, she has consistently demonstrated this attribute at the commission.”

Ed Moreno, an officer with the Boise Police Department and liaison for the Hispanic community, met Gonzalez in 2011. Moreno eventually started assisting with the commission’s Hispanic Youth Leadership Summits, the largest gatherings of Latinos in Idaho where millions of dollars of scholarships have been given away to Hispanic students in Idaho since 2005.

Moreno, who encouraged Latino high school students at the summits to pursue careers in law enforcement, said he’ll always remember Gonzalez’s engagement with Hispanic communities.

“She is essentially the eyes and ears of the community,” he said. “There could be a group in Haley that is maybe from Peru, or a group in eastern Idaho that’s from Colombia. But they all seem to know Margie.”

One of those impacted by Gonzalez’s work is Luis Carrillo-Rodriguez, now a university recruiter for the Idaho National Laboratory. He first met Gonzalez as a college student when he attended one of the commission’s education summits. As a young student from Rigby, he said he had never seen so many Latino leaders in his life.

“I was just so inspired,” Carrillo-Rodriguez told the Sun.

He later interned for the commission and has stayed in touch with Gonzalez ever since.

“I think about Margie retiring, and it’s up to the next generation of folks that she’s poured into… to mentor other young Hispanic leaders and help us navigate and persevere through this climate,” he said. “I will always applaud and give my respect to her because I don’t know all the battles she had to fight just to keep the commission alive.”

Retirement, and time to heal

For now, Gonzalez’s position remains vacant. As bittersweet as it is to leave the commission, she said the decision primarily came after losing two family members and her close colleague J.J. Saldaña in 2023. Saldaña was the co-founder of the commission’s youth leadership summits, and he worked for the agency for nearly 24 years, making connections with the Hispanic community and offering them resources to help them.

“Within 30 days, I had lost them all, and I thought I could survive,” Gonzalez said. “But months later I lost J.J., and I realized that God was telling me it was time for me to move on to do some healing.”

Leading the commission wasn’t always easy, she told the Sun. She faced many tense discussions with law enforcement and educators, as well as a yearly battle to secure funding for the agency. Still, she said she hopes her impact will be remembered through the lives she touched.

“My heart was always in it for our people. Always,” Gonzalez told the Sun. “I would have done anything to help a family, and I hope families remember me and say ‘because of her, I was able to do this or do that.’”

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[1] Url: https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/02/10/idaho-hispanic-commission-director-retires-after-28-years-with-agency/

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