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Talk of Arizona
Fa;ll 2015
he found himself struggling to find a job in the field, as many schools suffered budget cuts because of the recession.
Martinez wasn’t new to facing obstacles, though.
Born and raised in Marana, a town northwest of Tucson, he is one of six children. Martinez was the first of his family to attend college.
His college friend Daniel Hernandez said Marana is a conservative, rural area.
“It’s one of those places that I think would probably not have been the easiest to grow up being a gay Latino, like David,” he said. “A lot of people that live there end up spending their entire lives there…so for David to have not only gone to the University of Arizona but to have moved up to Phoenix and to be doing the kind of work he is doing is very different than most of the people who grew up in Marana.”