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    Archbishop Weisenburger calls Catholics to be witnesses of hope for immigrants

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    The 7th Annual Talentos Latinos Awards Honor Latino Community Leaders Across Michigan

    The 7th Annual Talentos Latinos Awards Honor Latino Community Leaders Across Michigan

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    “SWFest” to Showcase Local Sound for Fifth Year at Senate Theater

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U-M Alum Manny Martinez says it’s “breathtaking” to be a part of the Michigan Central Station transformation

EL CENTRAL by EL CENTRAL
April 3, 2023
in Community, Español, Featured, Local News, People
Reading Time: 7 mins read
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  • Rick Haglund, Special to Michigan News
  • Scott Soderberg, Michigan Photography
  • March 30, 2023
Español Abajo

As a kid growing up in southwest Detroit, Manuel “Manny” Martinez spent many days playing paintball in the hulking, long-abandoned Michigan Central Station.

Today, the University of Michigan graduate is performing a key role in the $1 billion train station restoration being undertaken by Ford Motor Co. He’s the on-site project superintendent for Christman-Brinker, a construction company joint venture transforming the building into a major office center for Ford and other mobility-focused companies.

About 5,000 workers are eventually expected to fill the building and surrounding 30-acre mobility and innovation campus.

 

“Playing paintball in the building was the knucklehead side of Manny,” he said. “Now I walk around with a toothbrush and where I see paintball marks, I wash them off.”

Martinez has three degrees from U-M; a bachelor’s degree in architecture, and master’s degrees in architecture and civil engineering that he completed in 2015.

The benefits of education were drilled into him at a young age by his parents who moved their family here from the Dominican Republic when Martinez was in elementary school.

“They gave up everything just for us to come here and educate ourselves,” he said.

But although he was a good student, Martinez didn’t see himself as college material. That was in part because he was taught to work to pay for whatever he wanted. Going to college would delay his ability to earn a living, Martinez believed. Plus, many of his friends had no college aspirations.

Martinez’s mindset was changed, though, in middle school after meeting the late Tyrone Winfrey Sr, who worked in outreach for U-M in Detroit at the time.

“He told me that’s what your parents came here for, so you could get an education,” Martinez said. “He said, ‘You’re going to continue that.’ I wasn’t aware I was capable of that. He was an angel, to say the least, for us Detroiters.”

Martinez had planned, at Winfrey’s suggestion, to enter the military as an officer following graduation. But he was dissuaded from doing so by his mother, who feared losing her only son to the raging Afghanistan war.

As he progressed in his engineering and architectural studies, Martinez said he developed a passion for rebuilding Detroit. The history of the Michigan Central Station was even a part of his curriculum.

But Martinez first worked on several assignments outside Detroit before immersing himself in the city. One of them was the renovation of the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Havana.

“It was a unique project, one of the first interactions the United States had with Cuba in working on a project together,” he said. “I pretty much ran that project.”

Martinez has been working at the Michigan Central Station for the past three-and-a-half years, leading a 23-person project team that manages hundreds of construction workers. The project, which Ford announced in 2018, is expected to be finished next year.

“Being able to work on an iconic building that’s a historical landmark on a daily basis in my own community is the most exciting part of the job,” said Martinez, who lives in southwest Detroit. “The beauty behind it is that it’s going to create a ton of jobs. I see this as breathtaking. I’m fortunate to be doing this.”

Exalumno de U-M Manny Martinez dice que es "impresionante" ser parte de la transformación de la Estación Central de Michigan

De niño en el suroeste de Detroit, Manuel “Manny” Martínez pasaba muchos días jugando al paintball en la descomunal y abandonada Estación Central de Michigan.

Hoy, este graduado de la Universidad de Michigan desempeña un papel clave en la restauración de la estación del tren de 1.000 millones de dólares, que está llevando a cabo la empresa Ford Motor Company. Es el superintendente de construcción del proyecto en Christman-Brinker, una empresa conjunta de construcción que está transformando el edificio en un gran centro de oficinas para Ford y otras empresas de transporte.

Se espera que unos 5.000 trabajadores usen el edificio, junto con los 30 acres circundantes que lo rodean y el Edificio de Innovación.

“Jugar al paintball en el edificio demostraba el lado más loco de Manny… ahora voy por ahí con un cepillo de dientes y donde veo marcas de paintball, las limpio“ comentó Martínez, quien tiene tres títulos de la U-M; una Licenciatura en Arquitectura y Maestrías en Arquitectura e Ingeniería Civil, que culminó en el año 2015.

Los beneficios de la educación fueron inculcados en él, a temprana edad por sus padres, quienes se trasladaron con su familia a Detroit desde la República Dominicana, cuando Martínez estaba en la primaria. “Renunciaron a todo para que pudiéramos venir aquí y educarnos”, afirma.

Pero, aunque él era un buen estudiante, Martínez no se sentía capaz de llevar a cabo, estudios universitarios. En parte porque le inculcaron que debía trabajar, para pagar lo que quisiera. Martínez creía que ir a la universidad retrasaría su capacidad para ganarse la vida. Además, muchos de sus amigos no tenían aspiraciones universitarias.

Sin embargo, la mentalidad de Martínez cambió en la secundaria tras conocer al difunto Tyrone Winfrey Sr., quien, en ese entonces, trabajaba en la oficina de divulgación, para la Universidad de Michigan en Detroit.
“Me dijo que para eso habían venido mis padres, para que pudiera recibir educación… y agregó “vas a continuar con eso”, yo no era consciente de que podía lograrlo. Fue un ángel, por no decir otra cosa, para nosotros los de Detroit”, cuenta Martínez.

Martínez había planeado, por sugerencia de Winfrey, ingresar en el ejército como oficial, tras su graduación. Pero su madre, que temía perder a su único hijo en la guerra de Afganistán, le desaconsejó hacerlo.

A medida que avanzaba en sus estudios de ingeniería y arquitectura, Martínez se dio cuenta de que le apasionaba reconstruir la ciudad de Detroit. La historia de la Estación Central de Michigan formaba parte incluso de su plan de estudios.

Pero Martínez trabajó primero en varias asignaciones laborales, fuera de Detroit antes de sumergirse en la ciudad. Uno de ellos fue la renovación del Museo Ernest Hemingway en La Habana, Cuba.
“Fue un proyecto único, una de las primeras interacciones que tuvo Estados Unidos con Cuba, al trabajar juntos”, explica. “Yo prácticamente dirigí ese proyecto”.

Martínez ha trabajado en la Estación Central de Michigan durante los últimos tres años y medio, encabezando un proyecto, con un equipo de 23 personas que dirige a cientos de trabajadores de la construcción. Se espera que el proyecto, que Ford anunció en el año 2018, termine el próximo año.

“Poder trabajar en un edificio icónico, que es un hito histórico a diario en mi propia comunidad es la parte más emocionante del trabajo”, dijo Martínez, que vive en el Suroeste de Detroit. “Lo mejor de todo es que va a crear un montón de puestos de trabajo. Me parece impresionante. Me siento afortunado de hacer esto”.

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