photo_ursula_olivo - Gurulé Family 2024

Hello, my name is Ursula Martinez Olivo. I am a secondary teacher in Utah. I teach Art, U.S. History, and World History at an alternative high school in Salt Lake City. My educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Visual Art from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah and a Master of Education degree from the University of Utah in Educational Leadership and Policy.

Enrique Martinez is the 16th child from my grandfather’s (Jose Altagracia Martinez) second marriage. He married my grandmother, Florinda Gurulé and together they had nine children. Shortly after my grandfather’s death, Florinda and many of her children moved to Ogden, Utah during the 1950s as did many migrant workers. In my father’s own words:

“I came to Utah on July 13, 1958 having been raised in Colorado and New Mexico. I tried looking for a job when I was [nineteen] years old. I went to the employment office and it seemed that the only work they would give me was farm work or laborer.”

Here in Utah, my father met my mother, Rena Singer, a Navajo from Northern Arizona. My mother began attending Indian boarding schools at the age of 14 after her mother’s untimely death. My parents worked hard to support their family in order to provide the best possible. They raised two daughters, my sister, Sofia Elena Martinez, and myself. They also have four grandchildren: Antonio Cruz Martinez (my son); and Victoria Martinez, Olivia Gilmore, and Marcelino (Nino) Lozano.

Many cousins from the Gurulé family line still live in Utah, and others have moved even further north to Oregon and Washington state. There are four surviving children of Jose Altagracia Martinez and Florinda Gurule; at least 20 or so grandchildren between New Mexico, Washington and South Carolina; a dozen or so great-grandchildren; and a few great-great-grandchildren.