Marta Sanchez Soler – Mexican Activist

As a sociologist, Marta Sanchez Soler is the President of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (MMM). Ever since 2006, the MMM takes a caravan to the United States, comprised of mothers who are looking for their children that disappeared going there.

Soler was born in France to refugees that were fleeing from Fascist Spain but was raised in Mexico. She went to San Diego State University of California where she obtained a degree in social science.

At the start of her career, Soler worked in a marginalized area of Southern California as a teacher. Then went on to defend the rights of marginalized people and implemented the Memorando de Entendimiento Sobre Educación de Adultos, which is a memorandum on Understanding Adult Education.

In 2016, Sanchez Soler went to the North American Leader’s Summit with three other activists to urge the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States to deal with the issues of disappearance, detention, and torture. These issues have plagued many places throughout Mexico in the last decade after the War of Drugs was declared.

At the age of 75-years-old, Soler shows no signs of slowing down, as she is still leading the MMM every year in hopes of finding another person. It is all worth it, Soler states, as every single person we find means that another family no longer has to suffer.

The feminine name Marta is a cognate of Martha that is taken from the Aramaic word marta that means “the lady” or “the mistress”, which is the female version of mar that means “master”. The name did not become popular until after the Protestant Reformation in England.