AURORA | For Viviana Martinez, teaching has never been just about helping her students learn Spanish or English.

It’s about helping young people understand who they are, where they come from and what responsibilities come with opportunities.

Her philosophy is simple.

“Passing the good on,” Viviana said in an interview last week with the Sentinel. “Not one of us got where we are alone.”

That credo has shaped nearly two decades in education and helped earn the Aurora Public Schools Vista Peak Preparatory educator recognition as a 2026 Colorado Teacher of the Year semifinalist. 

Every opportunity in her own life, Viviana said, came because someone invested time, encouragement and belief in her.

“My parents, teachers, family members, mentors and friends opened doors for me,” she said. “Education opens doors, but when doors are open, we have the responsibility to hold them open for someone else.”

That belief defines her classroom, Viviana and those who’ve been there say.

Viviana teaches Spanish and history, but her lessons extend well beyond conjugating verbs and pondering idioms. Students are challenged to discover their own talents, embrace their family histories and use their talents in service to others.

“The goal is not simply to create successful students,” Viviana said. “The goal is to create those leaders that we need who lift others after them.”

Her principal described her approach as one that “seamlessly weaves together academic rigor, cultural advocacy and systemic leadership.”

Those are some big words for what others might call leading by example.

“Viviana does not simply teach Spanish; she builds bridges of identity and opportunity for the next generation of Colorado’s leaders,” the nomination letter states.

Those bridges extend throughout Aurora Public Schools from the 14 years she’s worked there and far into the community and region.

Viviana created the district’s only “History of Hispanics in the United States” course after students repeatedly asked questions that other classes left unanswered. Originally teaching literacy classes for Spanish-speaking students, she found herself constantly expanding discussions about language, immigration and history.

Rather than squeeze those conversations into already packed existing lessons, she designed an entirely new course.

“Knowing the past helps us understand who we are,” Viviana said. “It helps us appreciate the sacrifices of those who came before us.”

For Viviana, that history is not about celebrating one community over another. It is about telling the complete American story.

Like a journalist, her goal is accuracy, context and meaningful detail.

She reminds students that Spanish was spoken in what is now the United States centuries before the Declaration of Independence. She teaches them about military hero Macario Garcia, a Medal of Honor recipient who returned from World War II only to face ghastly discrimination in his own hometown.

Staff Sgt. Garcia was the first Mexican immigrant to receive the Medal of Honor. President Harry Truman honored Garcia for single-handedly taking out two deadly German machine-gun units while under heavy fire and at huge risk to his own life, according to the Texas State Historical Association. His bravery allowed his company to advance. Months after his award, he was refused service in a Texas cafe and was assaulted by an employee there because he was Hispanic. He became a leading force against segregation and minority discrimination.

History like that is relevant to history being made today, Viviana said.

“Hispanic history is not something that happened in the past,” she said. “It’s part of the foundation of this nation.”

That perspective carries particular significance here, where Hispanic and Latino families helped shape communities, business, agriculture, government and culture long before Colorado became a territory and ultimately the 38th state. In Aurora, the state’s most diverse city, helping students understand those facts strengthens civic understanding not only for Hispanic and Latino students but for everyone.

Viviana said every student benefits from learning a fuller, more accurate account of the past because it allows them to see both the challenges and contributions that built the country they share today.

“I hope from this classroom will come future mayors, teachers, lawyers, business owners, fathers and mothers,” she said. “People who really want to make a positive difference in their community.”

Her principal praised Viviana for creating spaces “where Hispanic students see themselves reflected in their learning” while fostering “critical thinking and civic awareness.”

The nomination also credits Viviana for work she’s done that reaches directly outside of her classroom. She founded a project called “Voces de Vista Peak,” a bilingual initiative that helps Spanish-speaking families become active in their children’s education by breaking down language and communication barriers.

She also leads Latinos in Action, where students tutor younger children and gain leadership skills and show how critical community service is for themselves and everyone.

As a teacher, however, Viviana sees language itself as deeply personal.

“Language reveals what is in your heart,” she said. “Those words should tell your story, reflect your values and help us connect with others.”

That’s what she says compels her to push students to find their own voices, in as many languages as possible, but at least two.

“Every student walks into my classroom carrying a unique set of experiences, talents, dreams and friends,” she said. “This is what I celebrate.”

Her generosity also shapes how she responds to the realities students face outside school.

She recalled one teenager who quietly completed assignments every day, even though she had recently lost both her mother and sister in a car crash.

“How can you, as a teacher, complain when you have a student in front of you with that level of resilience?” Viviana said.

Another student manages medical appointments for her family because she is the only English speaker able to communicate with doctors, pharmacies and insurance providers.

Experiences like those have taught Viviana that education cannot always follow one-size-fits-all rules, including policies such as “no phones in the classrooms.”

“You have to know who is in front of you,” she said. “Know their stories.”

She believes schools can’t be isolated from the community as much as they are, too often left to figure out answers to multiple dilemmas and crises by themselves. Schools can succeed only when educators, families, businesses, nonprofits and the broader community work together.

“Schools, community, family, business — all this is the team,” Viviana said. “When we transform one individual student, we are able to transform the entire community.”

Her principal echoed that belief, writing that Viviana sees multilingual students “not as a deficit to be corrected, but as a superpower to be harnessed.”

Although humbled by her statewide recognition, Viviana says she feels an even greater sense of pride representing Aurora. She’ll find out in September if she’s among teacher of the year finalists in Colorado. The top honor is generally announced later in the fall. But all that by no means lessens the impact of her recent honor.

“I’m the Latina who represents Aurora,” she said. “Being one of the Martinez last names, speaking Spanish as a first language, being a first- generation immigrant has made me feel so proud.”

Viviana came here from Santiago, Chile. She met her husband, Jorge, in Miami, to where he’d migrated from Peru.

“Together we have built a multicultural family,” Viviana said, which includes five children born in Florida and Colorado.

But all this kudos is just secondary to why she teaches.

The real measure of success comes every time another student discovers the confidence to walk through an open door, and then turns around to hold it open for someone else, she said.

Read more Deion Sanders says he feels like his old self a year after surgery: ‘I consider myself cancer-free’

Read more Spring Sports All-Aurora 2026: Semifinalist Regis Jesuit paces All-Aurora Boys Lacrosse Team

Read more Spring Sports All-Aurora 2026: Full Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Lacrosse Teams