{"id":971,"date":"2026-06-11T22:23:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kidsneedspace.com\/?p=971"},"modified":"2026-06-11T23:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:12:31","slug":"los-salvadorenos-podemos-hacer-cosas-dificiles-la-historia-de-patricia-ortiz-una-salvadorena-en-la-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kidsneedspace.com\/en\/los-salvadorenos-podemos-hacer-cosas-dificiles-la-historia-de-patricia-ortiz-una-salvadorena-en-la-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"We Salvadorans can do difficult things\u201d: the story of Patricia Ortiz, a Salvadoran woman at NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a very young age, Patricia Ortiz was clear about her dream: to work in space. Today, that girl who grew up in Los Angeles is the only Salvadoran woman leading projects at NASA in Southern California. In an interview with La Prensa Gr\u00e1fica, Ortiz recounts the effort that took her from a childhood marked by the sacrifice of her migrant mother to becoming a benchmark in aerospace engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the age of seven, Salvadoran Patricia Ortiz dreamed of reaching space; now she works behind the scenes as a space project manager and partnerships lead (acting) at the Armstrong Flight Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Ortiz at NASA facilities in Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although her goal was clear, the path was not easy at all; Patricia Ortiz told La Prensa Gr\u00e1fica<\/a> about the hard work she put in to become the only Salvadoran and Latin American woman leading NASA projects in Southern California.\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her story begins with her mother, Ana Mart\u00ednez, a Salvadoran native of Lolotique, San Miguel, who migrated<\/a> to the United States at the age of 31 in search of a better future. Mart\u00ednez worked cleaning houses to provide an education for her five children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"She (Ana Mart\u00ednez) was the first in our family to leave El Salvador. Then, when she came to Los Angeles, she didn't know anyone and had to manage all on her own\u201d<\/strong>, said Patricia Ortiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Ortiz alongside her mother, Ana Mart\u00ednez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At seven years old, Patricia dreamed of going to outer space.<\/a>Her desire was born from watching a 30-minute television program about a journey that astronaut Buzz Aldrin undertook to the Moon; and although her passion for the orbit was born at that moment, the Salvadoran admitted that she did not know how she would manage to be there someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortiz pursued her dreams, and at 18 she obtained a scholarship to study aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and she was the only woman in her class to graduate from that major.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Ortiz alongside her mother, Ana Mart\u00ednez, on her high school graduation day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Patricia Ortiz on her high school graduation day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While at the university, Patricia did several volunteer projects with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). \u201cThat organization helps those who are studying engineering or any career whether it is aerospace, chemical, or any [branch] of engineering, and they helped us reach the goals we had\u2014for instance, to go work at NASA or at big companies,\u201d Ortiz recalled<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aerospace engineer remembers that there was a competition she took part in that opened the doors to NASA. \u201cThere was a competition and I was on a company team with a professional named Rub\u00e9n, I never forget him... right when I was walking at the conference where they were going to do interviews (to apply to NASA), Rub\u00e9n recognized me and called me over. He was at the Boeing company table and asked me, \u2018Are you graduating this year?\u2019 And I told him, \u2018yes,\u2019 so he says to me, \u2018ah, okay, do you want to do an interview with the company?\u2019 And I said \u2018yes,\u2019\u201d Ortiz recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Ortiz at NASA facilities in Florida.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Patricia remembers that three senior engineers interviewed her, and if she passed, she would be employed by the Boeing company and serve as a contractor for NASA.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThey told me that the only thing I had to do was graduate in three months. I was super happy at that moment and got really focused on graduating. The job was in Texas and I lived in California, so, as soon as I graduated, I moved to Texas and started working at the Johnson Space Center,\u201d Ortiz recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n