MaríaTeresa Martínez Maldonado was born in Caracas, Venezuela on November 2, 1963, the daughter of Teresa de Jesús Maldonado de Martínez and Joaquín MartínezCabrera; she is the oldest of four siblings. She completed her elementary and high school studies and entered the Venezuelan Army. She studied navalengineering there and had the great privilege of meeting the extraordinary woman who was Mother Teresa of Calcutta and from that moment her orientation changed to seeking to serve those least favored. She did this a few years later at the Sisters’ Congregation of the Poor in Maiquetía, (first religious Venezuelan congregation, whose founders are Mother Emilia and Father Machado). She was there 10 years; serving in nursing homes for elders, particularly in thearea of nursing, schools, and retirement homes, but she felt this was not her path. In this search, she started medical studies inthe City of Caracas always with the desire to serve and help the underprivileged. She moved to the eastern part of the country, specifically to the City of Maturínand Caripe del Guácharo, where she received a degree in General Medicine in the Bolivarian University of Venezuela and immediately she began post graduate studies in the specialty of General Medicine or Family Physician in the Institute of Higher Studies of Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldon, practicing thereafter for a period of 12 years between extremely poor communities and indigenous communities.
She is currently working in the emergency department of the Industrial Clinical Complex of Santa Cruz, in the State of Aragua, caring for communities that perform agricultural work. Maria Teresa was ordained a priest, June 2018.
Martínez-Maldonado, Maria Teresa
