In Chelsea, a political star in the making

Merlin Pena is a resource specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital clinic in Chelsea. Next year, she could be vice president of El Salvador.

Pena, 51, is known in Chelsea, where she lives, for her community activism and advocacy for immigrants' rights. But she is also a low-key semi-celebrity, recognized by a worldwide network, while president of Salvadorans in the World, for her ambassador-type work between Salvadoran political leaders and the emigrants who support much of that country's economy.

This reputation is what led the Christian Democratic Party to tap Pena to complete the presidential ticket alongside Carlos Rivas Zamora, the mayor of San Salvador. At first, Pena wasn't so sure about the offer.

"I've purposely never been a member of a political party," said Pena, who fled from a violent civil war in El Salvador in 1980. "My party is the Salvadoran community. That's what I told the Christian Democratic Party when they called. I've always been neutral."

But when party leaders told her it was her community service that convinced them she was the right candidate, and that they would let her come up with her own platform, Pena said she was persuaded. She said a little divine intervention may have also played a role in her decision.

"A friend of mine told me two years ago she dreamt that my name would be circulating among presidential political circles, but I thought she was joking," Pena said. "But in my prayers, I would ask God, after thanking him for my family, my job and everything he's given me, to open the doors for me to better serve my community. . . . When I got the phone call, I thought this was all I was asking God for."

She plans to start campaigning in El Salvador next month, and will return to Chelsea if the party loses.

As the first president of Salvadorans in the World, a group she no longer belongs to, Pena continued to build political connections and advocated to improve relations between El Salvador and its emigrants. For years, one of her main goals has been to have her country extend voting and social rights to Salvadorans living outside El Salvador and to see them as more than "just remittance." The presidential election in El Salvador is scheduled to take place March 15.

Friends of Pena, including Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, are not surprised at this turn of events in her life.

"She's been a great asset, advocate, and partner as we try to reach out to one of our largest immigrant populations in Somerville," Curtatone said.

Published in the Boston Globe 30/12/2008

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