'A dream come true'

An Albuquerque grandmother and educator with a penchant for community organizing electrified Denver's Invesco Field crowd.

Albuquerque native Teresa Brito-Asenap spoke at Invesco Field last Thursday night in the final run-up to Barack Obama's presidential nomination acceptance speech. (Photos by David Alire Garcia)

ALBUQUERQUE -- Teresa Brito-Asenap was New Mexico’s surprise motivational speaker in the final minutes leading up to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last Thursday night.

But lost in much of the coverage of the speech by the newly minted Democratic presidential nominee -- before a crowd of about 84,000 in person and some 38 million more watching on TV -- was a telling bit of campaign strategy.

The historic event was also a historic organizing opportunity. That wasn’t lost on Brito-Asenap, a long-time educator and South Valley native who’s currently the director of the Albuquerque Public Schools Center for Extended Learning. That’s because she also happened to serve as a leader with Albuquerque Interfaith, perhaps New Mexico’s most effective community organizing outfit, for over a dozen years.

“When I got involved with the campaign several weeks ago, I started doing the things I know best: organizing people and listening to their stories,” Brito-Asenap told the Independent in an interview on her way back to Albuquerque. In her two minute, fifteen second speech, she emphasized her own story as a way to highlight two of Obama’s education initiatives – and to organize support for them.

“Barack Obama will invest $10 billion a year in early education funding and give any student who wants to go to college a $4,000 tax credit. That's the change we need and the change Barack Obama will bring as president of the United States,” she half-shouted to boisterous applause and furious flag-waving among the stadium crowd.

It was the culmination of a sudden brush with the Obama campaign, one that she believes began the week before when she was took part in a women’s town hall meeting with Obama held at Albuquerque’s downtown public library. At the forum she weaved in her own biography – granddaughter of an illiterate grandmother who would go on to earn a PhD in education – to a question she posed to Obama.

“I believe that is what caught the campaign’s attention and as a result I started being vetted and was offered this opportunity,” she explained. “And I took it in a heartbeat!”

She describes her participation in the historic event as “an incredible opportunity” and “a dream come true,” and goes on to note with pride that Obama “laid out his speech with each of our stories,” referring to her story and the other four speakers from around the country who were selected to tell their stories late in the program.

Brito-Asenap insists that she wrote her own speech and that the Obama campaign only edited it down to fit the allotted time slot. Brito-Asenap credits the ease with which she delivered the speech to Obama campaign staffer Michael Sheehan – “It’s my understanding that he’s prepared speakers since the early 70s,” she said. But she also credits something even more basic.

“The reason I did so well is because everything I said I believed in,” she emphasized. “I was excited because I was talking about the things that mean the most to me.” Specifically, she’s referring to the many years in the trenches she’s spent pushing for education reform, especially expanded early childhood education.

“I have spent the last 20 years trying to advocate for what we have know scientifically, that the early years are the most important years in a child’s life,” she said. “And all of the sudden we’re going to have a president who know the importance this!”

Instantly, Brito-Asenap’s mind turns back to organizing and she finds another reason to praise Obama.

“This man has never forgotten his organizing days and it’s those skills that can really change a country that is so desperately in need of change!”

Several days removed from the big night, the enthusiasm in her voice is unmistakable.

And for the grandmother who was initially a Hillary Clinton supporter earlier in the year, it appears the emotional high that swept her up late last week has yet to subside. Not even close.

“Everything’s still a muddle,” she said. “This was just an exceptional thing in my life. It’s not everyday that you get asked to speak in front of so many thousands or even millions of people.”

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