Angelita Santiago left Puerto Rico at age 17 and settled in North Central Massachusetts after studying nursing in New York. After taking human services courses at Fitchburg State University, she discovered a passion and affinity for teaching children.

Angelita used her gifts and language abilities to reach bilingual students and English language learners in Fitchburg Public Schools. In a Sentinel & Enterprise article from over a decade ago, Angelita attributed her sense of community calling to her upbringing, especially her mother, who used to “feed the neighborhood and take care of children who were orphaned.”

Angelita served on the Spanish American Center’s Board as Vice President, participated in the New Life Christian Church in Leominster, and helped found the Twin Cities Latino Coalition. Her community and civic sense was all-encompassing—from taking a stand against racism to helping residents vote to advocating fiercely for her students in the Fitchburg Public Schools special education program. In 2005, she received the Latino Recognition Award, and at the eighteenth annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration in 2017, she was honored for her 30-year-long career helping children and families to navigate the school system and find available resources. 

In a 2006 article with the Telegram & Gazette, Angelita described her role as a leader as “living the struggle” every day: a struggle against barriers of racism (“alive and well in North Central Massachusetts”) ignorance, and injustice that she undertook on behalf of the community. And for Angelita, giving up this struggle–the labor of a lifetime–is never an option.