'Super activist' Lisa Gonzalez is driven to 'speak up and show up' for southwest Detroit

During the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Detroiter Elizabeth “Lisa” Gonzalez lost her job, but she never lost her compassion.

After Gonzalez was laid off from her job as a play leader for the city of Detroit’s Parks and Recreation Department, to the astonishment of some of her former co-workers, she took it upon herself to deliver free lunches to children in southwest Detroit for months. She pulled off her good deed by regularly loading up to 45 lunches provided by the city of Detroit into her gray Dodge Journey, along with three crates of milk. To help her determine the families that needed lunches delivered for their children, Gonzalez provided simple instructions to parents: “Hit me up on Facebook.”

The lunch pickups, deliveries and ongoing communication with families became a routine Gonzalez repeated until the weather became too warm to store milk in her vehicle.

“If I can help anyone, I will definitely give you the shirt off my back,” said the 45-year-old Gonzalez, who lives in southwest Detroit. “I’m passionate about my community.”

When Gonzalez says she grew up in southwest Detroit, the source of her deep community passion seems easy enough to understand. But shortly afterward, Gonzalez begins to list other places where she lived before reaching adulthood, places with names like White Lake, Farmington Hills, Southfield and Taylor; and then it becomes apparent that there were other major life experiences and influences that shaped her.

“I was raised in foster homes all of my life,” explained Gonzalez, who became a ward of the state when she was 8 years old. “I’ve had a hard, hard life. But I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like, I’ve had a blessed life.”

Gonzalez says she shows appreciation for her blessings by serving southwest Detroit. And today, her community work is performed primarily through two organizations: Congress of Communities (CoC) and Detroit Champions for Hope. Gonzalez says both nonprofits demonstrate that a committed few can make a substantial impact in the community.

“We’re a little team, but we’re little and mighty,” Gonzalez, who earned an early childhood education degree from Wayne State University in 2004, said enthusiastically. She backed up her point about the two nonprofits by describing events like the Back to School rally held at Patton Park this year where backpacks and school supplies were given to roughly 400 children; and the Holiday Festival held Dec. 8 at Patton Recreation Center, which included gifts for about 300 children from toddlers to age 12.

More than just offering resources and programming, Gonzalez says CoC and Detroit Champions for Hope succeed because the nonprofits are committed daily to connecting with southwest Detroit residents, which develops much-needed trust.

“Our community knows that we work for them and care for them, and that we treat everyone in our community like family,” Gonzalez said. “When it comes to community people, I’m on call 24/7. I keep up with the residents and if someone tells me that they don’t have food, I’m going to stop what I’m doing and look for food.”

An example of Gonzalez’s statement was documented on Facebook, on Nov. 17. Messages posted between Gonzalez and a representative of Detroit PAL reveal that Gonzalez was delivering free turkeys to residents in southwest Detroit on her own time, while requesting additional free turkeys from a Detroit PAL giveaway the same day at the Corner Ballpark.

“They must have thought that I really love turkey dinners, but I’m so grateful to PAL, because with their help I was able to provide turkeys to five additional families,” said Gonzalez, who also received turkeys from two other organizations, which allowed her to take turkeys to 15 families on that day.

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Gonzalez says the day she made the turkey deliveries was just one of many special days she has experienced since connecting with CoC and Detroit Champions for Hope in 2019, an affiliation that placed her closer to the “pulse” of her community. And since that time, she has spread her wings to work with other impactful community groups, including the Mexican Patriotic Committee of Metro Detroit, which Gonzalez assisted in presenting the Miss Mexico 2022 pageant on Dec. 2 at La Terraza (8445 Vernor). Hours before the pageant, Gonzalez confessed that she was not looking forward to spending an evening in heels. But the look on her face in the photos she took with the 2022 pageant court members that were present (Jessica Arumbula, Jannay Gavia, Elizabeth Maciel and pageant winner Alexandra Velasco-Cruz) revealed undeniable pride, not discomfort.

“The young ladies that participate are our future community leaders,” Gonzalez said in reference to a pageant that provides scholarships, professional experiences and a civic platform to the winner and other participants. “Our pageant court members are all from here, but Miss Mexico also celebrates their culture, and celebrates their ancestors, and that’s very important, which makes Miss Mexico an important tradition in our community.”

When asked to define her daily work, which often connects her to a broad spectrum of community people, Gonzalez says she is an “activist.” In her next breath, she adds to that and says: “Super activist.” But Gonzalez later explained that in this instance, being “super” is a quality that can be obtained by more than a select few if a certain mindset is in place.

“I work with a team of super activists, and my mentor and boss (CoC Founder and Executive Director) Maria Anita Salinas is a super activist,” said Gonzalez, in the same excited tone as when she earlier described going shopping for children's Christmas gifts with her team before the Holiday Festival at Patton Recreation Center. “I knew her (Salinas) even before we met in 2016 because I always admired how smart she was and how much she was for the community. Being a super activist, to me, is simply someone who is always available for the residents and the community, and someone who will reach out and get help if things aren’t going right.

“It’s just about sticking up for someone and letting them know you have their back. I like to speak up and show up.”

And when Gonzalez makes her presence known on behalf of someone in need, she says she also represents the four foster mothers that helped to make her the activist and person she is today.

“They (my foster mothers) brought me up to be an independent, strong, humble, thoughtful and caring person,” said Gonzalez, who also is a proud wife, mother and grandmother to husband Juan Garcia; children: Almadelia Gonzalez (23), Annalicia Contreras (20), Benjamin Contreras (18) and Roylina Garcia (13); and 3-year-old grandson Marcell Epps.

“All of my foster mothers knew what I had gone through earlier in life, and none of them judged me. They all looked out for me. And the reason why I’m able to stick my neck out for other people today is because my foster mothers did that for me.”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Serving Southwest Detroit is an ongoing passion for Lisa Gonzalez