Often the person whose face is the most familiar is the one who is unsung.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

Often the person whose face is the most familiar is the one who is unsung. That is certainly the case with Maria Acosta, assistant administrative director of The Welcome Center.

Though she is known throughout the community as the first person people see when they visit The Welcome Center, director Liliana Silvestry and outreach coordinator George Thomas receive the majority of the recognition. The praise given to them certainly is warranted, but Acosta does her job everyday as well, and without any fanfare.

Acosta answers the phone and does secretarial work for The Welcome Center, but that is only part of the story.

"I am face to face with people everyday," she said.

The biggest issue she currently deals with is housing, she said. People come to her with their housing needs and she calls landlords who are advertising in the paper to get lease or rental specifics. So far she has been successful in finding homes in Austin for about 200 families.

Some landlords have brought applications into The Welcome Center so that people can fill them out before they meet a landlord. She has helped first-time, Spanish-speaking homebuyers find opportunities to purchase homes with the assistance of real estate agent Jerry Wolesky. Acosta reports she knows of at least 10 clients of The Welcome Center who are interested in buying a house.

Acosta has been so inspired by the successes she has had in apartment and home finding that she wants to take a real estate course in the future.

There are a variety of categories in which Acosta has helped people, including: school registrations, income taxes, insurance claims and dealings with law enforcement. Basically any area in which people must deal with a business or agency in Austin, Acosta is there to help.

During bad weather, Acosta has helped to get the word out about school closings and to inform Spanish-speaking citizens of the specifics of snow emergency laws.

"There were so many cars being towed," she said, "but I think we pretty well informed them."

She has translated a CPR class into Spanish for one individual so he could be certified. Now that individual can give classes to certify other people, she said.

Acosta is honest and blunt with people who visit her at The Welcome Center.

"I tell them, ‘You’re gonna have to learn English,’" she said. "There can’t always be a language barrier." She said she sends clients to an English-as-a-second-language course.

She would like to create a closer community with the women she comes in contact with on a daily basis. To that end, she plans to start circles of women who will meet and do things in the community, things that are of interest to them.

Of other circles in her future – community circles which will come from the recent town hall meeting where she sat as a panelist – Acosta is very pleased with the response thus far. She said the number of attendees was so great, some people left because they didn’t get a seat. She is ready for the diversity discussion to expand to smaller gatherings, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, she said.

Born and raised in Texas to a Hispanic father and German mother, Acosta is trilingual. Her father, Angelberto, met her mother, Anneliese, while in the service in Germany during World War II. They married when her mother was 16 years old and came to the United States when Anneliese was 18. Anneliese did not return to Germany until at least 20 years after she moved to the United States. Now, Anneliese and Angelberto try to visit Germany more often, Acosta said.

Acosta knows of language barriers first-hand. Her mother was fluent in German when she arrived in America and learned Spanish before tackling English. Acosta joked that her parents would speak in German when they were saying something they didn’t want the children to hear.

"She is a wonderful person and I love her and miss her totally," Acosta said of her mother. Acosta plans to bring her mother to Austin for the Fourth of July.

Angelberto is a prominent businessman who owns his own glass company in Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. He installs glass in homes, cars and businesses.

Together they had six daughters and one son, who is the baby of the family. All of the family, except for Acosta, live in Texas.

"They all want me to come back home," she said before laughing.

Because her mother was German, Acosta said she "had a totally different upbringing" than just a "regular Hispanic" upbringing. "The cooking was totally different," she said.

While in Texas, Acosta worked in the field of cardiology for home health. But she could not live on the pay she received.

She came to Austin five years ago, after bring hired by Quality Pork Processing. QPP is where she gained her experience in helping people, since sometimes she was called on to translate for employees and her employer.

She worked there for three years and though she found the work stressful and hard, she said, "I think it is a fantastic company." She cited the strong spirit of teamwork and good money as reasons she was able to survive in Austin when she first moved to the area.

Her son, Ricky, will be moving to Austin soon to work for QPP. Daughter Jennifer and Acosta’s grandchild live in Austin and she helps people in the community as well, with transportation and wherever she is needed, Acosta said. Another son, Angel, attends Ellis Middle School.

Of those she has met while at The Welcome Center, Acosta said, "I welcome them with open arms. I treat everyone the same. People come to look up to me. I’m happy to say I have helped a lot of people while being here."

Call Kevira Mertha at 434-2233 or e-mail her at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.