Colorado business owner from El Salvador sees civic service in her Aurora community as a gift

Editor's note: The 2025 Global Fest festival will take place on Saturday,  June 14.

Aurora bills itself as "The World in a City", with one in five of its residents born outside the U.S.

Thousands of Aurorans hail from El Salvador.

Ivania Ortega is a leader of the Salvadoran community working to engage neighbors to improve the quality of life for everyone. 

She immigrated to the U.S. in 1985 and arrived in Aurora in 2007.

Ortega said, "The country gives us a lot of opportunities, but if we work together we can make this country better too."

She says she can't imagine not being engaged in civic life.  Ortega volunteers as a chaplain with the police department and regularly takes part in Aurora immigrant affairs.

She also operates her own beauty salon and barber shop.

"It's a good place to live and we can make it better if we try to work on the trust and that communication between government and people," said Ortega. 

Nowadays Salvadorans in Aurora have the comfort of visiting their Consulate, to get birth certificates, passports and other important documents.

Ortega helped bring the office here - she took Aurora city leaders to her home country to better understand the needs of Salvadorans here.

"It's very important that I help other people create their own business," she said.

Ortega jokes when asked about the American dream, 'Who has time to sleep let alone dream when you have to work so hard in this country!'"

"I have my own business. I work with the community, so that's my American dream," she added.

Ortega loves Aurora's rich diversity.  She says learning other peoples traditions enriches her.

"Makes me more human, because it makes me understand more about cultures about people and how did I have to treat them, talk to them," she said.

Ortega has survived multiple episodes of cancer and says it's given her a new perspective on life and the gift of good health. "To learn why you have that, it's not only to have money it's not only to have things, is to share with people what you have, it's a gift," Ortega said.