She drives a yellow Chevrolet Camaro with black borders, known worldwide thanks to the Autobot Bumblebee of the saga Transformers, Hélène Martinez dedicates an immoderate passion to beautiful American cars, which she made a respected and flourishing affair with her companion, and did not disdain, a few years ago, racing Europe to make roast its over-vitamin dragster on circuit at nearly 300 km / h.
Aged 50, she is one of the new faces of the territory’s mayors’ paddock. His stable of renewal did not slip, on March 15, during the first round of municipal elections, on the road leading to the town hall of Sainte-Geneviève-lès-Gasny. Party to conquer the village of 670 inhabitants, which she wants « breathe new life », the list of the new mayor has indeed won all of the 15 seats to be filled within the municipal council, thus ending the mandate of Marcel Beny, in office since 2008.
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Driving a thriving garage
Almost unknown in Sainte-Geneviève-lès-Gasny before launching its « field and door-to-door campaign » last December, Hélèna Martinez is not anonymous for the regulars of the Pacific Garage, rue Jules-Soret, in Vernon, where the beautiful mechanics of the country of Uncle Sam have been scrolling for twenty-five years to be restored and resold . A family business that she runs with passion with her companion Christian Mazure, « my campaign manager and also a city councilor in Sainte-Geneviève-lès-Gasny now ».
It was in Bois-Colombes (92), in the very outskirts of Paris, that the first chapter of life at 100 hours was written for this descendant of Spanish immigrants from Alicante, who came to take refuge in France to flee the civil war. Daughter of a foreman employed at the City of Bois-Colombes, « my mother was a stay-at-home mom », Hélèna Martinez left the family cocoon before she even came of age to fully experience her love story with Christian Mazure. At the time, she already became a vegetarian, ” shocked by what she had seen slaughterhouses ».
The couple first put their suitcases in Verneuil-sur-Avre, where the future mayor of Geneva, after a last year on the benches of the Dumézil high school in Vernon and his BTS accounting in pocket, will work three years in the service of the staff of the municipality.
The Pacific Garage adventure began in 1995. At the time, the Internet was not there. Good deals and beautiful American, it is on the other side of the Atlantic that you have to go get them. This quest for mechanical treasures has only increased the couple’s passion for the United States, with a preference for large arid spaces. from Arizona and Nevada ».
Before settling in Sainte-Geniève-lès-Gasny, fifteen years ago now, the couple will live for a long time in an apartment located above the garage, where their only son spent the first years of his life.
Over the next six years, with her team, Hélèna Martinez, who defines herself « as a workaholic », wants to revive a village life, « become a dorm », and the associative fabric, watch over the most fragile, create an intergenerational link and carry out different projects (continuation of burial of networks; opening of an associative local business …) « in consultation and consultation with residents ». « They pay taxes, observes the chosen one. It is not to do nothing. We are supporters of participatory democracy. We will notably set up a suggestion box to move the village forward, modestly. We don’t want to disappoint those who trusted us. »
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