Linda Alvarado is an example of today’s modern day Super Woman. She has revolutionized, not one, but two male-led industries. She owns her own construction company, Alvarado Construction, and is the first woman owner of a professional team, the Colorado Rockies. Those who know her say she has the power to make people laugh and bring a community together all at once.

Growing up as the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of five boys (or “the terrorists” as she jokingly calls them) in Albuquerque, NM, Alvarado who is now a very vivacious 59-years-old, was used to fighting her own battles and breaking down barrier walls as a woman.

Ever since looking for a job as a young college student, when she saw ads posted on bulletin boards for positions in food service, and the library, she chose groundskeeping.

“The guy hiring said, ‘Why are you here?,’” Alvarado remembers. “He sent me to a college adviser for counseling. I came back and asked, ‘Can you reconsider?’ and he replied, ‘You cannot understand until you do it – You’ll be lifting things and working with guys.’ I said, ‘Let me get this right…’I’ll get a tan. I get to work with all these single men, and not have to go to the gym?’ He ended up hiring me even though he thought he’d make me quit.”

That was just the start of her successful career, which was unplanned. She never thought she’d be a contractor.

After graduating college with a degree in economics and having an interest in history and anthropology, her first job was as a contract administrator with a developer. She says that at the time, there wasn’t even a restroom for women at that work site.

Read the full story at NBC Latino