Packing a punch

A local survivor of domestic violence is teaching Chicago women self defense while pursuing her MMA dreams

By Isabella Russomanno

Valerie Sanchez teaches a self defense seminar at Valle Flow Striking in Bensenville, Illinois, on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. The seminar was hosted in collaboration with the It Ends With Us Movement against domestic violence. (Photo by Isabella Russomanno)

Valerie Sanchez carries many titles: entrepreneur, kickboxing instructor, first-generation Mexican-American, DePaul University alumna. Alongside running her self-defense business — Tequihua Self Defense — she is training to add “mixed martial arts champion” to that list.

Sanchez trains two to three times a day, seven days a week: “Training can be tough, but there’s a lot that I feel like I’m representing, a lot that women are representing.”

Her martial arts journey began as a response to the struggles with domestic violence in her family growing up. Sanchez was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood, Illinois, and is a daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Sanchez said the relationship between her parents was highly unstable and ended in divorce. When she was nine years old, her mom, Ana, put her in taekwondo classes to help distract her from the situation.

Ana said she "always loved fighting," but did not have the resources to pursue it herself while in Mexico. Valerie began competing at the state and national level, earning her second-degree black belt in taekwondo along the way.

"My first love was taekwondo, and it taught me a lot about respect, about discipline, about being considerate of others, and just being a decent human being," the younger Sanchez said, adding that it helped her focus on "creating the opportunities for myself in the world, not just waiting for someone to hand them to me."

She kept up with martial arts until high school when she wanted to take a break to play "normal sports."

Ten-year-old Valerie Sanchez holds up a broken piece of wood at a martial arts competition in 2011. Sanchez grew up competing in taekwondo and jiu-jitsu. (Provided by Valerie Sanchez)

But when tragedy struck, Sanchez soon realized she needed the sport more than ever before. Two days after her birthday in 2016, one of Sanchez's childhood best friends, Amy, took her own life. Sanchez said she did not know Amy was struggling so deeply.

(Listen to the audio to hear Valerie speak about Amy's impact on her life.)

Sanchez then turned to muay thai, a type of kickboxing, to grapple with the unexpected loss.

"I just started realizing how healing martial arts was all along," she said. "Through Amy, through my parents, through the stuff that I went through at school: it was still and it always has been that place where I felt 100% better."

Building "Tequihua Self Defense"

Sanchez says all women in her family have been victims of domestic violence, which inspired her to use her martial arts skills to empower and teach women ways to defend themselves.

As a student at DePaul, she put that idea into practice by teaching free self-defense classes at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center. At the end of her senior year in 2024, Sanchez's idea for her "Tequihua Self Defense" business won first place in the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center's "Purpose Pitch" prize.

"Tequihua" is a word from the ancient language of Nahuatl, historically from the Aztec Empire, describing a type of "courageous warrior."

Today, Valerie travels Chicagoland to lead workshops blending martial arts techniques and self-defense strategies.

Valerie Sanchez smiles while training at Benjilany Striking gym in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Sanchez trains two to three times a day, seven days a week. (Photo by Isabella Russomanno)

"Tequihua feels like something I am meant to do, something that I feel like I was born to do."

Sanchez says she tries to honor her ancestors in all she does.

"I feel like they've been waiting for someone to wake up, and speak about them and let their presence be known."

Her logo was designed in accordance with the historical garb that traditional "tequihuas" wore in the Aztec Empire, but it features a woman instead of a male figure.

Credit: Pablo Lagunas, UIC Architecture Graduate Student

Credit: Pablo Lagunas, UIC Architecture Graduate Student

Valerie Sanchez trains at Benjilany Striking gym in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. She won this pair of silver gloves at her last fighting match, which took place in 2024. (Photo by Isabella Russomanno)

On the road to the cage

Sanchez has been training at Valle Flow Striking, a professional MMA gym in Bensenville, Illinois, adjacent to O'Hare International Airport, since the pandemic. One of her coaches, Alberto Rodriguez — also a DePaul alum — said he thought Valerie had a lot of potential and has seen her grow over the course of her training. "Her confidence as a competitor is night and day," he said.

Having grown up in what he called a "gang-infested" neighborhood on the West Side, Rodriguez said he relates to Valerie using martial arts to heal. "Martial arts does help everyone from all walks of life," Rodriguez said. "It gives you community, it teaches you a lot about yourself. It makes you very honest, to get a very introspective look into who you are. It's unfiltered and raw."

'Abundance mentality'

As she continues to balance entrepreneurship and the pursuit of her professional fighting dreams, Sanchez says she maintains an "abundance mentality."

"I'm so grateful for everything that I have," she said. "Shit's not perfect, but we're getting there, and we're making it happen, slowly but surely."

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