Background

Demetria Martinez was born on July 10, 1960, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Theodore and Dolores (Jaramillo) Martinez.

Education

Martinez grew up as a shy and somewhat overweight girl, but at the age of fifteen, she began to keep a journal of her thoughts. She excelled in high school and left her native New Mexico for an Ivy League education. In 1982, she graduated from Princeton University's prestigious Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a B.A. in public affairs.

Career

For six years, Martínez was involved with the Sagrada Art School, a community of artists in Albuquerque that nurtured her own creativity. In 1987, she published her first collection of poems. Turning Little did she realize that the acclaim she would receive as a fresh new voice in Chicano literature would bring unwarranted scrutiny and federal prosecution. Just one year after the publication of Turning Martinez was indicted for allegedly smuggling two Salvadoran immigrants into the United States as part of the Sanctuary Movement, a group dedicated to providing refuge to Salvadorans eager to escape the chaos of civil war that plagues their homeland.

The US attorney went so far as to use one of her poems, "Nativity, for Two Salvadorian Women", as evidence of her guilt. Martinez is one of the few people in the United States to be indicted for a crime based on her fictional writings. Martinez soon felt as though the United States had gone back to the 1950s when McCarthyism and red-baiting had reached their zenith. However, she was acquitted on all charges on First Amendment grounds - that is, her writings were inadmissible as evidence. Yet the stigma of her indictment remains.

Although she is a major Latina writer, she has remained relatively unknown until the last few years. Demetria Martinez continues to fight for social justice as a journalist, creative writer, and citizen. She has worked as a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, a progressive newsletter. Attending a Chicano poetry festival in Chicago, Martínez was inspired by a reading given by Sandra Cisneros to write her first novel, Mother Tongue. Her best-known work, Mother Tongue was published in 1997 and received the Western States Award in Fiction. That same year, she published her second collection of poetry, Breathing between the Lines.

In 2002, she published The Devis Workshop. Her poetry combines a passion for social justice with gentle plays of irony and warmth. The poem "First Things" in the literary journal Ploughshares offers a sample of her unique voice. Demetria Martinez continues to experiment as a creative writer and is active in various writing workshops. She teaches at the annual writing workshop at the University of Massachusetts Boston. A resident of Albuquerque, her childhood home, Demetria Martinez is active in Erlace Comunitario, a group dedicated to protecting the rights of Spanish-speaking victims of domestic abuse.

Achievements

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  Demetria Martinez is an award-winning writer. Among her most important works are the poetry volume Breathing between the Lines: Poems and a critically acclaimed novel, Mother Tongue.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Mother Tongue
  • Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry
  • The Block Captain's Daughter
  • These People Want to Work: Immigration Reform
  • The Devil's Workshop: Poems
  • Confessions Of A Berlitz-tape Chicana
  • Lengua Madre/Mother Tongue
  • Breathing Between the Lines: Poems

Views

Quotations: "Life is too short to work at a job that requires hose, heels, and forty hours a week. Why settle for a career when one might have a calling."

Connections

Father:

Theodore Martinez

Mother:

Dolores (Jaramillo) Martinez

References

• Notable Hispanic American Women