Demetria Martinez is an American activist, poet, and novelist.

Early life

She was born on July 10, 1960, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

with BA from the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

. In 1988 Martinez was charged with conspiracy for allegedly transporting two Salvadoran women refugees into the US; she was working as a freelance reporter covering religion and the

Sanctuary Movement The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. The movement was a response to federal immigration policies ...

at the time. She was later acquitted of the charges. During the trial, prosecutors used Martinez's poem "Nativity, For Two Salvadoran Women" in an attempt to build a case against her, a decision Martinez has called a "major error."

Career

Martinez has been an editor for the National Catholic Review in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black

ill ILL may refer to: * ''I Love Lucy'', a landmark American television sitcom * Illorsuit Heliport (location identifier: ILL), a heliport in Illorsuit, Greenland * Institut Laue–Langevin, an internationally financed scientific facility * Interlibrar ...

, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

, since 1990. She teaches in the annual

William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conqu ...

at the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massac ...

Activism

Martinez has been associated with the

and with Enlace Comunitario, an Albuquerque-based organization that serves immigrant families experiencing domestic violence.

Awards

* International Latino Book Award for best biography (2006): ''Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana'' (

University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established ...

, 2005) *

Western States Book Award Western States Book Award honored notable works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translation written and published in the Western United States. The award was given annually from 1984 until 2002. Lifetime-achievement awards were also p ...

for fiction: ''Mother Tongue''
Ballintine
1997) * Thirteenth Annual

Chicano Literary Arts Contest Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...

(first prize: poem): "Turning"
Bilingual Press Review
1989) * American Book Award (2013)

Published works

* Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry (includes the poem "Turning"), Bilingual Press/Review (Tempe, AZ), 1989 *
MotherTongue
', Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue (Tempe, AZ), 1994, translated into Spanish by Ana Maria de la Fuente and published as Lengua madre, Seix Barral (Barcelona, Spain), 1996 *''Breathing between the Lines: Poems'', University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1997 *''The Devil's Workshop'', University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2002 *''Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana'' (Chicana and Chicano Visions of the Americas series) *''The Block Captain's Daughter'' (Chicana and Chicano Visions of the Americas series)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Demetria American women novelists Hispanic and Latino American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women poets Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni 1960 births Living people Writers from Albuquerque, New Mexico 20th-century American poets 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American Book Award winners