Demetria Martinez


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

Early life

She was born on July 10, 1960, where she was raised by her grandmother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a graduate of Princeton University with BA from the Woodrow [Wilson School of Public and International Affairs].
In 1988, Martinez was charged with conspiracy for allegedly transporting two Salvadoran women refugees into the United States; she was working as a freelance reporter covering religion and the Sanctuary Movement 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 worked as a religion reporter for the Albuquerque Journal in August 1986.
She has been an editor for the National Catholic Review in Tucson, Arizona, since 1990, and teaches in the annual William Joiner Center for the [Study of War and Social Consequences] at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Activism

Martinez has been associated with the Sanctuary Movement and with Enlace Comunitario, an Albuquerque-based organization that serves immigrant families experiencing domestic violence.

Awards

Published works

Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry, Bilingual Press/Review, 1989