The Author
Demetria Martinez is an author, activist, lecturer and columnist. Her books include the widely translated novel, Mother Tongue (Ballantine), winner of a Western States Book Award for Fiction. Her autobiographical essays, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (Univ. of Oklahoma Press), won the 2006 International Latino Book Award in the category of best biography. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Breathing Between the Lines and The Devil's Workshop (Univ. of Arizona Press). "Grandpa's Magic Tortilla," a children's book Martinez co-authored with Rosalee Montoya-Read, will be released in 2010 by the University of New Mexico Press.
Mother Tongue is based in part upon Martinez's 1988 trial for conspiracy against the United States government in connection with smuggling Salvadoran refugees into the country, a charge that with others carried a 25 -year prison sentence. A religion reporter at the time, covering the faith-based Sanctuary Movement, Martinez was found not guilty on First Amendment Grounds.
Born in Albuquerque, NM in 1960, where she now resides, Martinez earned her BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She teaches at the annual June writing workshop at the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston. Martinez writes a column for the independent progressive bi-weekly, The National Catholic Reporter. She is involved with Enlace Comunitario, an immigrants' rights group which works with Spanish-speaking survivors of domestic violence.