‘‘The War Cut Out My Tongue’’:
Domestic Violence, Foreign Wars, and
Translation in Demetria Martínez

by Laura Lomas


We always had a hard time getting the Atlacatl soldiers to
take prisoners instead of ears.—Visiting professor at the
School of the Americas, Newsweek, 26 January 1990
I refused to believe that what I was seeing was a pattern
of scars, the legend to the map of his life—1982, someone
had branded those numbers into his back.—Demetria
Martínez, Mother Tongue (1994)
This empire fears translation.—Amy Kaplan, presidential
address to the American Studies Association, 17 October 1983....

American Literature, Volume 78, Number 2, June 2006
DOI 10.1215/00029831-2006-006 © 2006 by Duke University Press

Copyright © 2005 Demetria Martinez. All Rights Reserved.

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Following is a partial listing of critical articles in various publications, including books, about Demetria's work. Contact her if you are interested in posting something you have written.

ARTICLES:

2006 Poblete, Juan. "Traducción, interculturalidad y formaciones lectoras:  el caso de Mother Tongue y la literatura latina en los Estados Unidos." (Interculturality and Reading Formations: The Case of Mother Tongue and Latino Literature in the USA), in Estudios (Venezuela) Click here to download PDF

2003  Bruce, Dick, "Demetria Martinez" A Poet's Truth: Conversations with Latino/ Latina Poets. (Tucson: U. of Az. Press)
 
2002  Conrad Martinez, Elizabeth. "Nuevas voces salvadorenas: Sandra Benitez y Demetria Martinez." Reflexiones ensayos sobre escrituras hispano americanas contemporaneas. Priscilla Gac-Artigas, ed. (Fair Haven: Nuevo Espacio)
 
2002  Castillo, Debra and Socorro Tabuenca. "Solidarity: Demetria Martinez" Border Women: Writing from la Frontera. (Minneapolis, University of Minn. Press)
 
2002  Ikas, Karin Rosa. "Demetria Martinez." Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers. (Reno: U. of Nevada Press)
 
2001 Argueta, Manlio  "Lengua e identidad en la novela Lengua madre, de Demetria Martinez." Istmo: revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales Centroamericanos 2 (julio-deciembre)
 
2001 Gutierrez, Muhs, Gabriella Favela."Subjectifying Entities/Emerging Subjectivities in Chicana Literature through the Literary Production of Demetria Martinez and Norma Elia Cantu: Madres, comadres, madrinas, ninas, madres, tias, abuelas y solteronas." Dissertation, Stanford University.
 
1999 Manolis, Argie J. "The Witer as Witness: An Interview with Demetria Martinez." Hayden's Ferry Review 24 (Spring/summer, Arizona State University, Tempe)
 
1999 Aguinaco, Carmen. "Creative Tension: How Latina Writers Make Sense of Two Worlds." U.S. Catholic 64:11 (Nov:34-35).
 
1998 Iversen, Kristen. "Poetry, Politics and the Drama of the Unseen: An Interview with Demetria Martinez." Bloomsbury Review 18.2 (Mar-Apr, 11-12)
 
Castillo, Debra A.  "Barbed Wire Words: Demetria Martinez's Mother Tongue." Intertexts 1.1 (Spring:8-24.)
 
1995 Martinez, Elizabeth. "In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez and Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez." The Progressive  59.7 (July:39)
 
1993  Perez, Daniel G. "La internalizacion de la voz narrativa chicana en el trabajo de Demetria Martinez." Escruitura: Revista de Teoria y Critica Literaria 18.35-36 (Jan-Dec, 133-140)

 

BOOKS:

2008 Gutierrez y Muhs, Gabriella. Communal Feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and Cultural Exile. (Lexington Press)

1995 McCracken, Ellen. New Latina Narrative: The Feminine Space of Postmodern Ethnicity. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
 
1995 Herrera-Sobek, Maria and Viramontes, Maria Elena editors. Chicana (W)rites on Word and Film. Third Woman Press, Berkeley
 
1995  Rebolledo, Tey Diana. Women Singing in the Snow: A Cultural Analysis of Chicana Literature. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.