Martha Gonzalez is a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and associate professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies at Scripps/Claremont College. Born and raised in Boyle Heights Gonzalez is a MacArthur Fellow (2022), Fulbright Garcia Robles (2007-2008), Ford (2012-2013), Woodrow Wilson Fellow (206-2017) and United States Artist Fellow (2020). Her academic interests have been fueled by her own musicianship as a singer/songwriter and percussionist for Grammy Award (2013) winning band Quetzal. The relevance of Quetzal’s music and lyrics have been noted in a range of publications, from dissertations to scholarly books. Their latest recording “Puentes Sonoros” (Sonic Bridges) was released on Smithsonian Folkways in the fall of 2020. Gonzalez along with her partner Quetzal Flores has been instrumental in catalyzing the transnational dialogue between Chicanx/Latinx communities in the US and Jarocho communities in Veracruz, Mexico.
Gonzalez has also been active in implementing the collective songwriting method in correctional facilities throughout the US Most recently, and as a testament to the body of music and community work Gonzalez has accomplished on and off the stage, in the summer of 2017 Gonzalez’s tarima (stomp box) and zapateado dance shoes were acquired by the National Museum of American History and are on permanent display in the One Nation Many Voices exhibit. Finally, Gonzalez’s first manuscript Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles was published by the University of Texas Press. Gonzales is currently Scripps Humanities Institute director. Gonzalez lives in Los Angeles with her husband Quetzal Flores and their 18 year-old son-Sandino.