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VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT: ELIZABETH MARTINEZadmin2021-10-14T14:02:30-04:00

THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez

December 12, 1925 – June 29, 2021

“The two causes, racism and feminism, cannot honestly be divided, although some would have it otherwise.” – Betita Martínez

Community organizer, author, and educator. Longtime activist in struggles for social justice. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the Chicano movimiento. Co-founder of the Institute for MultiRacial Justice. Candidate for Governor of California. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize in 2005 and her numerous awards for activism include the Ruben Salazar Award of Inner City Struggle, the Frida Kahlo Award from the Chicano/Latino Research Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Charlotta Bass Award for Activist Journalism. Among her many books are Letters from Mississippi (1965), 500 Years of Chicano History (1975), De Colores Means All of Us (1998) and 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History (2008).

Photo 1. Leaflet, Elizabeth Martinez for Governor, 1982. Photo 2. 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History by Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez.

Read the Transcript

Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez recalls the debates at the first Chicana Conference during a meeting of the Women’s Caucus in Denver in 1969. Barrio Dog Productions, Inc.  

More About Betita:

  • “The heart insists on it.” Odes to Betita Martínez, the Chicana pioneer dedicated to political activism by Annika Hom, July 13, 2021
  • Elizabeth Martínez  Feminist and voice of the Chicana movement obituary
  • Organizing Upgrade reflects on the passing of Elizabeth Martínez and includes an interview by the Women of Color Resource Center from 1999
  • SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee & grassroots organizing from the inside-out
  • The Heart Just Insists: In the Struggle with Elizabeth “Betita” Sutherland Martínez by Tony Platt
  • Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez –  winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2008 Community Leadership Award
  • Select Interviews
    • Interview with Chicana writer, activist and teacher, Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez, May 2007
    • Betita Martínez talks about her then-yet-to-be-published book 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History, a photo collection and narrative about “extraordinary but forgotten” women in history, 2006
    • Writer and Bay Area Chicana activist Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martínez sits down with Dj Rhino and Tanya at the Evergreen State College in Olympia to discuss migration, solidarity, the resurgence of activism and more. October 2016
    • Voices of Feminism Oral History Project Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College ELIZABETH (BETITA) MARTINEZ interviewed by LORETTA ROSS March 3, 2006, Atlanta, GA August 6, 2006 and Oakland, CA
    • A discussion with Angela Y. Davis and Elizabeth Martínez
  • Archives
    • Library of Congress
    • Elizabeth “Betita” Sutherland Martinez papers (M1854). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, CA
  • Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America, page 301
  • Wikipedia page

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