Abstract
This Spotlight features a conversation with Professor Martha Gonzalez, a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. The conversation draws from Prof. Gonzalez’s background as a Chicana, and the Chicanxs, Mexicanxs, Latinxs, and Indigenous communities in Mexico and Los Angeles that have shaped her work. She shares her practice in teaching and engaging with collective songwriting, her critique of western paradigms, and explorations of boundary crossing that music facilitates as part of championing the hope and flourishing that comes from within communities and their rich music practices.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Yudess, Belén S.
(2026)
"Amor, Art, and Advocacy: Un Conversación with Chicanx Mother, Grammy Award Artivist, MacArthur Fellow, and Scripps professor Martha Gonzalez,"
The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal:
Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol6/iss1/4
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Chicana/o Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, Music Pedagogy Commons, Music Performance Commons, Other History Commons, Women's History Commons
Author/Artist Bio
Martha Gonzalez is a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, Gonzalez has received various fellowships including a Fulbright Garcia-Robles, Ford Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson, USA Fellowship as well as the Mac Arthur Fellowship (2022). Her academic interests have been fueled by her own musicianship as a singer, songwriter and percussionist for Grammy Award winning band Quetzal. The relevance of Quetzal’s music and lyrics have been noted in a range of publications, from dissertations to scholarly books including a newly released documentary by Emmy Award winning director Akira Boch: Let The City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal. Quetzal’s latest recording Memory and Return (a collaboration with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos) was released on TlacuiloJoint in the Fall of 2025. Gonzalez along with Quetzal Flores have been instrumental in catalyzing the transnational dialogue between Chicanx/Latinx communities in the United States and Jarocho communities in Veracruz, Mexico and have been active in implementing the collective songwriting method in community spaces, classrooms, and correctional facilities throughout the U.S. Most recently, 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. Gonzalez’s first manuscript Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles was published by the University of Texas Press in 2020 and translated into the Spanish Language in 2024 by Interpec.