María Elena Martínez Papers

María Elena Martínez was born in 1941. She was raised in Wylie, Texas, a farming community northeast of Dallas, Texas. Her father was Presiliano Alaniz Martínez and her mother was María Cuellar Martínez. María Elena graduated from North Texas State University in 1964 with a major in Spanish and a minor in history. She also received an M. Ed. from the University of Texas.

Between 1964 and 1969, María Elena lived in Dallas, Texas where she was well known as an activist in education, Civil Rights issues, voter registration, and immigration. She moved to Austin, Texas in 1968 for graduate education. During the 1970s and 1980s, María Elena became an advocate for Mexican Americans through a wide spectrum of organizations. She championed for the establishment of a Chicano Studies Center, founded and remained a core member of organizations devoted to the educational advancement of Mexican Americans, specially bilingual education, and served on Mexican American arts and cultural organizations in Austin, Texas.

More significantly, as a student at the University of Texas, María Elena joined the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and participated in organizing Teatro Chicano. Through these organizations, she became involved with the then emerging Raza Unida Party. In 1970, María Elena helped to organize the party's state-wide convention in Austin, Texas. She served as Vice-Chair for the 1974-1976 term and as Chair for the 1976-1978 term. María Elena was a part of a group of women who created a women's caucus called Mujeres Por La Raza within the Raza Unida Party in 1973. This caucus was the first of its kind in enabling Chicanas to obtain leadership positions and get elected to office.

After the decline of the Raza Unida Party in 1979 and till the early 1990s, María Elena travelled multiple times to Cuba to witness the revolutionary movement and started working for the Venceremos Brigade. Since 1993, she has been engaged in the study of shamanism through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and has trained with Mexican healers in the curanderas tradition at various sites like Cuernavaca and Oaxaca in Mexico. María Elena served on the women's council of Indigenous Women's Network's, Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change in Austin, Texas until 2016.

Sources:

"Maria Elena Martinez - Transcript," The Latina History Project, https://latinahistoryproject.omeka.net/items/show/131, accessed June 20, 2019

"Maria Elena Martinez - Transcript," The Tejano Voices Collection, https://library.uta.edu/tejanovoices/interview.php?cmasno=133, accessed June 27, 2019