Rubén Martínez (writer)


Rubén Martínez is a journalist, author, and musician. He is the son of Rubén Martínez, a Mexican American who worked as a lithographer, and Vilma Angulo, a Salvadoran psychologist. Among the themes covered in his works are immigrant life and globalization, the cultural and political history of Los Angeles, the civil wars of the 1980s in Central America, and Mexican politics and culture. In August 2012 his book Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West was published by Metropolitan Books.

Professional career

From 1988 until 1993, he was a writer and editor at LA Weekly, becoming the first Latino on staff there. Subsequently, he became a contributing essayist to National Public Radio, and a TV host for the Los Angeles-based politics and culture series, Life & Times, for which he won an Emmy Award.
Martínez's books include: Flesh Life: Sex in Mexico, The New Americans, a companion volume to the PBS series of the same name, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family over the Migrant Trail, East Side Stories, and The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City & Beyond.
Rubén Martínez currently holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature & Writing at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, previously having taught at the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Claremont McKenna College.

Books

Desert America

His 2012 book, Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West, reports on the world of "outrageous wealth and devastating poverty, sublime beauty and ecological ruin" that he found when he lived in northern New Mexico, Joshua Tree, California and Marfa, Texas. The Los Angeles Times reviewer, Hector Tobar, wrote, "Martínez treats all the people he writes about, and the places where they live, with the kind of profound respect all too rare among the legions of Western writers who have preceded him. The result is an emotional and intellectually astute portrait of communities long neglected and misunderstood by American literature."
Martínez, says of Velarde, New Mexico, his home town, "I might add that I live in one of the poorest villages in one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states and that the region’s heroin addiction is higher than anywhere else in the country, rural or urban.”

Crossing Over

Martínez's other major work, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail appeared in 2001. Martínez followed a Mexican migrant clan, the Chavez family, from the small Michoacán town of Cherán, Mexico, into and across the United States. Three of the Chavez's were killed in an accident resulting from a Border Patrol chase while they attempted to cross the border. Martínez also traced the migrations of other families from Cheran, including the Tapias, Enriquezes, and Guzmans. Martínez followed these families as their journeys took them to California, Wisconsin, Missouri and Arkansas in search of the better life. But Martínez found out that this is not what the immigrants necessarily find.

The New Americans

Rubén Martínez's book The New Americans was written in 2004. Martínez wrote the book in the wake of September 11, 2001, when America's response to immigration changed immensely. Throughout the book he makes references to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and "The New Colossus", the poem on the Statue of Liberty. Martínez wrote The New Americans to show not only how America's view of immigration has changed, but also how immigration is changing America.
The book follows the story of seven families as they immigrate to the United States. One family is from Palestine. The daughter of this family is marrying a second generation immigrant from Palestine that lives in Chicago. Another family is in exile from Nigeria, and has been granted permission by the United States to move to Chicago. Two other immigrants are from the Dominican Republic, and have come to the United States to play professional baseball. Another family is from Mexico, immigrating to California in order to make money. The last family immigrated from India to California, to make more money than they would be able to make in India.
The New Americans also brings to light many of the difficulties the immigrants face in the process of leaving their homeland and arriving in America. The book shows that the immigrants face problems such as racism, difficulty finding a job, difficulty acculturating, and the overwhelming sadness of leaving the land that they have always known. The New Americans is based on a PBS documentary series also named The New Americans. The book received many positive reviews.

Articles

Rubén Martínez has been featured in many literary magazines for his work. His articles have shown up in various magazines, and his interviews have also been widely published. Below are a few of his articles selected for easy online viewing.
Rubén Martínez has received multiple awards for his work. The awards he has received are the following: The Lannan Foundation fellowship, the Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, the "Freedom of Information Award" from the ACLU, the "Greater Press Club of Los Angeles Award of Excellence", and an Emmy Award. The Lannan Foundation fellowship is given to a person whose "work inspires communities domestic and international that are struggling to uphold and defend their right to cultural freedom and diversity",. Martínez won this award in 2002, for his nonfiction work, Crossing Over. In 2005, Martínez was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Whittier College.

Other written works