Martha Gonzalez

Martha Gonzalez is a Grammy award winning Chicana musician and scholar. Although trained in the extensive and varied musical genres of Mexican culture from birth, Gonzalez has earned most of her musical successes with the Grammy Award (2013) winning Chicano rock band Quetzal. Their latest recording “Puentes Sonoros” (Sonic Bridges) was released on Smithsonian Folkways in 2020. 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 in Washington, DC. Gonzalez has recorded and collaborated, and/or toured with artist and music projects such as Sister Act II with Whoopi Goldberg, Lauryn Hill, and Mervyn Warren, Los Lobos, Los Van Van, Abraham Laboriel, Justo Almario, Jackson Brown, Susana Baca, Perla Batalla, El Teatro Campesino, Jaguares, Ozomatli, Jonathan Richman, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, iCubanismo!, Taj Mahal, Tom Waits, Los Super Seven, Lila Downs, Raul Malo, Rick Treviño, Son De Madera, Relicario, Chuchumbe Charanga Cakewalk, Medussa, Viento Callejero, Nobuko Miyamoto, La Santa Cecilia, Aloe Blac, and Maya Jupiter. Gonzalez’s first manuscript Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles was published by the University of Texas Press and was recently awarded best first book (non-fiction) by the International Latino Book Awards. (Photo credit: Pablo Aguilar).