Martínez, Betita (1925–)

Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez, activist, writer, teacher, and gadfly on the body politic, is now an octogenarian; this indefatigable activist has been working on behalf of social justice causes almost nonstop since the 1940s. As one of the 1,000 women from 150 countries nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, she is widely recognized for her commitment to fighting poverty, racism, and militarism.

Betita's mother was born in the United States, an Anglo, and her father in Mexico. Betita's father recalled for her events from the Mexican Revolution and policies of U.S. imperialism. He eventually became employed at the Mexican Embassy as an office assistant and her mother worked as a high school Spanish teacher. Although she grew up in a generally comfortable economic environment, she recalls her experiences as a child of color in all-white schools in Washington, D.C., suburbs and also became aware of the discrimination suffered by Mexican immigrants.

Betita graduated from Swarthmore College in 1946 and then went on to work in the United Nations Secretariat as a researcher on conditions in non-self-governing territories (European and U.S. colonies) in Africa and the Pacific. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she worked as an editor for publisher Simon and Schuster and later as books and arts editor at The Nation.

In the early 1960s, she began working as a volunteer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as a way of fighting the racism she wanted to uproot. Between 1964 and 1967, Betita was director of the New York City office of SNCC and also a SNCC traveling representative in Mississippi and Alabama, one of two Latina SNCC staff members.

After moving to New Mexico in 1968, she cofounded and, until 1973, published El Grito del Norte, an activist Chicano movement newspaper. With a view to reaching more potential activists with other media, she cofounded the Chicano Communications Center. It used theater, music, and guest speakers to educate Chicanos about history and current issues in their struggles for justice.

In 1982, Betita, now relocated in California and a member of the socialist Democratic Workers Party, ran for governor on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. She also worked at Global Options (formerly the Institute for the Study of Labor and Economic Crisis) as a program director. In 1997, she cofounded the Institute for Multi-Racial Justice (San Francisco) and is currently its director. According to its mission statement, the institute serves as a resource center to combat white supremacy by combating the tactics of divide-and-control and by advancing solidarity among people of color.

Over the decades, Betita has traveled widely to countries on the State Department non grata list in order to gather firsthand information about controversial issues and situations. She went to Cuba in 1959, to North Vietnam in 1970 with an anti-war delegation (the first Chicana to do so), and also to China. She has taught at several colleges and universities, including Antioch College, Sonoma State University, and California State University at Hayward. She has lectured widely on social justice issues and received numerous awards from academic institutions and grassroots and student organizations. She has published [Page 910]many articles and essays in progressive publications such as Z, Signs, Colorlines, and Monthly Review.

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