Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana

Demetria Martínez is an author, activist, lecturer, and columnist. Her autobiographical essays, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (Univ. of Oklahoma Press), won the 2006 International Latino Book Award in the category of best biography.Born in Albuquerque, NM, in 1960, where she now resides, Martínez earned her BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She teaches at the annual June writing workshop at the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston. Martínez writes a column for the independent progressive bi-weekly The National Catholic Reporter. She is involved with Enlace Comunitario, an immigrants' rights group that works with Spanish-speaking survivors of domestic violence.

Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana takes the reader on Martínez's journey to answer, or perhaps to ameliorate, the sense of anguish she encounters in the individuals she interviews. This collection of her hard-edged columns succeeds in its venture to illuminate what can only be described as the pervasive perplexity of everyday life."" - Norman Mailer, author of Armies of the Night|""In the beginning was the word. But then the word was co-opted by the politicians. And it was not good. Here, then, is a poet who puts 'pen to paper . . . [to] call the world to order.' This is the Gospel according to Santa Demetria the peacemaker, and it is good."" - Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo|""Truthtelling by firsthand witnesses to real life, not via fad or fatuousness, is what moves a culture to new levels of insight. Firsthand witness often reveals that life is a wonderland and darkland all rolled into one. There is a need for able guides who have dared to delve into the hinterlands and report back. Intrepid Demetria Martinez is just such a traveler, truthteller, and heartfelt guide."" - Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jungian Psychoanalyst, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves