Noemi Martinez
Noemi Martinez is a zinester, zine editor, writer, poet and indie press publisher who lives in Weslaco, Texas. She has been involved in alternative forms of media since the late 90s. A single mother, her zines address issues of racism from a Chicana/Puerto Rican perspective, racism, white privilege, immigration, poverty, displacement and identity. In 2014 she started a small indie press, Hermana Resist Press, with roots in DIY that focuses on the work of women and people of color. She has organized poetry events and zine events, including the first RGV ZineFest in the Rio Grande Valley and Mujerfest, a festival that ran for several years in the RGV that showcased women and women of color musicians, artists, artisans, poets and discussions.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Martinez moved to Edcouch, Texas when she was 9 with frequent trips and summers spent in Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Moving to other small cities in the Rio Grande Valley, Martinez was living in La Blanca, Texas when she found Pander Zine Distro online. The first zine she ordered and read was Taryn Hipp's Girl Swirl. She sought other women of color zinesters and found other women of color zinesters via Bianca who wrote Mamasita, among other zines. She then found the small number of zines by people of color that included Pure Tuna Fish, Hard as Nails, Bamboo Girl, Quantify, Framing Historica Theft and Casa de los Trucos. Inspired by these and noting the lack of zines by women of color, specifically zines by Chicanas, Martinez produced her first zine, Making of a Chicana.
She is also the creator of the POC_Zinesters community at Livejournal. She was the owner of C/s distro, which stocked and distributed zines by women and people of color.
Zines
- Hermana, Resist (six issues)
- Aged Noise
- Homespun Zine: DIY three issues
- Making of a Chicana
- Brothers
- South Texas Experience
- The Blue Metal Kettle
- Lines from Acedia to Apatheia
- Citrus Dreams
- Hermana, Resist: The Poetry Selection
Editor
- Voices Against Violence
- Voces
- Nos/Otras: Finding Gloria
- MAIZ: Mujeres Activistas Insurgentes y zineras
Contributions
- Excerpts from Perzines
- Mamaphiles, issues 1,3 and 4
- Xerography Debt-reviewer
- Woven Zine, issue 5
- Speak! Zine
- Revolutionary Motherhood Zine
- Fear, Hope and Justice: Remembering those lost-Protecting Our Future
- When Language Runs Dry, issue four
- Absent, Cause, issue four
Featured Zinester
Zine Collection
In 2015, a collection of Hermana, Resist zines will be published by the small press Sweet Candy Press.
Zines in the Community
- In 2014, Martinez was selected as the curator for the Fly Away Zine Mobile.
- RGV Zine Machine and Library
Other Involvement
- Speak! Media, SPEAK Women of Color Media Collective, a fundraiser for single mothers of color to attend the Allied Media Conference. The group independently produced a zine, spoken word cd and teaching template. Speak! Media
- advisory panel for the first kids track at the Allied Media Conference
- Women of Color Zines presentation, Allied Media Conference, 2007
- Speak! Radical Women of Color CD
Honors
- In the summer of 2014, Martinez was awarded the media maker single mother of color grant of awesomeness award by Kids City Baltimore
