Kristy Martinez

Kristy Martinez

Biography

My name is Kristy Martinez, I am pursuing my Ph.D. in the Herb Alpert School of Music in Musicology at UCLA. I received my Master’s in American Indian Studies at UCLA in 2019, as well as my Bachelor’s in History with a minor in Comparative Religions in 2017. I am Chicanx and a Yoeme (unenrolled) direct descendant from Sonora, Mexico, and have grown up in the San Gabriel Valley. I am heavily involved in the punk scene as a scholar and performer.

 My M.A. work included documenting the contributions of Indigenous rock and punk rock music movements, working with punk, ska, metal, and hardcore bands in the Southwest, as well as looking to Mexico and other Indigenous communities. For my PhD. I would like to expand on this project, as well as survey punk, and other musical and activist movements. I created a D.I.Y. interactive, archival methods by creating a social media network to document those involved in the scene, past and present, with flyers, photos, media, videos, and interviews. My work aims to be accountable to tribal and Indigenous communities, as well as actively seek their input. I have presented some of my work at UC Riverside, and UCLA, presented guest lectures for American Indian Studies, Chicano/Chicanx/Central American Studies, presented for UCLA HASOM, and at Amplifying Music in Los Angeles, a project sponsored in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. I hope to become a teacher, mentor and professor at the college level. I try to be active in giving mutual aid to communities in Sonora and Arizona. The band I am currently in strives to bring awareness and give mutual aid to communities in the greater Los Angeles area.