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María Emilia Martin (January 28, 1951 – December 2, 2023) was a Mexican-born American journalist who primarily focused on Latin American and Latino affairs. After working for National Public Radio (NPR), she founded Latino USA, a radio program focused on Latino American culture, issues, and history.[1]
Maria Martin | |
|---|---|
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| Born | María Emilia Martin January 28, 1951 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Died | December 2, 2023 (aged 72) Austin, Texas, US |
| Citizenship |
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| Education | |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1975–2023 |
| Known for | Latino and Latin American journalism |
| Notable work | Latino USA |
Martin was born in Mexico City on January 28, 1951, and was of Mexican and Irish descent.[2][3][4] She grew up in California.[4]
She attended the University of Portland in Oregon, and Sonoma State University in California but did not graduate from either school.[2] Martin obtained her bachelor's degree at the University of Texas, later attending Ohio State University, where she earned a master's degree in journalism in 1999.[5][6]
In 1975, Martin first became involved in radio after KBBF, a bilingual radio station in Santa Rosa, California,[4] invited a Chicana group she was a member of, Mujeres por la Raza, to host a weekly show on Friday nights.[7] The weekly show, Somos Chicanas, saw Martin doing her first journalistic work as she produced the show as a volunteer.[3][7] In doing so, she also became the station's first Latina director.[3][8]
After leaving KBBF, Martin founded California En Revista, a Spanish-language radio news magazine, and worked for the Latin American News Service in El Paso, Texas as an editor.[9]
Martin joined NPR, where she was an editor on their national program, Latin File.[3][4] Later, she became NPR's first Latin American affairs editor on the national desk.[3][4] During her time there, she covered the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1980s[7][9] and covered the California State Legislature in the 1970s and 1980s.[10][11]
Martin left NPR in 1992,[7] and subsequently co-founded Latino USA, an English-language radio program based out of the University of Texas with support from the Ford Foundation.[4][7][9] Martin also chose Maria Hinojosa as the show's host.[7] Martin remained with the show as a producer until 2003.[12]
Martin moved to Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala in 2003,[9] where she founded the GraciasVida Center for Media.[3][4][8] There, she also produced Después de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars, a 26-part bilingual radio program about the aftermath of the wars in Central America in the 1980s and 1990s.[3][9]
Martin trained journalists in the Central American countries of Bolivia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, as well as in Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Uruguay, and the United States.[4][9] In San Antonio, Texas, she taught a class at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on community radio production.[3]
In 2020, she published a memoir entitled Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist's Heart in Latin America.[4][8] She reported on Guatemala for NBC News,[13] and continued to contribute to NPR reports on Guatemalan issues through 2023.[14]
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In 1998, Martin received the Best Voice On The Radio award from The Austin Chronicle's Best of Austin awards.[15]
In 2000, Martin won the Unda-USA Gabriel Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her story, "Who Were the Torturers? The Betrayal of Sister Dianna Ortiz," which aired on Latino USA in November 1999.[16]
In September 2015, Martin was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame.[5][9] At the time of her death, Martin was a journalist fellow for the University of South Carolina's Center for Religion and Civic Culture.[5]
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In 2023, Martin struggled with health issues.[7] She died at age 72 in Austin, Texas, on December 2, 2023, following an operation.[4][2]
Her personal papers were donated to the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.[3]
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