Academic Resources

‘‘The War Cut Out My Tongue’’:
Domestic Violence, Foreign Wars, and
Translation in Demetria Martínez

by Laura Lomas

We always had a hard time getting the Atlacatl soldiers to
take prisoners instead of ears.—Visiting professor at the
School of the Americas, Newsweek, 26 January 1990
I refused to believe that what I was seeing was a pattern
of scars, the legend to the map of his life—1982, someone
had branded those numbers into his back.—Demetria
Martínez, Mother Tongue (1994)
This empire fears translation.—Amy Kaplan, presidential
address to the American Studies Association, 17 October 1983....

American Literature, Volume 78, Number 2, June 2006
DOI 10.1215/00029831-2006-006 © 2006 by Duke University Press

Following is a partial listing of critical articles in various publications, including books, about Demetria's work. Contact her if you are interested in posting something you have written.

ARTICLES:

2008 Castillo, Debra A. “Barbed Wire Words: Demetria Martinez’s Mother Tongue.” Intertexts

2007 Torres, Hector. “Demetria Martinez: To Speak as Global Citizens.” Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. (University of New Mexico Press)

2006 Jeanetta Calhoun-Mish. “The Heart’s Sweatshop: Weaving Poetries of Witness in Demetria Martinez’s The Devil’s Workshop.” Mediating Chicana/a Culture. (Cambridge Scholars Press.)

2006 Poblete, Juan. "Traducción, interculturalidad y formaciones lectoras: el caso de Mother Tongue y la literatura latina en los Estados Unidos." (Interculturality and Reading Formations: The Case of Mother Tongue and Latino Literature in the USA), in Estudios (Venezuela) Click here to download PDF

2006 Rebolledo, Tey Diana. “Review of Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana. La Herencia Magazine.

2005 Santiago, Soledad. “In Her Own Voice: Writer and Activist Demetria Martinez on Chicana Culture, Politics and Poetry.” Santa Fe Reporter, October 26, 2005.

2004 Kandiyoti, Dalia. “Host and Guest in the ‘Latino Contact Zone’: Narrating Solidarity and Hospitality in Mother Tongue.” Comparative American Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4.

2004 Adolph, Andrea. Review of The Devil’s Workshop. Cold Mountain Review, Spring 2004.

2003 Bruce, Dick, "Demetria Martinez" A Poet's Truth: Conversations with Latino/ Latina Poets. (Tucson: U. of Az. Press)

2002 Conrad Martinez, Elizabeth. "Nuevas voces salvadorenas: Sandra Benitez y Demetria Martinez." Reflexiones ensayos sobre escrituras hispano americanas contemporaneas. Priscilla Gac-Artigas, ed. (Fair Haven: Nuevo Espacio)

2002 Castillo, Debra and Socorro Tabuenca. "Solidarity: Demetria Martinez" Border Women: Writing from la Frontera. (Minneapolis, University of Minn. Press)

2002 Ikas, Karin Rosa. "Demetria Martinez." Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers. (Reno: U. of Nevada Press)

2001 “Lengua e identidad en la novela Lengua madre, de Demetria Martinez” by Manlio Argueta, in Istmo: revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales Centroamericanos 2.

2001 Argueta, Manlio "Lengua e identidad en la novela Lengua madre, de Demetria Martinez." Istmo: revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales Centroamericanos 2 (julio-deciembre)

2001 Gutierrez, Muhs, Gabriella Favela."Subjectifying Entities/Emerging Subjectivities in Chicana Literature through the Literary Production of Demetria Martinez and Norma Elia Cantu: Madres, comadres, madrinas, ninas, madres, tias, abuelas y solteronas." Dissertation, Stanford University.

1999 Manolis, Argie J. "The Witer as Witness: An Interview with Demetria Martinez." Hayden's Ferry Review 24 (Spring/summer, Arizona State University, Tempe)

1999 Aguinaco, Carmen. "Creative Tension: How Latina Writers Make Sense of Two Worlds." U.S. Catholic 64:11 (Nov:34-35).

1999. Robbins, Catherine C. “Sanctuary Movement Gains a Court Hearing on Its Principles.” New York Times, June 7, 1999

1998 Iversen, Kristen. "Poetry, Politics and the Drama of the Unseen: An Interview with Demetria Martinez." Bloomsbury Review 18.2 (Mar-Apr, 11-12)

Castillo, Debra A. "Barbed Wire Words: Demetria Martinez's Mother Tongue." Intertexts 1.1 (Spring:8-24.)

1995 Martinez, Elizabeth. "In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez and Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez." The Progressive 59.7 (July:39)

1993 Perez, Daniel G. "La internalizacion de la voz narrativa chicana en el trabajo de Demetria Martinez." Escruitura: Revista de Teoria y Critica Literaria 18.35-36 (Jan-Dec, 133-140)