Cristóbal Martínez, born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was raised in the Española Valley pueblo de Alcalde. He is an arts practitioner and doctoral student at Arizona State University. While drawing inspiration from his heritage, Cristóbal expresses Xicano metaphors and stories through his work [1.]. He generates intermedia social spaces and media theories founded upon indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies. Central to this practice, Cristóbal collaborates within indigenous collectives that develop new literacies based on a sense of place (locality), indigenous knowledge, and media arts practices. Cristobal argues that indigenous people's capacity to put these types of literacies into practice will lead to cultural innovations such as digital expressions that reflect indigenous Discourses [2.]. He also maintains that the pursuit and exercise of these new literacies causes media power to shift in favor of indigenous self-determinism.

Cristobal is a member of the indigenous art collective Postcommodity, the director of the music and dance performance titled Radio Healer, and a composer for Burning Wagon Productions. Cristóbal's work has been published, presented, exhibited, and performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and in Africa.

[1.] I evoke the word Xicano (Chicano) to refer to my identity as a Northern New Mexican mestizo. As a part of my cultural heritage, I use it to politically and ideologically symbolize my solidarity with the indigenous peoples of Latin America (this includes the Southwestern United States), Native Americans, the mestizo peoples of the Americas, and all other indigenous peoples throughout the world. I refer to myself as Xicano to remember my ancestor’s aspirations for the U.S. federal government to honor their land rights through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. As an act of self-determination, I stand as an indigenous person with my indigenous brothers and sisters on our ancestral spiritual homelands to defend our human rights to have our local histories, cultures (worldviews), and languages recognized, respected, and included within formal education.

[2.] Social Linguist James Paul Gee describes “ . . . Discourses with a capital “D”” as “ . . . not just language, and surely not just grammar, but saying (writing)–doing–being–valuing–believing combinations” (p. 151).

Gee, J.P. (2011). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideologies in Discourses 4th Ed. Routledge, NY, NY.