Calling on ancient Maya wisdom to heal a traumatized and injured planet, Compliments of the late Maria E. Martin

Please go to this link to view a beautiful compilation and tribute to the late Maria Martin, a dear friend and colleague of mine whom I would have loved to have gotten to know better. 

Maria, thank you for living such an incredibly courageous and prolific life as a journalist and for paving the way for others, especially women of color coming from behind. 

You made a way out of no way for the larger and bigger purpose of bringing subaltern voices and perspectives to light. Your journalistic giftedness and social justice ethic, are a gift to the world. 

From this page dedicated to many of your recent work, I came across The Spiritual Edge podcast that I'll be checking out and that I'm sure you'd be happy that I shared. It's awesome to see you featured in a story in today's New York Times titled, Maria Emilia Martin, Creator of Public Radio’s ‘Latino USA,’ Dies at 72 by Penelope Green.

The best way that I can honor you, Maria, is by featuring one of your many stories that I think also happens to be uniquely made for this moment for our deeply troubled world. It's titled, Calling on ancient Maya wisdom to heal Guatemalan widows. 

I encourage everybody to link and then listen to it. 

It's a salve for the soul. 

Gracias! We are beyond indebted to your life and legacy. I did some healing myself today. 

Maria E. Martin ¡Presente!

-Angela Valenzuela

Calling on ancient Maya wisdom to heal 

Guatemalan widows

Rosalina Tuyuc offers the wisdom of her ancestors to

a country scarred by war

by Maria Martin

Rosalina Tuyuc offers the wisdom of her ancestors to a country scarred by war

So sad to learn of friend and journalist Maria Martin's passing. Formerly with National Public Radio, she founded the acclaimed English-language radio program Latino USA. She dedicated her life to uplifting the voice of the marginal through not just journalism, but through the training of journalists, internationally. Maria, may you rest in power.

-Angela Valenzuela

Pioneering Latina public radio journalist Maria Martin dies at 72

By Mandalit del Barco

Published December 3, 2023 at 3:46 AM CST | NPR

For nearly half a century, Martin brought the voices of Latin Americans and Latinos in this country to public radio. She reported on politics, violence and resilience of indigenous communities in Central America. Most recently, she filed reports from Guatemala.

Martin was born in Mexico City and grew up in California. She got her start at KBBF in Santa Rosa, Calif., the first Latino-owned community radio station in the U.S. Later, she was an editor on NPR's national show Latin File, before becoming the network's first and only Latin American affairs editor on the national desk.

She left NPR in 1993 to create the English-language radio program Latino USA. Thirty years later, Martin told host Maria Hinojosa her vision for the show was "to reflect the diversity of the Latino community in all of its beauty, and in all of its pain."

Martin also trained generations of journalists in Guatemala, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Kyrgyzstan and the U.S. She founded a nonprofit called the GraciasVida Center for Media to improve public radio coverage of Central America.

In her memoir Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist's Heart in Latin America, she wrote about overcoming racism and sexism in her work devoted to training other Latina journalists. She won many awards, including for her documentary series Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars, was a Fulbright fellow, and was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame.

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