Martha Gonzalez has been a woman that follows her passions in life and works hard to get where she wants to be after growing up very independently. One of those passions has been her music. She has come to see music as a powerful tool for empowerment of her community and has developed her artistic side as part of a group called Quetzal, alongside her husband who started the band. More than a job, for her it has been her passion and a way to create change within the Latino community and how music is viewed in terms of gender. It is this part of her life that has led her to now become a college professor in the Chicano Studies Interdisciplinary Department at Pomona College with a focus on music and gender. However, she did not always feel as strongly about music before joining her band,

Martha Gonzales was born and raised in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood with Los Angeles, California. She was one of three siblings that grew up being very close-knit with the entire family. Although Gonzalez went through certain hardships that caused a gap between her father and the rest of her family when she was young, Gonzalez’ music influence came from her father. He raised her to believe that “el compositor es el compositor, la cantante es la cantante [the composer is the composer, the singer is the singer]”. Although she enjoyed listening to music, she disliked the portrayal of women in the music world. Gonzalez opposed the idea that female singers had to have a “sexy” image to attract an audience, perform for others, and that they sang whatever was thrown at them. Gonzalez thought music lacked the presence of strong outspoken female singers that inspired her to go into the music world.

Yet, it was until she was twenty-three that she was introduced to a whole new type of music. She was told about being part of the band Quetzal. Although Gonzalez thought she would be a back-up singer, she ended up being the lead singer of the band and it was then that she learned more about the different aspects of music: composing songs, the meanings of music, and the social impact music can have on a community. They wrote songs varying from topics like important Mexican figures such as Emiliano Zapata and Comandante Ramona to events like the Chicano Movement.

Unknowingly, Gonzalez had great success with Quetzal, which led to a Grammy. However, through many interviews about the band and their music, Gonzalez wanted more than being interviewed. She decided it was time that the artist talked about their own music without interviewers structuring or prepping the interview for their own purposes. This led Martha to her most recent job as a professor after finishing graduate school. She wanted to show the issue of gender in music, the power of music for social change in the community, and the relevance of music in Latino history. Alongside her professional career, Gonzalez, along with Quetzal, have created workshops for Latino communities to show how music can be a way to channel feelings, deal with hardships, create music, and see it as a social tool.

After a distasteful exposure to music during her youth, Martha found her passion for music and its impact through Quetzal, which then led to her other profession as a professor. Having been independent since her childhood, she worked hard all throughout her life to achieve all her success in the music industry, academia, and in her social work; success that has taught her to see how her mindset and determination got her to where she is now.

Music is a tool. Music is a tool (slower/reflective tone). Either way you look at it. It can be a tool to make a whole lot of money right or it can be a tool to build community. It can be a tool to destroy communities, but either way it’s an important tool you know? It all depends on how you use it.