Martha Gonzalez & Quetzal “Imaginaries” nominated for a Grammy award!

Chicana scholar-artist Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal have been nominated for a Grammy Award in “Best Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Alternative Album” for the 2012 album “Imaginaries,”  released on the Smithsonian Institution Folkways Label.

Martha is a PhD candidate in the program in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.  She is currently a Ford Foundation 2012-13 Dissertation Fellow

Advisor Michelle Habell-Pallan describes Martha  as “cultural producer, singer, song-writer and percussionist.”  She writes “We knew Martha was a woman who rocked the Chicana studies (and the academy) and she does so in so many way–through her scholarship and music! The cd nominated “Imaginaries” was inspired in part by Emma Perez’s Decolonial Imaginaries–one of the foundational texts of Chicana Feminist theory.  Of course, Martha and Quetzal interpreted that in a such powerful musical way and had such a great dialogue with the musicians they created with.”

Martha’s academic scholarship focuses on the transnational music movement Fandangos Sin Fronteras. She recently presented her scholarly work in a plenary at last summer’s MALCS Summer Institute as well as other venues in Paris and Germany. She co-organizes the Seattle Fandango Project as well as the series “Alma en la Tarima/Soul Dancing” featuring Rubi Oseguera Rueda (Son De Madera), and Carolina Sarmiento (Son Del Centro, Santa Ana CA).

Martha recently published, “Zapateado Afro-Chicana Fandango Style: A Self-Reflective Moment,” in Dancing Across Borders: Danzas Y Bailes Mexicanos, eds. Olga Najera-Ramirez, Norma E. Cantu, Brenda M. Romero. University of Illinois Press.

Smithsonian describes Imaginaries as a creative combination of “East L.A.’s soundscape, traditional son jarocho of Veracruz, salsa, R&B, and more to express the political and social struggle for self-determination and self-representation 12 tracks, 55 minutes, 40-page booklet with bilingual notes.”  The album was produced by Quetzal Flores and Daniel E. Sheehy, recorded by Pete Reiniger, mixed by Pete Reiniger, mastered by Charlie Pilzer, liner notes by Russell Rodríguez and Martha González, cover artwork by José Ramírez, photography by Brian Cross, and design by Sonya Cohen Cramer.

The Grammy Awards will be held on February 10, 2013.

–thanks to Karen Anzoategui for the headsup