May 6, 2002 New Faculty Alma Martinez Photo: Susan Rothchild Alma Martinez Assistant Professor, Theater Arts Alma Martinez's research focuses on the cross-influences of Chicano and Latin American popular political theater from 1965 to 1976. Her dissertation, "Un Continente, Una Cultura?: The Political Dialectic for a United Chicano, Mexican and Latin American Popular/Political Theatre Front," is a comparative analysis of the political and cultural dialectics involved in the production of "agitprop" theater across the Americas. As a performer, Martinez has worked extensively in theater, television, and film. She is currently starring in the role of the family matriarch, Mama Chu, in Luis Valdez's Mummified Deer at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, California. Martinez is completing the dissertation portion of her Ph.D. in directing and critical theory of drama at Stanford University. She holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in theater from Whittier College. Return to Front Page