About Ashley Martinez

Ashley Martinez is a second year PhD student in the Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies. She is the program coordinator and curator for a section on Northern New Mexico for the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program titled, "Creative Encounters: Living Religions in the United States." This program is a careful examination of the intertwining of American religious communities and traditions and the imaginative encounters this mingling produces among diverse populations. Religion remains an important source of meaning for many Americans, and its diverse representations offer deep reservoirs of cultural creativity. This program will confront those religious acts which have caused harm in the name of conquest and highlight those used to sustain and create profound cultural expressions.