
Stanford Pride Interview Series
The Champions Interview Series featuring Brenda Chavez ’99 and Ernesto Martinez ’98
Date: June 18, 2022, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT
Venue: Zoom
Join Stanford Pride for The Champions, a new interview series featuring Stanford alumni who are championing diversity and inclusion as members of the LGBTQ community. This event is co-sponsored by the Stanford Latino Alumni Association.
Host “Chabeli/a” (Angel, they/them) ’99 interviews Ernesto Martinez (he/him/his) ’98 and Brenda Chavez (she/her/hers) ’99 as they discuss their passion for representation in books, film, and beyond.
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Chabeli/a | Brenda Chavez | Ernesto Martinez |
The format will be a 45 minute interview followed by 15 minutes of Q&A from the audience. Learn more about The Champions on our website.
The Champions Interview Series featuring Ernesto Martinez and Brenda Chavez
When: | Saturday, June 18, 2022, 1:00–2:00 p.m. PDT |
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Where: | Online via Zoom |
Cost: | Free |
RSVP: | Register on Stanford Groups to receive the Zoom link for this online event. We ask that you not share the Zoom link on your social media channels. Stanford Groups is only available to Stanford alumni at this time. |
Listen via Podcast:

Ernesto Martinez
About Ernesto Martinez
BA English ’98
Dr. Ernesto Javier Martínez (Class of ’98) is an interdisciplinary literary critic, an award-winning writer, and a professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies (IRES) at the University of Oregon. His work—both academic and artistic—explores how racially and sexually marginalized communities in the United States use art and culture to engage subjugated knowledges and marginalized subjectivities. He is the author of On Making Sense: Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility (Stanford UP, 2012), as well as the co-editor of Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader (Duke UP, 2011) and The Truly Diverse Faculty: New Dialogues in American Higher Education (Palgrave, 2014). He is also the writer of the children’s book When We Love Someone, We Sing to Them, illustrated by Maya Christina González (Reflection Press, 2018), as well as the writer and co-producer of the short film La Serenata, directed by Adelina Anthony. In the past, Martínez has served as the Interim Head of the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies (IRES), the Co-Chair of the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship (AJAAS), and as a member of the Coordinating Team for the Future of Minority Studies (FMS) research project. Martínez is a recipient of several awards, including the International Latino Book Award, the Imagen Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the HBO Latinx Short Film Competition Award.

Brenda Chavez
About Brenda Chavez
BA Chicana/o Studies ’99, BA Sociology ’99
Brenda Chavez attended Stanford University and majored in Chicana/o Studies and Sociology, graduating with departmental honors. She received her Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School and began her legal career in the corporate and securities department of Greenberg Traurig, LLP in New York where she also worked on various entertainment matters, most notably representing the buyer of the Elvis Presley estate. Ms. Chavez is a transactional entertainment and business attorney who is fluent in Spanish and is licensed to practice law in California and New York. Ms. Chavez is a member of Cap and Gown: Women Leaders at Stanford, due to her academic excellence, community involvement and leadership experience. She is also a member of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association and LGBTQ+ Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. Ms. Chavez is a first-generation Chicana and was the first in her family to attend college. She lives in Los Angeles and is happy to have her own practice which allows her to balance family, career and community involvements. She is also a co-author of the anthology “Yo Tambien: Stories of Healing and Hope” which is available in English and Spanish on Amazon.