Elena Martínez has been a Folklorist at City Lore since 1997 and is also currently the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center. She co-produced the documentary, From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale, which aired on PBS in 2006 and won the National Council of La Raza's 2007 ALMA Award for Best TV Documentary. She is also a producer for the documentary, We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo which premiered at the SXSW Festival. Elena curated the traveling exhibitions, “¡Que bonita bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag as Folk Art” and "Las Tres Hermanas: Art & Activism." She was the Assistant Curator for the exhibit, “Nueva York: 1613-1945” at El Museo del Barrio. She has contributed to Latinas in the United States: An Historical Encyclopedia (Indiana University Press 2006); Women’s Folklore & Folklife: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art (ABC-CLIO, 2008); the New York State Folklife Reader: Diverse Voices (2013); and The Dictionary of Caribbean & Afro-Latin Biography (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her articles have appeared in the peer-reviewed journal, CENTRO by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies and VOICES by the New York Folklore Society. She is currently on the Advisory Boards for Casita Maria/Dancing in the Streets’ South Bronx Culture Trail, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archive at Hunter College, and Los Pleneros de la 21.
Headshot by Francisco Molina Reyes II
