Interview, Anelis Martinez

Anelis Martinez was born in 1979 in Panama City, Panama, where she was raised until she was ten years old. When she was ten, her parents moved her and her three siblings to Brooklyn, New York. Her parents worked as teachers in Panama and in the United States. She began her college education at Brooklyn College in 1997, where she majored in English and completed her Bachelor’s degree in 2001. She currently resides in Rochester, New York, and is a stay-at-home mother and part-time writer for a newsletter in Panama City, a job she began after she graduated from college.

In this interview, Anelis Martinez discusses her family, her experiences in college, and how she came to write for the newsletter she is involved with. She explains her Afro-Latina background, how she met her Puerto Rican husband in college, and why they moved to Rochester. She also discusses her memories of Panama and of Brooklyn, her relationship with the Latino community, and how her heritage affects her life today.