Lucha Martínez de Luna

Education

B.A. Anthropology, University of Colorado

M.A. Archaeology, Brigham Young University

Areas of Interest

Mesoamerican interregional trade networks, merchants, feasting, sociopolitical organization in complex societies, and the Zoque civilization.

Profile

Lucha Martínez de Luna was born and raised in Colorado. She has worked on numerous archaeological projects in the American West and Southwest, as well as in central and southern Mexico. She worked for the National Institute of Anthropology and History conducting the excavation and restoration of a palace in the Chichen Viejo sector of Chichen Itza, Mexico. Her interest gravitated toward the role commerce and trade played in the development of ancient states in Mesoamerica. For her master’s thesis at Brigham Young University, she analyzed the mural tradition of the city to describe the growth of merchant activity in the region and its influence in establishing this site as one of the major centers of long-distance trade by the Terminal Classic period. She served as associate curator of Latino heritage at History Colorado, curatorial assistant and research associate at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Museo de las Americas, the Regional Museum of Guadalajara, and division director for the State Council of Culture and Arts in Chiapas, Mexico. In Chiapas, with the support of National Institute of Anthropology and History and the Universidad de las Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, Lucha directs the La Providencia Archaeological Project to record the remnants of a prehistoric-historic trade route in the western portion of the state. She is a visiting professor at Universidad de las Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas where she directs an archaeological field school at the Zoque site of O’na Tök, Mexico, a preclassic to postclassic regional center. Her research interests include Mesoamerican interregional trade networks, merchants, feasting, sociopolitical organization in complex societies, and the Zoque civilization. In Colorado, she actively advocates for cultural inclusivity in scientific and cultural facilities and conducts research of the Hispano/Chicano people and arts in the American West and Southwest. She is director of the Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project, a grass roots organization that advocates to preserve the visual heritage of Chicana/o public art in Colorado. The project collaborates with artists, scholars, and cultural and academic institutions to develop programs and exhibitions designed to celebrate and protect this threatened form of public art due to rapid gentrification and displacement.

Research

Zoque culture, Ritual feasting, Ceramic analysis, O'na Tok archaeological site

Presentations

Heritage and Place: Chicano Murals in Colorado (2019)

Proyecto Arqueológico La Providencia, Municipio de Berriozabal, Chiapas, co-author (2018)

Proyecto Arqueológico La Providencia, Berriozabal, Chiapas, Primeras Exploraciones, co-author (2017)

Proyecto Arqueológico La Providencia, Municipio de Berriozabal, Chiapas, co-author (2016)   

Chicano Murals in Colorado: The First Decade (2015)

Museum Salvage. A Case Study of Mesoamerican Artifacts in Museum Collections and on the Antiquities Market, co-author (2014)