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Selina Martinez

She // Her // Hers

Architect in Training

Penjamo-Scottsdale, Arizona

A woman of Mexican descent is photographed from her left profile. She smiles and is dressed in a dark gray sleeveless dress as she looks over her left shoulder at the camera. Her long black hair falls straight behind her left ear that is adorned in multiple gold earrings.

Photo by Carlos Valencia.

“I want to create channels of access for indigenous populations to engage and embed their worldviews within architectural design and actively reintegrating suppressed identities and indigenous knowledge as valid within the context of the architecture field.”

Selina Martinez is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Xicana born and raised in Phoenix. Martinez is currently an architect in training pursuing her architectural license. 

In 2022, she led architecture studios at the Arizona State University Design School, integrating the use of 3D laser scanning and indigenous/bioclimatic desert design responses. 

In 2020, Martinez was a recipient of the Radical Imagination Grant from the NDN Collective, establishing the seed funding to create Juebenaria, a project focused on providing an evolving collection of a plurality of Yaqui lived experiences through digital media. 

Martinez is also the co-founder and lead instructor for Design Empowerment Phoenix, a program of the Sagrado Galleria in South Phoenix in South Phoenix that creates opportunities for the community to engage in design tools and processes.

Donor -This award was generously supported by Katie Weitz, PhD.

This artist page was last updated on: 08.15.2024

Architecture & Design
A digital illustration featuring a tree whose branches are topped with soft pastel-colored circles with white text. The text of the topmost circle reads, "YOO ANIA ‘enchanted world.’" Three symbols surround the tree and include a crescent moon, downturned triangles, and a square cross. Below the tree is a seed that branches into white text on a black background.

Bachia: Yaqui Cultural Keystone Species by Selina Martinez, 2020. Digital Illustration.

Image courtesy of the artist.

"Radical Imagination with Selina Martinez" thumbnail.

“Radical Imagination with Selina Martinez,” 2022.

Video by the NDN Collective.

A collage of objects on a stark white background. The objects include a section of green bamboo stalks, leaves, green pears, deer heads, a moth, fibers, feathers, a shell, a bow and quiver, a drum, and a few black-and-white photographs of landscapes, the sides of buildings, and a silhouetted figure wearing a deer's head.

Species of the River, 2023. Collage and 3D scans by Selina Martinez; illustrations by Alex Figueroa. 3D laser scan models, illustration and photography combined into a digital collage. Digital exhibition in collaboration with the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research, British Museum.

Photo by Elexus Lopez.