About Martha Quetzal Ceja

A Revolutionary Communist

Quetzal is a proud follower of Bob Avakian and is a revolutionary communist with innovative thinking and an energetic sense of humor. She grew up in South Los Angeles in the 1970's at a time when many Mexicano families were making the long journey from small towns in Mexico across the 2,000-mile border. Like many immigrants her young dreams of America as a land of opportunity lost their gleaming facade and began to look more like an American nightmare.

A Fighter Against National Oppression and Police Brutality

Quetzal, a former MEChA Chair, spent years studying and struggling against national oppression She co-authored a position paper for broad discussion: The Chicano Struggle and Proletarian Revolution in the U.S.

Quetzal has facilitated workshops at numerous MEChA conferences across the country on topics such as the Chicano struggle and proletarian revolution, police brutality, September 11th and the Juggernaut of War and Repression, and the DVD of a talk given by Bob Avakian Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, and What It's All About.

Quetzal founded the National Youth/Student Movement for the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. She has made television and radio appearances, spoken at dozens of conferences and countless high schools and colleges throughout the Southwest and West Coast.

Envisioning a New Future

After moving in 2005 Quetzal has brightened New York City with her activism. She has organized and taken part in many of The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime’s activities. She led a Jazz Funeral procession in protest against the abandonment of New Orleans poorest residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Battling cancer has barely slowed her stride. This past September Quetzal coordinated one of the only buses to take activists from Harlem into the Deep South to defend the Jena 6.

Today in all aspects of work she does, Quetzal puts forward the interests and aspirations of the world’s oppressed people. She is continually fueled by Bob Avakian's vision of a new society that will unleash people to know and change the world.