Virginia Martinez is a significant figure in the Chicana feminist movement, a Chicago-native Latina attorney, and an advocate for women and children. Martinez was changing the world from an early age. She went against her family and society’s standards when she applied to law school and became one of the first Latinas to be licensed to practice law in Illinois. When she was in law school, she was one of the founders of the Latino Law Student Association. She was also a founding board member for the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition as well the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Martinez has been involved with multiple organizations and found herself working in non-profit organizations for the majority of her career. She was the first Regional Counsel in the Chicago office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) in 1980, winning historic redistricting cases that eventually led to Latina/os being elected to the Chicago City Counsel and Illinois legislature. Martinez was the Executive Director of Mujeres Latinas en Accion from 1992 to 1997. She later served as director of the International Center of Health Development at the University of Illinois. In 2017, Martinez was appointed to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Among her volunteer efforts, Martinez has worked with the CARA Pro Bono Project in Texas, providing legal assistance to women being held in detention and seeking asylum.

Martinez has received a great amount of recognition and awards throughout her life for the positive change she has enacted. These include Today’s Chicago Woman, One Hundred Women Making a Difference in Chicago, and Cook County State’s Attorney El Humanitario Award. The Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois has also awarded her with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation awarded her with the Outstanding Leadership Award. Most recently, she was honored to join the inaugural class of the Lincoln Juarez Society of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois.

Martinez is an attorney, a mother, and a speaker, but above all, she is a fighter. She has pushed for change and recognition for the Chicana woman from the start of her career and has worked hard to ensure that the movement is everything but finished.