Luz Alvarez Martinez

Luz Alvarez Martinez (born 1943) is an American activist and leader in the movement for reproductive justice. She co-founded the National Latina Health Organization, the first national feminist health organization for Latinas in the United States, in 1986. Luz Alvarez Martinez grew up in California, where her Catholic farmworker family owned a home in San Leandro and worked the fields in Fremont, Gilroy and Santa Rosa. Alvarez Martinez has described her marriage as "hard", and the two divorced in 1981, after 17 years of marriage. Latinas face neglect and abuse by the medical system, and the group raised awareness about discrimination and barriers to access.

In 1997, she also co-founded SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. Alvarez Martinez was an important contributor to the reproductive justice movement created by women of color in the US, and she often represented Latina perspectives on reproductive rights on the national stage, at conferences and in advocacy organizations such as the National Abortion Rights and Access League (NARAL) on whose board she served.

Personal life Alvarez Martinez has four sons and three grandchildren. Since 1993 she has been an Aztec ceremonial dancer.