I AM ALBERT MARTINEZ

I am Albert Martinez.

I was born on July 4, 1985 in a little city named Whittier. 

I am a son to Albert and Cynthia Martinez and a brother to Alexander Martinez.

I am a father to the most beautiful person I’ve ever come to know, Joshua Nathaniel Martinez. 

I am a dreamer of endless possibilities.

I think I think too much.

I like to write whether it be fiction or non-fiction.

I am an avid coffee drinker (no cream or sugar, just black).

I adore summer trips to the beach at night.

I have dabbled in some producing and filming, and though I had no clue what I was doing (and still don’t), I aspire to bring the things that are most important to me to the screen.

I grew up on hamburger helper and it is still one of my favorite dinners to this very day.

I believe in the healing of community.

I absolutely love music as I am a musician myself. I first picked up a guitar at the age of nine and haven’t put it down since then. I can also play bass, some drums, a little bit of xylophone/bells and maybe a chord or two on the piano. 

I am a huge fan of the band Thrice.

I love Los Angeles which makes me a Lakers and Dodgers fan.

I am an activist for love.

I've got a lot to say.

I hope to make something worth remembering one day. 

I am Albert Martinez.

On June 13, 2006, my life was forever changed in the most amazing way. I entered into an eternal bond at 11:49 in the morning. The blood that would flow from my head to my heart would never be the same again. Both would be open to such joy and pain.

I became a father.

My son was given a name: Joshua Nathaniel Martinez.

I was at a loss for words but overwhelmed with thoughts about Joshua as my son, about myself as a father, about life as a whole. As odd as it sounded, I started thinking about how much I loved someone I hardly knew, like Joshua. I wondered if he knew this. I wondered if he knew it in his spirit that his father loved him greatly. How his father would do anything for him at any cost. I began to wonder if Joshua knew just how valuable and worthy he was in his father’s eyes.

Of course, this led to me exhausting his ears with conversation about how glad I was to finally see him. It is quite hilarious to be honest. I still have the video from the day of his birth that captures a rambling of my love for him. I just could not take my eyes off of him. I was obsessed with his facial features, gazing at his nose, mouth and eyes. I studied his hands and fingers. I thought about how my father must have felt about me when I was born. He had to have shared these same explosive convictions along with the rest of the fathers and mothers on the labor and delivery floor of the hospital.

This reminds me of a story I heard about a father and his two sons. One asked for an early inheritance, running off with it and blowing all of it, the other continuing to work and stay by his father’s side. However, when the younger son who ran away comes back home, his father throws a huge party in honor of his return. When the older, faithful son hears loud music and cheering from the house inside he learns that a party is being thrown for his brother and becomes enraged. The father pleads with the older son to come inside to join in the celebration of the restored relationship with his brother and his family. He responds to the older son’s jealousy, by saying, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours."

The parallel of this draws me in because I share this father’s heart. I share this father’s love in that there is nothing I wouldn’t do for my son. To have him know that everything I have within me is his, well, it means everything to me. There is nothing he would ever have to do to earn it. It’s already his. My heart, soul, mind; it’s all his.

An Amalgamation, Volume 1 (2012)

Life is filled with beauty and heartache, victory and defeat, brokenness and healing, oblivion and awakening. Discover in this collection of dialogue and imagery, an earnest examining of life, love and everything in between. 

Sample | Buy

 

 

Hands For Emphasis: An exploration in love, suffering and identity (Coming Soon)

When we speak, we tell a story, even if it doesn't sound like one, which makes us storytellers. We often forget storytelling is a form of art. What kind of story are we telling with our lives, and who is listening? Are we creative in our storytelling? Do we use our hands for emphasis?

Sample | Buy

 

 

The Adventures of Marlon and Pearl, The Traveling Clouds (Coming Soon)

When Marlon and Pearl become stuck in the sky, they learn how to express themselves so they can continue traveling around the world, visiting their friends on the ground and in the water in this children’s story.

Sample | Buy

Coming Soon.