When Ernesto Javier Martínez heard he received the prestigious Oregon-based Fields Fellowship, he felt an affirmation for his artistic vision and community outreach.
“I’ve been anchored in the southern Willamette Valley for 20 years as an educator. With projects that focus on queer youth, which might not be on everybody's radar, I can see how it was the right grant at the right time,” said Martínez, an Indigenous, race and ethnic studies professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
On Jan. 13, 2026, Martínez was awarded $150,000 over two years from the Oregon Community Foundation in partnership with Oregon Humanities. The fellowship supports Oregon artists who use creativity and cultural expressions to address communities. The fellowship award comes at a time when Martínez is wrapping up and beginning film stories that tell the experiences of queer Latinx youth and the immigrant experience in the US.
“I'm ready to use these funds in a good way,” Martínez said.
Support for storytelling through film
Through the support of the Fields Fellowship, Martinez is planning to wrap up his live action film “La Serenata,” which he filmed summer 2024 with the support of CAS students.
“La Serenata” is a film adapted from a children’s book and short film about a Mexican American family who reflect on their tradition of singing a love song when their son wants to sing one to another boy.
As Martínez works on wrapping up post-production on “La Serenata” and finding festivals to show the film, he’s working on a new project. It’s a TV pilot titled “The Boy Who Became a River” and tells the story of two siblings crossing the US-Mexico border.
“They’re crossing the border to find their mother. One of them makes it to the other side and the other one is transported by the river to an alternate universe,” Martinez said. “It's the story of a certain kind of triumph in the face of tragedy. It feels a little epic.”
Martínez started the project in 2019 when he was a Sesame Workshop fellow, an eight-week writing intensive hosted by the nonprofit behind the children’s daytime TV series, “Sesame Street.”
To tell this story that brings together grim realities and supernatural imaginative settings, Martínez is collaborating again with director Adelina Anthony, who directed “La Serenata.” For inspiration he’s looking at “The Neverending Story” by director Wolfgang Peterson and “Grave of the Fireflies” by director Isao Takahata, both of which bring an epic and meaningful story to life.
Connecting with community at home and beyond
Martínez plans to use the Fields Fellowship to connect with communities in Oregon and beyond, to spark conversations about cultural traditions and interrupt youth from a busy environment filled with tablets and TV screens.
In the past, Martínez has held events and workshops with youth, from Eugene to New York City. These events give him a place where he can share his work — such as the children’s book version of “La Serenata” — with the community. Audiences range from immigrant mothers in Connecticut or Black to Indigenous and People of Color communities in Eugene.
“These are very humane moments where parents who are invested in slowing their kids down by being in front of a children’s book,” Martínez said. “It’s also a moment where I get to talk to parents afterwards, to hear how they're processing the story that I just read.”
The vision of connecting with community and telling these stories that elevate unrepresented stories, ones that he said are often marginalized and erased, is a vision that Martínez says he feels even more supported to do through the Fields Fellowship.
“This fellowship gives me the resources and time to create work that celebrates their resilience, complexity and beauty,” Martínez said in a statement when the fellowship was announced. “I’m excited to use this support to build imaginative worlds that inspire hope and belonging for the next generation.”
— By Henry Houston, CAS Communications