SOY CELESTE BLENDING PUNK AND ACTIVISM IN DENVER SOY CELESTÉ is the name of the Latin Feminist Punk band started by Celesté Martinez in 2022. Soy Celesté translates to “I am Celesté.” Pero, en español, there are two forms of “I am.” Soy is a permanent conjugation, where estoy is JOSHUA ABEYTA CO-FOUNDER OF LOS MOCOCHETES conditional. Por exemplo, “estoy feliz” translates to “I am happy (in this moment),” which is a condition that can change. Conversely, “soy feliz” demonstrates happiness as an inherent trait, as in, “I am a happy person.” Speaking with the Denver VOICE, Celesté elaborated on her choice to go with the latter form. “Soy is a declaration that I am. I am in existence, and the conjugation of it being permanent is important. I feel like the start of my advocacy comes from my name and emphasizing that it’s pronounced correctly, so that my culture is recognized. My mom giving me this name was an act of resistance.” Soy Celesté blends punk rock, folk, ska, and traditional Spanish music, mixing the masa with the deft hands of a modern Adelita loading her rifle before a great battle. Her lyrics are both in Spanish and English, and speak to her intersecting identities with Latin rhythms and soaring melodies that can turn to snarling anthems at the drop of a Celesté Martinez of Denver brings her brand of Riot Grrrl punk rock to center stage | Photo by Kathryn Fernandez can of tear gas. Some songs cruise into folky introspection, even operatic at times, but mostly encompass traditional punk values: fast, loud, raw, and unapologetic. Many of the songs off her debut album, “Femenista Manifesto,” could be sung through a bullhorn in the middle of a protest. Celesté’s introduction to civil rights and social justice movements began early. Her parents, Diana and Rico Martinez, had relocated from Falfurrias, Texas, to Santa Cruz to attend the University of California. Diana took elective classes in Chicano Studies and quickly became engaged in community groups on campus. A few years into this chapter, Celesté was born and would ride shotgun as her mother discovered so much of her people’s redacted history. It was only natural that Diana would immediately pass this knowledge down to her firstborn. She remembers her mother reading bedtime stories about Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Japanese internment camps, and books detailing Indigenous peoples’ relationship to the land. Her earliest memory is being 3-years-old and seeing her mother speak at her graduation. Being so immersed in the cultura from a young age made a lasting impression. Celesté also began studying music at a young age. Her parents encouraged their children to follow creative pursuits and instilled a sense of purpose in them. When Celesté came to Denver for college, she was especially moved when she learned about the tens of thousands of “Dreamers,” children who were brought to the U.S. without documentation and now were stuck in legal limbo. This is when she started becoming active in the work of the movement. Around that same time, she was simultaneously building community with other musicians and queer and trans people of color, which became a collective known as TúLips, effectively her first band and a precursor to Soy Celesté. But Celesté wasn’t just writing poems and songs about la causa, she was organizing, crowdfunding, and working directly with various immigrant rights organizations in Denver before starting her own racial equity coaching and consulting business in 2020. Drawing from a track record of melding her art with action, Celesté wants to push the scene to do more. “Words are great, but they should also be backed by action,” Celesté said. “I really respect and appreciate artists that are not only amplifying a message, but also are doing active things to support their local community or causes they care about. I think that can be a really effective way to organize in these times.” On this, Celesté leads by example. Her first show ever was a fundraiser for Gaza. She has since organized several benefit shows, while often donating proceeds from band merchandise and fees from paid shows directly to impacted people and causes via mutual aid channels, such as when her friend and prominent immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra was detained by ICE. “I just hope that whether you’re the audience or the artist, that you see punk music as an invitation for real action, real community building”, says Celesté. The line between Celesté’s music and activism is so finely blended that you can’t tell the two apart, and that is punk AF. Soy Celesté performs on April 9 at HQ, where they will open for Girl in a Coma, one of Celesté’s all-time favorite Chicana Punk bands. Find out more info and stay up to date at www.soycelestemusic.com. 6 MUSIC IN DENVER
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