Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
Youth Director
Earth Guardians
At just 17 years old, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is a leader in climate activism, working as a youth leader, speaker, performer, author and hip-hop artist. As youth director of Earth Guardians, he works to support youth environmental activists in communities worldwide. His work has been featured widely in media outlets such as PBS, National Geographic, CNN, ABC, NBC, The Guardian and The Daily Show. Xiuhtezcatl published his first book, We Rise – The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet, which is an action guide for organizing around climate change, environmental racism, fossil fuel extraction and industrial agriculture. Over the past six months, he and Earth Guardians youth leaders have been laying the groundwork for the platform EG Connect: Uniting Youth Worldwide, which will aggregate data and collect measureable evaluation metrics that can identify urgent needs for allocation of monetary and human resources. Xiuhtezcatl has been named to the Huffington Post Top 10 Movers and Shakers, Grist Top 50 Global Fixers, and the 2017 Univision Premio’s Ajente de Cambio Award.
