Andrew Martinez

Luis Andrew Martinez (November 15, 1972 – May 18, 2006) was an activist who was known at the University of California, Berkeley as the Naked Guy.[1]

This article is about the nudist and activist. For the Mexican-American drummer, see Andy DeMize.
Andrew Martinez
Andrew Martinez being arrested in Berkeley, California
Born
Luis Andrew Martinez

(1972-11-15)November 15, 1972
Santa Clara County, California
DiedMay 18, 2006(2006-05-18) (aged 33)
San Jose, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNaked Guy
OccupationActivist
Known forPublic nudity and nudity activism

Early fame

Martinez was a high school football player when he attended Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California.[2]

Martinez attended classes at the University of California, Berkeley. In September 1992, his second year in college, he began appearing unclad in public and led a campus "nude-in" to protest social repression. Campus police first arrested him that fall for indecent exposure when he jogged unclothed near southside dormitories late on a Saturday night. The county prosecutor refused to prosecute, concluding that nudity without lewd behavior was not illegal. Martinez began strolling around campus unclothed, citing philosophical reasons. He explained that when he dressed in expensive, uncomfortable, stylish, "appropriate" attire, he hid the fact that his personal belief was that clothes were useless in his environment except as a tool for class and gender differentiation. The university then banned nudity on campus.

Martinez wrote a 1992 guest column in the Oakland Tribune: "When I walk around nude, I am acting how I think it is reasonable to act, not how middle-class values tell me I should act. I am refusing to hide my dissent in normalcy even though it is very easy to do so." Martinez, who typically attended classes wearing only sandals and a backpack, became a cause célèbre at the university for a while, participating in a number of nude events on campus and performances by the Bay Area nude performance group the X-Plicit Players. He appeared on national talk shows, was profiled in a photo essay in Playgirl and was parodied in the 1994 college comedy PCU. As a response to Martinez's actions, UC Berkeley issued its "Policy Statement Concerning Public Nudity and Sexually Offensive Conduct" banning public nudity on December 7, 1992.[3]

Then neither employed nor furthering his education, Martinez continued living in Berkeley, and was arrested for public nudity by the city. He fought those charges and won. It remained legal to walk around nude in Berkeley and he went further, attending a City Council meeting undressed. The city adopted an anti-nudity ordinance in July 1993.[4] Martinez and some of his supporters then attended a further City Council meeting bare and he became the first person arrested under the new city ordinance.[5] He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and got two years’ probation.

Later life

After his legal matters were settled, Martinez began wearing clothes again and began to write a manuscript about his experiences.[6] He traveled to Europe and studied judo. After his return and continued unemployment, he began to manifest symptoms of mental illness and he spent much of the decade following his period of national attention moving among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness, and jail, but never getting comprehensive treatment, his family said. Martinez showed signs of schizophrenia and was prescribed medication, but with little improvement. "It was an endless cycle of trying to get answers but never getting any," said his mother. "It was endless, endless, endless."[7]

On January 10, 2006, Martinez was arrested after a fight at a halfway house and charged with two counts of battery and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. He was placed in maximum-security custody in Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.[5]

Death

The last time Martinez's mother saw her son was three weeks before his death when she visited him in jail. "He was sad. He was tired. He said he had enough," she said. "I alerted everyone, but nothing happened." On the evening of his death, a guard checked on him at 11 p.m. and he was fine, but a few minutes later other inmates reported hearing sounds coming from his cell. An officer returned at 11:19 and found Martinez unconscious. The 33-year-old Martinez was found with a plastic bag cinched around his head. He was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of apparent suicide on May 18, 2006. Martinez's funeral was held May 25. A memorial for him was held May 27 at the People's Park in Berkeley.[8] On November 12 of that year, a public memorial was held at a community recreation center in Cupertino.[9]

In 2009, his mother Esther Krenn settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Santa Clara County, which paid her $1 million and altered its policies so that family members would be notified in the event of a suicide attempt.[10]

See also

References
  1. Record of Luis A. Martinez. Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905–1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
  2. Goldston, Linda (November 22, 2006). "Friends recall 'Naked Guy' for strong belief in freedom Family". The Oakland Tribune. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  3. "For the record". University of California, Berkeley. September 29, 2005. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  4. Burress, Charles (March 30, 1998). "BAY AREA FOCUS – NAKED REBELLION – It's all about free speech, Berkeley nudists insist". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  5. "UC Berkeley's `Naked Guy' Dies in His Jail Cell". Los Angeles Times. May 21, 2006. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  6. "Militant Nudist Revolution! Andrew Martinez, 1993".
  7. Jones, Carolyn (May 21, 2006). "Champion of nudity found dead in jail cell -'Naked Guy' won fame in Berkeley, challenged values". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 13, 2006.
  8. Bhattacharjee, Riya (May 26, 2006). "Friends Remember Andrew Martinez". Berkeley Daily Planet. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  9. Lagos, Marisa (October 30, 2006). ""Naked guy" to be remembered at memorial". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  10. Chip Johnson (2009-05-19). "How Berkeley's 'Naked Guy' met a tragic end". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
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