Andrew Martinez
Encyclopedia
Luis Andrew Martinez commonly known as Andrew Martinez, was an activist who achieved fame at the University of California, Berkeley
, where he was known as the Naked Guy.
football
player when he attended Monta Vista High School
in Cupertino
, California
.
Martinez attended classes at University of California, Berkeley
. In September 1992, his second year in college, he began appearing naked 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 naked near southside
dormitories
late on a Saturday night. The county prosecutor refused to prosecute, concluding that nudity without lewd behavior was not illegal. The university then banned nudity on campus. Martinez began strolling around campus naked, 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.
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 sandal
s and a backpack
, became a cause célèbre at the university for a while, sparking a number of nude-ins on campus and performances by the Bay Area nudist 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
. Inspired in part by Martinez' actions, UC Berkeley issued its "Policy Statement Concerning Public Nudity and Sexually Offensive Conduct" banning public nudity on December 7, 1992.
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. For many months, it was legal to walk around nude in Berkeley and he went further, attending a City Council meeting naked. The city adopted an anti-nudity ordinance in July 1993. Martinez and some of his supporters then showed up at a City Hall meeting in the buff and he became the first person arrested under the new city ordinance. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and got two years’ probation.
, and began to write a manuscript about his experiences. After his return and continued unemployment, he began to manifest symptoms of mental illness
and he spent much of the decade following his national fame moving among halfway house
s, 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."
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.
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 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 People's Park
, in Berkeley. On November 12 of that year, a public memorial was held at a community recreation center in Cupertino.
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.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he was known as the Naked Guy.
Early fame
Martinez was a high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player when he attended Monta Vista High School
Monta Vista High School
Monta Vista High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, California, USA. Part of the Fremont Union High School District, the school serves most of the suburban residential and industrial technology enriched area of western Cupertino...
in Cupertino
Cupertino, California
Cupertino is an affluent suburban city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Martinez attended classes at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. In September 1992, his second year in college, he began appearing naked 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 naked near southside
Southside, Berkeley, California
Southside, also known by the older names South of Campus or South Campus, is a neighborhood in Berkeley, California. Southside is located directly south of and adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley campus...
dormitories
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
late on a Saturday night. The county prosecutor refused to prosecute, concluding that nudity without lewd behavior was not illegal. The university then banned nudity on campus. Martinez began strolling around campus naked, 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.
Martinez wrote a 1992 guest column in The Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Tribune is a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group , a subsidiary of MediaNews Group...
: "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 sandal
Sandal (footwear)
Sandals are an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps passing over the instep and, sometimes, around the ankle...
s and a backpack
Backpack
A backpack is, in its simplest form, a cloth sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders, but there can be exceptions...
, became a cause célèbre at the university for a while, sparking a number of nude-ins on campus and performances by the Bay Area nudist group the X-Plicit Players. He appeared on national talk shows, was profiled in a photo essay in Playgirl
Playgirl
Playgirl is a print quarterly adult magazine published in the United States that is marketed mainly to heterosexual women, but has also gained a considerable gay following...
and was parodied in the 1994
1994 in film
1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...
college comedy PCU
PCU (film)
PCU is a 1994 comedy film. The film depicts college life at the fictional Port Chester University, and represents "an exaggerated view of contemporary college life...." The film is based on the experiences of writers Adam Leff and Zak Penn at...
. Inspired in part by Martinez' actions, UC Berkeley issued its "Policy Statement Concerning Public Nudity and Sexually Offensive Conduct" banning public nudity on December 7, 1992.
Then neither employed nor furthering his education, Martinez continued living in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, and was arrested for public nudity by the city. He fought those charges and won. For many months, it was legal to walk around nude in Berkeley and he went further, attending a City Council meeting naked. The city adopted an anti-nudity ordinance in July 1993. Martinez and some of his supporters then showed up at a City Hall meeting in the buff and he became the first person arrested under the new city ordinance. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and got two years’ probation.
Later life
After his legal matters were settled, Martinez traveled to Europe, studied judoJudo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
, and began to write a manuscript about his experiences. After his return and continued unemployment, he began to manifest symptoms of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
and he spent much of the decade following his national fame moving among halfway house
Halfway house
The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support; this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse when compared to a...
s, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
, 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."
On January 10, 2006, Martinez was arrested after a fight at a halfway house and charged with two counts of battery
Battery (crime)
Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the fear of such contact.In the United States, criminal battery, or simply battery, is the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact...
and one count of assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
with a deadly weapon. He was placed in maximum-security custody in Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
Jail in San Jose.
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 Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of apparent suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on May 18, 2006. Martinez's funeral was held May 25. A memorial for him was held May 27 at People's Park
People's Park (Berkeley)
People's Park in Berkeley, California, USA, is a park off Telegraph Avenue, bounded by Haste and Bowditch streets and Dwight Way, near the University of California, Berkeley. The park was created during the radical political activism of the late 1960s....
, in Berkeley. On November 12 of that year, a public memorial was held at a community recreation center in Cupertino.
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.
See also
- Clothes free organizations
- Public nudityPublic nudityPublic nudity or nude in public refers to nudity not in an entirely private context. It refers to a person appearing nude in a public place or to be seen from a public place. It also includes nudity in a semi-public place, where the general public is free to enter, such as a shopping mall...
External links
- Berkeley Municipal Code: Chapter 13.32: NUDITY IN PUBLIC PLACES
- Andrew Martinez memorial site, with extensive interview
- "The Naked Guy", New York Times Magazine profile/obituary, December 31, 2006