Soy Celesté is a Latin Feminist Punk music project from unceded Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho lands also referred to as Denver, CO. Celesté Martinez (she/her/ella) is the creator, lead vocalist, and guitarist of Soy Celesté. She is proudly supported by her bandmates stevie gunter (any/all) on bass and Saladin Thomas (he/him) on drums. Her emotionally charged sound melds Latin Folk and Riot Grrrl punk rock through creative imagery to ignite social change.

Celesté feels that her whole existence as a Brown, Fat, Femme, Queer, Chicana person living in the United States is political because of our mainstream culture. This is in part why she chose her artist name to be Soy Celesté, which directly translates from Spanish to “I am Celesté,” because it is a declaration of her existence.

As a Chicana, Celesté embraces the complexity of being Mestiza, both indigenous of Cherokee and Nahua lineages and of Spanish descent, while being politically active in her Colorado community. She sees being Chicana as a meeting place of cultures and worlds. This is reflected in her music with the way Celesté blends both English and Spanish into her lyrics and fuses together a variety of Latin and rock genres. Her music may come across as strange, which truly embodies Celesté’s Queerness, because it doesn’t quite fit into one genre but several simultaneously.

In January 2023, Soy Celesté released a single “Body Sovereignty” in honor of the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade and the ongoing fight for reproductive justice! Later in April, Soy Celesté released her sophomore EP titled  “Break Out,” which features her full band sound and is a collection of songs about breaking out of toxic patterns and relationships so something new can emerge.

“Feminista Manifestó” is a debut 15-track album that captures more layers to Celesté’s story, identity, and intersectional feminist politics. This collection of songs includes a combination of original works and intentionally selected covers that actively captures the band’s unique sound. The aspiration is for this debut album to be as accessible as a Riot Grrrl zine- something that can be picked up and flipped through leaving an impression, a question, a point of curiosity.