Prizes & Awards
The María Elena Martínez Prize
prize Amount
$500
2026 Nomination Deadline
June 1, 2026
Prize Overview
$500 is awarded annually for the book judged to be the most significant work on the history of Mexico published during the prior year. The prize was established in 2009. Formerly the Mexican History Prize, the prize was renamed in 2015 in memoriam of María Elena Martínez.
The CLAH Book Prize in Mexican History will be awarded annually to an outstanding book on Mexican history published in English or Spanish in the calendar year prior to the year in which the award committee makes its decision. Thus, the committee that convenes in 2026, for the prize to be awarded in January 2027, will consider books bearing a copyright of 2025. The prize committee, at its discretion, may determine that no book merits an award for a given calendar year.
Books eligible for the award must focus primarily on the history of Mexico. Geographically, the term “Mexico” refers to the territory that came to be known as New Spain prior to 1821, Greater Mexico from 1821 to 1848, and the region within current national boundaries thereafter. The prize committee may consider books about the borderlands of these territories, if it so chooses.
In exceptional cases, the Prize Committee may decide on co-winners. The co-winners will split the prize. In such cases, there would not be an honorable mention.
For a book to be considered, each of the three committee members must receive a copy by June 1, 2026, either from the publisher or from another source.
Note: The CLAH requires current membership for all of its prizes and awards.
Please send all submissions to each of the committee members listed below.
María Elena Martínez Prize Committee for 2026:
Peter F. Guardino (chair)
Department of History
Ballantine 844
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47401
Nicole von Germeten
605 NW 31st Street
Corvallis, OR 97330
Yanna Yannakakis
440 Avery St.
Decatur, GA 30030
Donations to the Martínez Prize fund can be made here.
2025
Marcy Norton, The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 (Harvard University Press, 2024)
2024
Co-Winners:
Margaret Chowning, Catholic Women and Mexican Politics, 1750-1940 (Princeton University Press, 2023)
Matthew Restall, Amara Solari, John F. Chuchiak IV, and Traci Ardren, The Friar and the Maya: Diego de Landa and the Account of Things of the Yucatan (University of Colorado Press, 2023)
2023
Tanalís Padilla, Unintended Lessons of Revolution: Student Teachers and Political Radicalism in Twentieth-Century Mexico (Duke University Press, 2022)
Honorable Mention:
Christina Ramos, Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment (University of North Carolina Press, 2022)
2022
Alan Shane Dillingham, Oaxaca Resurgent: Indigeneity, Development, and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2021)
2021
Eric Zolov, The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties (Duke University Press, 2020)
Honorable Mention:
Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, Vortex of Violence: Lynching, Extralegal Justice, and the State in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (University of California Press, 2020)
2020
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera, The Origins of Macho: Men and Masculinity in Colonial Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2019)
Honorable Mention:
Ryan Dominic Crewe, The Mexican Mission: Indigenous Reconstruction and Mendicant Enterprise in New Spain, 1521-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
2019
Mónica Muñoz Martínez, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas (Harvard University Press, 2018)
Honorable Mention:
Ben Vinson III, Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
2018
Pablo Piccato, A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth and Justice in Mexico (University of California Press, 2017)
Honorable Mention:
Lisa Sousa, The Woman Who Turned Into a Jaguar (Stanford University Press, 2017)
2017
William B. Taylor, Theater of a Thousand Wonders: A History of Miraculous Images and Shrines in New Spain (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Honorable Mention:
Ryan Alexander, Sons of the Mexican Revolution: Miguel Alemán and his Generation (University of New Mexico Press, 2016)
2016
Elena Albarrán, Seen and Heard in Mexico: Children and Revolutionary Cultural Nationalism (Nebraska University Press, 2015)
Honorable Mention:
Julia Young, Mexican Exodus: Emigrants, Exiles and Refugees of the Cristero War (Oxford University Press, 2015)
2015
Alexander Aviña, Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (Oxford University Press, 2014)
2014
Jaime M. Pensado, Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties (Stanford University Press, 2013)
Honorable Mention:
Aurora Gómez-Galvarriato, Industry and Revolution: Social and Economic Change in the Orizaba Valley, Mexico (Harvard University Press, 2013)
2013
Moramay López-Alonso, Measuring Up: A History of Living Standards in Mexico, 1850-1950 (Stanford University Press, 2012)
2012
Paul Gillingham, Cuauhtemoc’s Bones: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 2011)
2011
Paul Eiss, In the Name of El Pueblo: Place, Community, and the Politics of History in Yucatán (Duke University Press, 2010)
Honorable Mention:
Pablo Piccato, The Tyranny of Option: Honor in the Construction of the Mexican Public Sphere (Duke University Press, 2010)
2010
Matthew Restall, The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatán (Stanford University Press, 2009)
Honorable Mention:
Ann Blum, Domestic Economies: Family, Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884-1943 (University of Nebraska Press, 2009)
2009
María Elena Martínez, Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2008)