Martín Quezada was born in the Maryvale community of West Phoenix. His father is a 1st Generation Vietnam veteran and his mother immigrated from Cananea, Mexico. That upbringing gave Martín first hand experience with the struggles of working-class immigrant families and the difficulties they faced while seeking to be happy, healthy and prosperous.

Education gave Martín and his family hope for a better future and a path to achieve it. Martín attended public schools in the Peoria Unified School District, and later earned degrees from Glendale Community College, Arizona State University and ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

In school, Martín’s values of activism and public service developed as he studied criminal justice, ethnic studied and law while he recognized that education had given him an opportunity that others had been denied because of cultural, financial or social barriers. He became involved in student and activist organizations to remove those barriers and give everyone the opportunities they deserved.

After earning his Bachelor’s Degree, Martín entered the political world as a research analyst for the Democratic Caucus of the State Senate and House of Representatives. There he fine tuned his understanding of how public policy was developed, implemented and how it contributed to the social barriers that existed. He left his profession at the legislature to pursue his law degree with the hope of arming himself with another tool to be an advocate for his community.