10 Questions with Andrea Martinez
Product Manager at PastureMap
Andrea Martinez is a Product Manager at PastureMap. Andrea is a Colombian, though she mostly grown up in the United States. She loves exploring intersectional issues and finding ways to shift our paradigms around ‘zero sum’ problems and solutions.
- When did you know that you wanted to work in tech?
I never really decided to be in tech. When I first came across PastureMap, I was passionate about the company’s mission: to empower ranchers to build healthy grasslands. The solution happened to come in the form of a software product, so I ended up in tech. It was a coincidence that the change that I’m passionate about can be created through technology.
2. Who is a role model that you look up to?
I’ve kept Andrea Gibson’s poetry in my Spotify list for the last 8 years. Their ability to stay authentic and address pain and harm through poetry and love has helped me reframe a lot of my views. They taught me to see how powerful a change agent vulnerability can be.
3. Where is your hometown?
Bogota, Colombia / Boca Raton, Florida
4. What is a challenge that you’ve faced and how did you handle it?
When I first came out, not all of my communities understood queerness. I really struggled to understand how someone could love and appreciate me without understanding or accepting what felt like such a big chunk of who I am. Eventually I realized that like with art, you can admire and love something without having the words or knowledge to understand every part of its meaning. This less fragmented view of self was a major relief for me.
“When I first came out, not all of my communities understood queerness. I really struggled to understand how someone could love and appreciate me without understanding… who I am.”
5. What is something that you are immensely proud of?
When I was in college, I decided one day that it was time to come out and tell my parents that I had been dating women. I somehow gathered up the courage and on an impulse, I called them while shopping at Trader Joe’s. It was not a graceful or well thought out execution — I don’t recommend this to others, Trader Joe’s is not the place — but I am still proud to have chosen love over fear of judgment.
6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?
I’ve been thinking a lot about transformation, justice, and forgiveness. I feel that transformation, as a continuous process, assumes imperfection, while punitive justice often has high expectations and can leave us stuck with an identity that is defined by a past mistake. I’m hoping to better understand how forgiveness and transformation can be used to liberate both the harmer and the harmed.
“I’m hoping to better understand how forgiveness and transformation can be used to liberate both the harmer and the harmed.”
7. Favorite food?
I love food that is local and sustainably grown. Feeling connected to the seasons and the environment through the food I eat makes me happy.
8. Mac or PC?
Mac?
9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?
If I could try another job, I’d want to be a professional coffee taster. I love the culture and ecology around coffee growing, and I think it would be a really energizing experience.
10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
If I was chatting with 18 year old me, I’d tell myself that I am my own expert; that no one knows me or is better able to guide me than myself. It’s valuable to learn from other’s experiences, but we’re the only ones who know how things will feel in our context.
