Escape Velocity

WHAT IS IT ABOUT A PERSON WHO, IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY, SOARS WHERE OTHERS SINK? HOW DOES ONE BREAK THE CYCLE OF TRAUMA THAT CLAIMED SO MANY WHO CAME BEFORE? NOVELIST TOMMY ORANGE ON THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF JEFFREY MARTINEZ, 1 7, OF THE SICANGU AND OGLALA LAKOTA FROM SOUTH DAKOTA, BORN AND RAISED IN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

- Tommy Orange

ONE THING YOU should know about Jeffrey Martinez is that he understands and has cultivated and applies fortitude to his life. It’s one of seven Lakota values his mother, Martha, instilled in him from a young age. The others are humility, respect, compassion, prayer, generosity, and wisdom, which Jeffrey can list off easily, because he really knows them.

Fortitude is one of those words I knew was important when I first learned it, but that took time to understand, to practice, to be made a quality. The word is defined as “courage in pain or adversity.” This is one of the most beautiful definitions of a word not beautiful. I believe adversity can breed brilliance beyond what those with safe and comfortable lives are capable of. I’m not convinced that Jeffrey—Sicangu and Oglala Lakota from South Dakota, born and raised in Oakland, California—would be the excellent human being he is did he not know what happened to the men in his family. This is a truth he’s had to live with: that all the men died.

I’ VE KNOWN