Esmeralda Martin is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and majored in Political Science with a concentration on Political Theory and minored in Chicana/o Studies. Her hometown is Pinole, California. As an undergraduate she attended the Vanguardia Latina Conference in Washington D.C. which brought together student leaders from all over the country and Latin America. She also served as a resident assistant to the Migrant Student Leadership Institute at UCLA, and worked closely with the Day Laborer community through organizations like IDEPSCA (Institute of Popular Education in Southern California) and Proyecto de Journaleros.