Formerly the Mexican History Prize, the award was created in 2009 by the CLAH General Committee. The prize was renamed in 2015 in memoriam of Maria Elena Martinez, a former prize recipient and contributor to the field of Mexican history. It is awarded annually for the book or article judged to be the most significant work on the history of Mexico published during the previous year. In exceptional cases, the book award committee may decide on co-winners. The co-winners will split the prize. In such cases, there would not be an honorable mention.

Winners:

2024
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, Loyola University, Vortex of Violence: Lynching, Extralegal Justice, and the State in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (University of California Press, 2020)

2020
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera, Carleton University, The Origins of Macho: Men and Masculinity in Colonial Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2019)
Honorable Mention:
Ryan Dominic Crewe, University of Colorado, Denver, 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
Maria Elena Martínez, Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2008)

Maria Elena Martinez Prize Committees (Chair listed first):

2025 John Tutino, Sonia Robles, Alfredo Avila
2024 Lisa Sousa, Melisa Galván, Germán Vergara
2023 John Tutino, Peter Guardino, Elizabeth O’Brien
2022 Matthew O’Hara, Norah Gharala, Jaime Rodríguez
2021 Alexander Aviña, Susana Sosenski, Diana Montaño
2020 Paul Eiss, John Chuchiak, Nora Jaffary
2019 Kevin Gosner, Nichole Sanders, Christina Bueno
2018 Tanalís Padilla, Peter Villella, William Taylor
2017 Andrae Marak, Elena Albarrán, Gabriel Martínez-Serna
2016 Carmen Collado, Alex Aviña, Nora Jaffary
2015 Jaime M. Pensado, Aurora Galvarriato Freer, Frank (Trey) Proctor
2014 Jeremy Baskes, Andres Resendez, Daniela Spenser
2013 Rick Lopez, Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, Maria Elena Martinez
2012 Matthew Restall, Antonio Escobar Ohmstede, Anne Rubinstein
2011 Matthew Restall, Dorothy Tanck de Estrada, Anne Rubinstein
2010 Susan Kellogg, Kevin Gosner, Ramona Falcón
2009 Margaret Chowning, Rebecca Horne, Guillermo Palácios y Olivares