Born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, Xavier Martinez graduated from the Liceo de Varones in Guadalajara in 1890. Moving to San Francisco, he enrolled at the California School of Design (Mark Hopkins Institute of Art), where he studied with Arthur Matthews and graduated with honors in 1897. He then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, studying with Jean-Léon Gérôme from 1897 to 1899 and with Eugene Carriere in 1900. After returning to San Francisco in 1901, Martinez became an American citizen. His landscape and genre paintings directly reflect his travels to places such as Mexico and the Arizona desert. Martinez taught at the California School (later College) of Arts and Crafts. In addition to participating in numerous group shows, he had solo exhibitions in San Francisco at the Vickery Gallery in 1905 and at the Helgesen Galleries in 1915 (monotypes), and at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in 1941. Martinez was a founding member of the California Society of Artists (1902) and the California Society of Etchers (1912).