Bonnie Ilza Cisneros is a fourth-generation educator in a line of Tejana school teachers. She holds an MFA from Texas State University, is a member of Macondo Writers Workshop, and was awarded a NALAC artist grant in 2018. She received an 2023 Individual Artist Grant from the City of San Antonio to archive, exhibit, and celebrate Siempre Verde: Música for Feeling & Healing, an interdisciplinary pandemic project at Evergreen Garden.