Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say w/ Tony Diaz

The Nuestra Palabra Familia is honored to get to call Dr. Cintli a friend. His work has shaped a people. His writings are testament to our greatness. On behalf of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, Librotraficante, and The Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, we extend our condolences to his familia and all the lives, the generations that he touched and will continue to touch. We are honored that he joined us when NP still took place in the party hall of Chapultepec Restaurant, in Montrose, in Houston, Tejas. The Librotraficantes smuggled his works back into Arizona when the AZ right wing legislators banned Mexican American Studies, and the Latino Bookstore in San Antonio, Tejas is honored to have hosted the launch of his most recent book Writing 50 Years (más o menos) Amongst the Gringos. We will strive to honor him by continuing to demand, as he said, that our gente be heard. #Unidos

Join us as we speak with folks who were touched, influenced, or impacted by the work Dr. Cintli carried out. Matt Sedillo, Juan Tejeda, and Dr. Lupe Carrasco Cardona who join Tony in celebrating the work of Dr. Cintli. Dr. Rodríguez died from heart failure in Mexico, on 31 July 2023, at the age of 69. In the three years before his death, he lived near Teotihuacan. He was survived by Gonzales and five brothers.

On the show, we have

Juan Tejeda has taught Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and currently is a tenured full-time faculty member at Palo Alto College. For 18 years, Juan was the Xicano Music Program Director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, where he created the internationally renowned Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio. Juan has written and lectured extensively on the history and socio-cultural significance and importance of Tejano and Conjunto music. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chicano Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s in Bicultural Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio . Juan and his wife, Anisa Onofre, are co-publishers/editors of Aztlan Libre Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to Xican@ Literature and Art.

Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the first ever Dante's Laurel presented in Ravenna Italy, the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, and a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications. He is also cofounder of the newly established El Martilo Press.

Dr. Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona has been an Ethnic Studies, English, Social Studies and Journalism educator for 23 years and has taught in three states; California, Arizona and Texas. Her current position is Ethnic Studies Teacher at Roybal Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles. She is also an adjunct lecturer in Chicanx/Latinx/Ethnic Studies at California State University at Long Beach. She is dedicated to developing critical curriculum and facilitating a student-centered classroom environment based on mutual respect, critical thinking, and collaboration. She accomplishes this by fusing her classroom instruction with community cultural knowledge and a focus on auto-biographical counter narrative.

Tony Diaz is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

As part of the NP LIT Summer Series, Cristina Rivera Garza showcases her latest book "Liliana's Invincible Summer" live and with a reading at the Ballroom at Bayou Place on August 14th, 2023 at 6:30 PM CDT. This event is free and open to the public; free drinks and light snacks will be provided.

If you can't make it to Downtown Houston, we will be livestreaming the event live on Nuestra Palabra's media platforms!

On the radio and podcast leading up to the show, Tony Diaz speaks with the award-winning author Cristina Rivera Garza in anticipation of her Houston appearance showcasing her latest book "Liliana's Invincible Summer".

Cristina Rivera Garza is the award-winning author of The Taiga Syndrome and The Iliac Crest, among many other books. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, Rivera Garza is the M. D. Anderson Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies, and director of the PhD program in creative writing in Spanish at the University of Houston.

Tony Diaz, Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts's Latino Bookstore, welcomes Jen Yáñez-Alaniz and Octavio Quintanilla who are the featured authors for the Texas Author Series' August reading on August 11th at 6:00PM.

Jen and Octavio will read form their latest works and have a question and answer afterwards as well as sign copied of their books which will be on sale at the Latino Bookstore. Light snacks and drinks will provided for folks; as always, our event is free of charge and open to the public but donations are always welcomed!

If you can't make it, check out the interview w/ Tony about their current projects and hear them read some of their poetry! Jen celebrates "Chicana Portraits," and her upcoming anthology, "Chicana Portraits". Octavio shares with us his current project "The Book of Wounded Sparrows". along with his work with VersoFrontera.

Jen Yáñez-Alaniz is a Chicana Mestiza activist, educator and poet. She is a PhD Fellow in the Culture, Literacy, and Language Department at the @utsa University of Texas, San Antonio. Her research interests include translanguaging as a social justice framework with a focus on educator

reflexivity and empathy. As co- founder of Welcome: A Poetry Declaration, she brings awareness through equity-driven cultural conversations centered on the preservation of language and language literacy. Her latest and forthcoming publications are included in several anthologies and journals. She is the author of an extensive critical biography of Carmen Tafolla in the forthcoming anthology, Chicana Portraits, edited by Dr. Norma E Cantu.

Octavio Quintanilla is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing, the founder and director of the literature & arts festival, VersoFrontera, publisher of Alabrava Press, and former Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His new poetry collection, The Book of Wounded Sparrows, is forthcoming from Texas Review Press in fall 2024. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Nelson Delgado Jr. is the Founder & Creative Director of the The Eclectic Arts Movement (T.E.A.M.) which was created in 2010 along with the BEGIN MY MOVEMENT Project. T.E.A.M. is a group of artists uniting for a great and noble cause through projects Nelson envisions. The Event and Exhibition was ART. Keeping the World Moving! A fundraiser for children who needed prosthetics. In less than one year, T.E.A.M. united 200 Artists from all over the United States, to donate a single work of Art and raise funds for the No Boundaries Prosthetic Foundation at the Wynwood Walls Miami; this uniting of artists and volunteers successfully sold 187 paintings that night!

The Multi-ZEN-sery Exhibition features 30 artists who together will create a multi-sensory and interactive experience The ALTA Arts, located at 5412 Ashbrook Dr, Houston TX 77081, from July 21 and on through August 05, 2023. July 22 is the Grand Opening and is free to the public. By presenting an exhibition made for every individual but especially being inclusive for the blind, deaf and people/persons with disabilities, Nelson and T.E.A.M. truly hope to bring the arts to everyone.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra spotlights acclaimed Nicaraguan-American comedian Cat Alvarado as she talks about her debut comedy album Off-White, available now on Spotify and Apple Music!

Cat Alvarado is a Nicaraguan-American comedian who turned her journey as a Latina misfit into an award-winning one-woman show and a comedy special, Off-White. She’s performed at the Laughing Skull Lounge Festival and The Big Pine Comedy Festival. She premiered her hour at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival to rave reviews, winning a Producer’s Encore Award. She was also a featured comedian at the 2022 Great American Comedy Festival. She made her TV stand-up debut on PBS’s First Nations Comedy Experience in 2018. She is also the creator and host of the Villains of History podcast, a cohost on the Unofficial Official Story podcast, and a frequent guest co-host on YouTube’s Reel Rejects.

Her debut comedy album, Off-White, was released on May 26th on @BlondeMedicine and everywhere comedy albums are streamed or sold.

Cat discussed the creation of her debut album as well as some of the themes in her material, including identity and Latinidad, as well as the current climate in the comedy world.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. There is strength in El Martillo. Founded in Los Angeles in 2023 by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, and launched with a diverse group of celebrated and hardworking writers who embody our working-class intellectual spirit, El Martillo Press maintains an editorial board that makes its selections for publishing.

Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle." His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg and various other legends of the past.

David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella.

Paul S. Flores is a San Francisco artist of Mexican and Cuban-American heritage that has built a national reputation for interview-based theater and bilingual spoken word. He integrates Latino and indigenous healing practices to tell the stories of real people impacted by immigration and systemic inequalities. Flores appeared on Season 4 of HBO's Def Poetry. His first full-length book of poetry, WE STILL BE: Poems and Performances was published by El Martillo Press in June 2023.

Ceasar K. Avelar is the current Poet Laureate of Pomona. He is the writer in residence of Cafe con Libros Press, and the founder of Obsidian Tongues open mic. Avelar writes through the sociological lens of a blue-collar worker. He is the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems (El Martillo Press, 2023). Avelar will graduate this summer from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.

Donato Martinez was born in the small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He has also taught classes in Chicano Studies. He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published by El Martillo Press in June 2023.

Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of the short story collection Graft, the chapbook Burn Scars, and the daughterland (El Martillo Press, 2023). She’s the co-editor of the anthology Red Flag Warning: Northern Californians Living with Fire out on HeyDay Books in 2024. She writes about family, culture and surviving climate change disasters.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

On today's program, Nuestra Palabra features the One Houston One Book program from the Houston Public Library!

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, will speak with Federico Salas-Isnardi, Director of the Mayor’s Office for Adult Literacy (MOAL) in Houston about the goals of the OHOB Program.

Nuestra Palabra airs on 90.1 KPFT @KPFTHoustonTX Tuesdays at 7:00 PM CDT. Catch us on the radio dial or tune in anywhere via the web at KPFT.org and livestream us.

One Houston, One Book, promotes literacy, diversity, and community conversations by encouraging Houstonians to come together, read, and discuss books with a common theme. The program features three book selections: one for children, one for teens and one for adults. Programs and events include Author Talks, Read-ins, Book Clubs, Story & Craft Times, Critical Conversations, Camps, Block Parties, Open Houses, and a special Grande Finale event!

Federico is a linguist, educator, diversity trainer, and writer who has worked in adult education in Houston for over 30 years. Federico has presented or facilitated hundreds of professional development workshops and seminars and is a regular speaker at professional conferences on topics ranging from second language acquisition to anti-bullying education and from literacy and employability skills in the 21st century to identity and privilege in a culture of respect. He is a published author of ESL textbooks, and a certified Diversity Trainer. He has been active in professional, arts, and community organizations for more than 25 years.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, speaks w/ participants at the summit and the continued efforts to recognize efforts to further integrate ethnic studies into our schools. Tony discusses new approaches including recent initiatives such as developing new curriculums from new books from Latino authors.

Dr. Christopher Carmona is an award-winning author and a member of the award-winning Refusing to Forget project. His novel, El Rinche: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande, was a finalist for the 2019 Best Young Adult Novel for the Texas Institute of Letters. Currently, he is working on finishing this series of YA novels. Book Two is out now. His short story collection, The Road to Llorona Park, won the 2016 NACCS Tejas Best Fiction Award and was listed as one of the top 8 Latinx books in 2016 by NBCNews. He served as the Chair of the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee on Implementing MAS in PreK-12 Education in Texas. He was a leader in getting the TEKS based Mexican American Studies High School Course approved by the Texas State Board of Education. He served on Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook committee that was awarded the “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” award for excellence in educational leadership from the Mexican American School Board Association (MASBA). He is also an inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters.

Dr. Valerie A. Martínez specializes in 20th Century Mexican American history, U.S. Military and Labor History, and Women’s and Gender Studies and a core member of the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, and the chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas-Foco pre-K – 12 Committee. Dr. Martínez is currently an Assistant Professor of History and History Program Head at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Her current National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project, Embajadoras: Latina Servicewomen and Hemispheric Politics during World War II, reconceptualized traditional notions of diplomacy and international actors by investigating how the recruitment and service of Latina women in the Benito Juárez Squadron during World War II embodied the Pan-American ideal of an imagined hemispheric system of unity and reciprocity in the Americas. Her transnational research in both Mexico and the US has been funded by several entities. She is also the co-recipient of an NEH grant to create an oral history project dedicated to women veterans, a core member of the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, and the chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas-Foco pre-K – 12 Committee. Dr. Martínez is currently an Assistant Professor of History and History Program Head at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Araceli Manriquez is a middle school dual-language teacher in San Antonio ISD. She currently teaches eighth-grade DL social studies and started the first Mexican American Studies (MAS) course for middle school students in the district. She received her double-major bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies Bilingual EC-6 and Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and also has her master’s degree in Bilingual-Bicultural Studies. Manriquez has been at the forefront of advocacy and organizing for Mexican American Studies to be offered as a course for credit throughout the state of Texas.

She also helped create a MAS Summer Camp on her campus for San Antonio ISD middle and high school students and writes MAS curriculum for the district. Manriquez is an active member of her local union, the San Antonio Alliance, and a founding member of its social justice caucus, PODER. She leads professional development in social studies, Mexican-American studies and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy for educators throughout San Antonio.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Juneteenth is coming up and we have two community superstars who want to make sure literacy is part of the celebration by making sure our people have a choice in both the books they read and where and who they purchase from.

Guest host Rodrigo Bravo Jr. welcomes two book barons who are changing lives one page at a time. At a moment in time where our books are being marginalized, discouraged, even banned, it’s crucial we support these book traffickers to ensure we continue our self determination in our education, just as Tony Díaz @librotraficante says, “our terms on our terms”.

CLASS Bookstore is a Black-owned and family operated online/ mobile/ brick-and-mortar retailer based in Houston, TX.

Founded by co-owners and married couple, David & Dara Landry in November 2020, they began their business as an online bookstore, operating out of their apartment. January 2021- December 2022 were the years of participating in pop-up markets throughout the cities of Houston and Austin, TX. On December 3, 2022, they opened the brick-and-mortar shop, called "The Residency" at 3803 Sampson St., 77004 (just outside of the campus of Texas Southern University).

Jesus A. Cosme is a book seller & owner of King Abel's King Abel's. Prior to selling books, Cosme sold handmade jewelry, accessories & apparel under the name of "Jes Co's Designs". He designed "King Abel" circa 2018 and it was then, that he decided to change the direction he was going business wise & started selling books.

Since then he’s been advocating for literacy & history, primarily Latin & African American history. The majority of the books he sells revolve around that, culture & history. He sells books for all ages & anyone curious/interested enough to learn history outside of what's taught in school. The books he sells are for a minimum of $5 donation. The goal is not to get rich from selling books, although profit IS nice, but to strive primarily to promote literacy & educate as many people as possible.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents "Latina Leadership Lessons", the new book featuring many Latina Leaders as written by the Honorable Delia Garcia who is joined by two contributors, Dolores Huerta and Maria Gabriela Pacheco. Listen to this amazing platica in advance to Delia Garcia's speaking engagement at the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on June 9th, 2023 at 6:00 PM.

Honorable Delia Garcia is an executive servant leader for over 25 years. She currently serves at the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau as Regional Administrator. Delia Garcia is a trailblazer where she was elected the first Latina & youngest female to the Kansas State Legislature in 2004 where she served six years in the House of Representatives; and in 2019, she was appointed as Cabinet Secretary of Labor for the State of Kansas. She has over 25 years of public service at the national and state level, including non-profit executive leadership service in advocating for economic security for all. She is an author on national women leadership, and recently wrote her first book titled Latina Leadership Lessons.

Dolores Huerta is a civil rights & labor rights feminist icon in the world, with schools & streets named after her across our U.S. Dolores is the Founder & President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Co-Founder of the National United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. Dolores is the Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, the highest civilian award in the United States; as well as the Ohtli Award, the highest award from the Mexican Government. At age 93, she continues to develop leaders & advocate for working women & families thru grassroots organizing. Dolores serves as Delia's mentor, & together they encourage & train Latinas to run for public office across the U.S. Dolores wrote the Foreword to the Latina Leadership Lessons book.

Maria Gabriela (“Gaby”) Pacheco is a nationally recognized immigrant rights leader. Since the early 2000s, she has advocated for tuition equity laws and the DREAM Act. In 2006, after Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raided her home and detained her family, she began to fight for comprehensive immigration reform. On January 1, 2010, along three friends, they led the Trail of Dreams, a four-month walk from Miami to Washington, DC, to call attention to the plight of immigrant families under the threat of deportation. In 2012, as political director for United We Dream, she spearheaded the efforts and strategy that led to the announcement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.

When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com