Armando Rendón, a native of San Antonio, Texas, authored the first book about Chicanos by a Chicano, the Chicano Manifesto (1971, 1996),which chronicled the pioneering phase of the Chicano Movement. He obtained a Juris Doctor at A.U. in 1982 with the goal of working in international human rights, writing a seminal work on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Part of his work with indigenous groups involved delivering an intervention at the U.N Commission of Human Rights in Geneva in 1995, against the human rights violations inherent in Prop. 187. After retiring from working a public affairs job in a state government, Rendón published his first poetry book, Up to Earth, (2013). Then he went on to write the award-winning series The Adventures of Noldo for young adults, available in both English and Spanish. In 2009 Rendón founded “Somos en escrito The Latino Literary Online Magazine,” to promote and enhance the spread of Chicano and Latino literature. In 2018 he participated in the panel on Chicanismo in the Americas, from which emerged the Draft Blueprint on Chicanismo for the Next 50 Years. Contact: armando@somosenescrito.com

​

Ernesto Todd Mireles, MSW.  Ph.D. has worked as a student, community, union, and electoral organizer. Coordinator of the Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center at Prescott College, he organized for the United Farm Workers, United Steelworkers and American Federation of Teachers.  Mireles is the co-director  of the Social Justice Community Organizing Masters program where he teaches community organizing. He holds an MSW in organizational and community practice and a PhD American Studies from Michigan State University. His book Insurgent Aztlan was awarded an International Latino Book Award this year placing second in the Best Politica/Current Affairs category. Mireles does a weekly podcast called The Reality Dysfunction and is completing  a documentary about student organizing called War of the Flea..

​

Carlos Hernandez has over twenty years’ experience in the areas of campus organizing, community involvement, and youth advocacy. Carlos was student organizer for the Cesar Chavez March for Justice in San Antonio TX, and a founding member of San Anto Cultural Arts, an arts based youth and community organization focused on engaging youth towards pro-social activities. Professionally Carlos Hernandez has an extensive background in youth advocacy and the juvenile justice system. Carlos holds an MA in International Relations and a Juris Doctorate. His areas of concentration are Human rights law, Immigration and Asylum law, and International Law. Carlos believes International Law can and should be utilized to further advance the human rights and self-determination of the MeXicano people.

​

Daniel Osunca has been a part of La Raza Unida Party since 1971 and was involved with M.E.C.H.A. at Fullerton Collegeand Fresno CIty College. In 1980 he travelled to Beirut on a cultural exchange and had the opportunity to meet Yasser Arafat. He attended the 1981 International Indian Treaty Conference. In 1987 he was chosen to be the International Secretary for La Raza Unida where he would help build African, Irish, Arab, Asian, and Chicano/Mexicano organizations and communities in and out of the United States until he resigned in 1993 Osuna created: “500 Years of Colonization and Resistance in Indio-America” and has given this and other presentations at many conferences throughout the world. Osuna’s essay “Blacks and Chicanos Parallels in Political and Historical Struggle” was published in Blacks, Chicanos and Asians in Urban America in 1994. Since 2006 Osuna has been on sabbatical raising two children, presenting, and keeping up with modern technology.

​

Scott Russell Duncan, a.k.a. Scott Duncan-Fernandez received his MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California where he now lives and writes.  He is senior editor at Somos en escrito Literary Magazine and Press and was editor on the first Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!, which was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  In 2016 his story “How My Hide Got Color” won San Francisco Litquake’s Short Story Contest. His nonfiction piece “Mexican American Psycho is in Your Dreams” won first place in the 2019 Solstice Literary Magazine Annual Literary Contest.  He is at work on a collection of short stories called Mexpocalyptic Tales. His novel, Old California Strikes Back, a memoir of growing up Native/Xicano-Anglo and a fantastic tour reclaiming the myths of Mexican California, will be published in 2023 through FlowerSong Press. 

Julio Cesar Guerrero, MSW, MA, has an extensive background on Community organization and development, student services and classroom teaching, human and social services, diversity training, nonprofit administration, community and media relations, outreach and recruitment. He was a pioneer in community controlled bilingual radio; co-founder of three community-based radio stations including KUFW Radio Campesina for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union.

Alicia Perez-Hodge is a known advocate for Chicano and women’s civil rights. Organizing and living in the barrios of South Texas, she became involved in the Chicano Movement in the early 1970s.  While in college was a member of the Mexican American Student Organization (MASO) where she contributed to policy statements and correspondence to the college administrators concerning equity for Chicano and Chicana students. Also a member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), she worked on the creation of the first free breakfast program serving children living in the Armada Housing Projects, in Corpus Christi Texas. She often refers to herself as an “Ole poverty warrior and a member of Lyndon’s Great Society

​

Alicia holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Psychology from Texas A&I University and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies (MIS) from Texas A& M University. Alicia started her career as a social worker but soon found her niche in City Management. From the Gulf Coast in Corpus Christi, Texas to the East Coast in Boston Massachusetts, she pursued a career and spent 40 years in public service. She is a trail blazer as the first Latina to become the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts and the first Latina to serve as Assistant City Manager for the City of Austin.  She is a founding member of the City of Austin Hispanic Network.

​

Alicia has lived in Austin Texas for over 31 years and enjoys the strong Latino network full of others that call themselves Chicanos. She greatly appreciates her friends and colleagues that share values and love their Mexican heritage.  She is a founding member of Hispanic Advocates and Business Leaders of Austin (HABLA) and the Austin Latino Coalition (ALC).  She currently serves as Vice President of LULAC Council 4221 in Austin, Texas. On a national level she is on the Board of Directors for Mexicanos 2070, a national organization committed to reclaim and enrich our indigenous Mexican American Culture through study, education, and alliances with other indigenous Americans. 

​

Dave Weinstock grew up on a dairy goat farm in southeastern Pennsylvania. The eldest of 10 siblings, he worked in two union shops--joining both the Teamsters and the United Autoworkers Unions--to pay for his college education. After graduation from Penn State University, he worked at what was then Pennsylvania's largest farm organization, the Pennsylvania State Grange as its first public relations director. From there, he moved to Michigan, where he began a life-long career in journalism. Starting as the livestock editor for Michigan Farmer magazine, he completed 10 years of employment as the magazine's managing editor. While there, he won two national reporting awards, two national photojournalism awards and one regional award--three from the American Agricultural Editors Association and the fourth national award, a Ford-New Holland Heritage Award for Excellence in Farm Photography. The regional reporting award came from the Detroit Press Club Foundation. Following an unfriendly takeover of his publishing company, Weinstock entered graduate school at Michigan State University, where he earned a Ph.D in journalism and telecommunications. He and a fellow graduate student--Dr. Melissa Camacho, now a film professor at San Francisco State University--co-authored a paper recognized as a top student paper in the Communication Technology & Policy division of the International Communication Association. Weinstock would go on to a 22-year teaching career in journalism at three universities: Central Michigan University, Grand Valley State University and University of Texas-Tyler. In his latest opportunity, Dr. Ernesto Mireles, once one of his students at Michigan State University, invited him to assist with the founding of the Colegio Chicano del Pueblo before being appointed to the MeXicanos 2070 board.
 

Carlos Cumpián is a poet, playwright and essayist. His  poetry collections are: Coyote Sun, Latino Rainbow, Armadillo Charm, and 14 Abriles. He has been a contributor to thirty poetry anthologies. Worked as an editor of small press journals and books for March Abrazo Press. Cumpián has taught creative writing and poetry  through community arts organizations, as well as at Columbia College Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago, and taught public high school English. His most recent essay, “Learned to Read at My Momma’s Knee,” appears in With a Book in Their Hands: Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries (University of New Mexico Press, 2014). His family is from San Antonio and Crystal City, Texas.

​

Luz Schweig participates in and supports efforts to resist colonialism, alongside researching, preserving and honoring the indigenous culture of the Nahua Nations. She is an active participant in the calpulli of the Institute of Chicana/o Psychology, as well as a student of ancestral Toltecatl knowledge and Nahuatl under Temachitiani Akaxe Gomez. A former student of Xicano/a/x Studies at the Colegio Chicano del Pueblo, Catherine is presently studying the intersections between Nahua and Vedic cultures with an emphasis on indigenous greening spirituality and sustainability. Catherine grew up in Mexico City, and loves exploring new ways to connect with her Mexica roots. 

​