Tony Diaz #NPRadio

On this Nuestra Palabra Rewind from October 2020, join us as we listen to an early interview Tony Diaz had with Mario Castillo, who at that time made history as the first Latino President for the Lone Star College System being named Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It's been a few years since Mario shared his story and demonstrated the power of leaders leading with Latino values, interests, and needs in mind. Ahead of the Celebrating Latino Art & Culture con el Chancellor Mario K. Castillo event on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, relisten to the interview that helped Houston get to know the future leader and now Chancellor, Mario K. Castillo. Join us on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, at Lone Star College - University Park at the Visual & Performing Arts Building at 930 University Park Campus Dr, Houston Texas, 77070 at 12 PM Noon with a special recognition for the Chancellor, followed by the eagerly anticipated 7th Annual Juried Student Art Show. Thank you to the following: Lone Star College Partners Lone Star College Board of Trustees The Latino Cultural Experts Committee LSC LASO Houston North Puente LSC - HN Thank you to our Community Partners: Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say The American Leadership Forum ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County Que Onda Magazine LULAC Mario K. Castillo J.D. was named the fifth Chancellor of Lone Star College System in August 2023. Prior to that, Castillo served the College as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. His responsibilities have progressed through the years; starting as the College's General Counsel in 2015, he was promoted to Vice Chancellor and General Counsel in 2016 and again promoted to Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel in 2017. Additionally, he served as Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. Castillo's focus is the College's students. He has reshaped processes and procedures to be student centric and student informed. He understands you cannot be what you cannot see, and therefore ensures he meets students where they are at. Castillo provides numerous student scholarship and internship opportunities and regularly meets with students to offer career advice. He prioritizes student speaking engagements and student outreach. Castillo received his Juris Doctorate from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington and received his Bachelor of Arts in Government from The University of Texas at Austin. Castillo is a first-generation high school (on his mother's side), college, and law school student as well as a first-generation American. He enjoys overly ambitious home improvement projects, recently completed Ironman Texas, and is an avid reader. 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. Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Relive the community event celebrating Mario Castillo making history as the first Latino Chancellor for Lone Star College! La gente celebrated Tuesday, March 20th, 2024, at Spanish Flowers to congratulate Chancellor Mario K. Castillo. We had so many folks join us, including: Lone Star College Partners Art Murillo, Lone Star College Board of Trustee The Latino Cultural Experts Committee LSC LASO Houston North Puente LSC - HN Thank you to our Community Partners: Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say The American Leadership Forum ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County Que Onda Magazine LULAC 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, speaks w/ the featured artists for the celebration of poetry, prose, and visual expression w/ a special event: Nuestra Palabra & Tintero Projects Present: Poetry at Torre Latina! The night will feature a Q&A w/ our poets & artists, book signing, visual art exhibits, and a preview of the new Nuestra Palabra offices at Torre Latina are included and the best part is that admission is free. Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 Nuestra Palabra & Tintero Projects Present: POETRY AT TORRE LATINA @ Torre Latina Professional Building 150 W Parker Rd., 5th Floor (I-45N @ Parker Rd) Houston, TX 77076 FREE ADMISSION Our featured guests: ire'ne lara silva The 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate and the author of five poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, FirstPoems, and the eaters of flowers, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire'ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO's 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire'ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire'ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. Her first comic book, VENDAVAL, will be released by the Chispa Imprint of Scout Comics in April 2024. Octavio Quintanilla Author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014) and served as the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared, or are forthcoming, in journals such as Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. His Frontextos (visual poems) have been published in Poetry Northwest, Gold Wake Live, Newfound, Chachalaca Review, & The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas. Octavio's visual work has been exhibited at the Southwest School of Art, Presa House Gallery, Equinox Gallery, UTRGV-Brownsville, the Weslaco Museum, and in the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center / Black Box Theater in Austin, TX. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas and is the regional editor for Texas Books in Review and poetry editor for The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism & for Voices de la Luna: A Quarterly Literature & Arts Magazine. Octavio teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the M.A./M.F.A. program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Angelina Sáenz An award-winning educator and poet. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Workshop for Writers of Color and a Macondo Writer's Workshop Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in venues such as Diálogo, Split this Rock, Out of Anonymity, Angels Flight Literary West, Every Other, Cockpit Revue Paris and The Acentos Review. Her debut book of poetry Edgecliff was released in December of 2021 w/ FlowerSongPress. Maestra, is her second collection of poetry. Marie Elena Cortés Marie graduated from Houston Baptist University in 1996 and has teaching experience in Elementary and Middle School. Since, Cortes created her writing club in 2005, Kids Write to Know, she has presented to over 200,000 students, parents and educators at schools, libraries, churches, festivals, and conferences in over 45 cities in the USA, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Marie Elena's powerful multimedia presentations include storytelling, poetry, art, mini-writing workshops, and readings of her books: “My Annoying Little Brother”, “My First Classroom” and NEGLECTED BY TWO COUNTRIES-winner of the International Latino Book Awards (2014) and Books into Movies Award (2015). Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, as part of the Texas Author Series, welcomes Dr. Carmen Tafolla as she presents and reads from her latest book WARRIOR GIRL! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and Literary Curator for the GCAC's Latino Bookstore, hosts the Texas Author Series every second Friday of the month. Carmen talks about the book, it's representation, and how this novel is defying the books bans occurring now and reads several poems from the book. Her book, published through Penguin Random House, is available through various online stores but also at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore and makes an excellent addition to your family library, public library, and underground library. Carmen Tafolla is the 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. An award-winning poet and children's author, storyteller, perfor­mance artist, motivational speaker, scholar, and university professor, she is the author of more than forty books and a profes­sor emeritus of Transformative Children's Literature at @UTSA. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the pres­tigious Américas Award, the designation of first city Poet Laureate of San Antonio, six International Latino Book Awards, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, the Art of Peace Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award. WARRIOR GIRL (@penguinrandomhouse, 2023) chronicles Celina and her family who are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage, but once she starts school it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately, she's got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it's her Gramma who's her biggest inspiration, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself . Because when you're celebrating, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write, they haven't taken everything away from you. Of course, it's not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire--like when her dad's deported and a pandemic hits--but if there is anything Celina's sure of, it's that she'll always live up to her last Guerrera--woman warrior--and that she will use her voice and writing talents to show the world it's a more beautiful place because people like her are in it. 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. Tony 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. * 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. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say and the Harris County Public Library invite you to join us for a book giveaway and discussion of Nuestra Palabra's 2024 Big Read selection, INFINITE COUNTRY by Patricia Engel. The first 50 attendees to register will receive a free copy of the book, courtesy of Nuestra Palabra through the Big Read grant. Tony speaks w/ several guests about the Big Read and the importance of literary events like these! Tony speaks with HCPL's Assistant Manager for Youth Services Anjela Martinez, Colombian anthropologist Dr. Esteban Acuña, & Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos about the impact the book and books like it have. Although the event is free and open to the public, limited seating is available. Please use the link below to register: https://hcpl.bibliocommons.com/events/65b003ecf664ce3300228bc5 In addition to receiving a free copy of the book, guests will enjoy refreshments and an interactive panel discussion about the book, hosted by Tony Diaz, Founder of El Librotraficante and Director of Nuestra Palabra. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate and ask questions but should not feel pressured to have read the book ahead of time. Please register on this page to be eligible for book giveaway. Feel free to bring guests to the event, but each guest that would like to receive a book should register separately, as we will hold one book per registration for the first 50. Note: Must attend event in person to receive free book. In Infinite Country, award-winning author Patricia Engel tells the powerful tale of a family divided. Set in Colombia and the United States and told through the shifting perspectives of each family member, Engel examines the beauty and cruelty of life in the diaspora, crafting “a breathtaking story of the unimaginable prices paid for a better life” (Esquire). With “meticulously rendered descriptions of Andean landscapes and mythology” (New York Times Book Review), Infinite Country is “at once a sweeping love story and tragic drama” (Elle), “forcefully examining what unites a family beyond the divisions borders and policies forge” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Through the intimacies of one family's story, Engel “challenges us to consider that the United States has always been a place of borders” (Harvard Review of Books). “Told by a chorus of voices and perspectives, this is as much an all-American story as it is a global one” (Booklist). NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Learn more about Nuestra Palabra: https://www.nuestrapalabra.orgegister Anjela Martinez is the Youth Services Assistant Manager for Harris County Public Library. Anjela has worked for Harris County Public Library for thirteen years. She's passionate about providing library resources and programs to help children become life-long readers, learners, and library users. Anjela contributes her love for reading to her mother who introduced a young Anjela to a boy wizard named Harry. Besides reading, Anjela enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking, traveling, and going on adventures with her dog Lobo. Anjela is currently reading Infinite Country by Patricia Engel and The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander. Dr. Esteban Acuña is a Colombian anthropologist who specializes in ethnicity, mobility and migration. He is currently a visiting scholar at SUNY at Plattsburgh, and before recently moving to Houston he also taught at Freiburg University, in Germany, and Bard College, in New York. His latest ethnographic work has used life stories and mobile methods to study migratory movements in the Americas. Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos is a student at Lone Star Community College and an active scholar. Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and Political Analyst on What's Your Point on Fox 26 News, welcomes Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones. Commissioner Briones shares her work in improving Precinct 4, an important gun buyback program taking place this November 18th, and her literacy advocacy, with her recent appearance at NP's & NEA's Big Read event in September as well as the Harris County Proclamation given to Nuestra Palabra and Tony Diaz for 25 years of cultivating community cultural capital. Join us on NP Live at a special time this Wednesday, November 8th, at 9:00 AM CST as part of our multi stream broadcast. You can check out the show on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter! Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones is a native Texan and proud Latina who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border. She is the daughter of teachers, who taught her the importance of education, hard work, and serving others—values that have defined her and which she now brings to the office of County Commissioner for Precinct 4. Upon graduating with honors from Harvard University, she began her career as an 8th and 10th-grade teacher at two of the lowest-income public schools in the country. She then attended Yale Law School, where she led the Latino Law Students' Association's public service initiatives and provided pro-bono assistance to survivors of domestic abuse and juvenile offenders. Commissioner Briones returned to Texas to practice law at Vinson & Elkins LLP, then served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of the Laura & John Arnold Foundation, a major national philanthropic nonprofit. She next became the Judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4. Judge Briones was the highest-rated Harris County Civil Court at Law Judge in the 2019 Houston Bar Association (HBA) Judicial Evaluation Poll and won the 2020 HBA Judicial Preference Poll. Briones co-founded the statewide nonprofit Texas Latinx Judges and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center. She and her husband, Adán, live in Houston with their three daughters and worship at St. Ambrose Catholic Church.

The Houston Cultural Treasures Announcement Event and State of the Network Panel - Recorded Live on 11.02.2023 - at The DeLUXE Theater. The BIPOC Arts Network and Fund named the cohort of 11 organizations named as Houston Cultural Treasures. The panel discussion framed learning and hopes from different segments of BANF communities. BANF will invest $5 million over two years (2024-25) in eleven organizations w/ both technical support and unrestricted cash funding. Houston Cultural Treasures invests in the arts organizations that have anchored our communities of color and shaped Houston's dynamic and diverse culture that we benefit from today. We honor their survival, persistence, and resilience. The Houston arts community has celebrated its ability to collaborate and connect. We celebrate that connectedness as a Houston strength and are building a two-year learning cohort of BIPOC organizations and their leadership as an essential part of the experience. To be a Houston Cultural Treasure is to commit to strengthening the Houston BIPOC arts ecosystem. BANF's vision is an ecosystem that empowers BIPOC artists, organizations, and communities in the Greater Houston Area w/ transformative opportunities to dream, connect, collaborate, and create. The Houston Cultural Treasures initiative is part of a larger national initiative from the Ford Foundation created to acknowledge and honor the diversity of artistic expression and excellence across the nation.” The institutions honored today are: Arte Publico Press Buffalo Soldiers National Museum Community Artists' Collective Community Music Center of Houston Houston Museum of African American Culture Indo-American Association Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA) The Nia Cultural Center SHAPE Community Center Silambam Houston Join us in preserving history, building community, and creating the future by supporting these institutions; visit their websites and find out how you can support these Houston Cultural Treasures. ********************************************************************************************* BIPOC Arts Network & FundBIPOC Arts Network & Fund A revolutionary arts ecosystem empowering BIPOC artists, organizations, and communities. BANF is revolutionizing the local funding landscape and breaking down silos within the arts ecosystem to create transformative opportunities where they can dream, connect, collaborate, and create. BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, or BANF, revolutionizes the local funding landscape, breaks down silos within the arts ecosystem, and welcomes everyone to support and learn from BIPOC arts communities. We utilize equity-focused and community-participatory funding initiatives; community-informed evaluation and learning practices; and asset-based network building strategies to inform leadership, advocacy, and action. BANF was created in a time of crisis to provide resources and networks that support the vibrant Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and other communities of color of Greater Houston in fully displaying their power, values and traditions. At its launch, BANF invested $2 million into BIPOC-founded and led organizations and fiscally-sponsored artist collectives that promote, preserve, and celebrate Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other communities of color through arts and cultural programming. This one-time investment was an effort to provide direct and urgent support for Houston's BIPOC arts ecosystem in the face of the pandemic and compounded crises. BANF is an independent initiative whose programming is funded by the generous contributions of national and local foundations, including Houston Endowment, the Ford Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Cullen Foundation, Kinder Foundation and The Powell Foundation.;

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) in San Antonio Texas, welcomes award-winning Seattle writer, teacher, and editor Alma García as she returns to her El Paso roots with her debut novel, ALL THAT RISES (University of Arizona Press, 2023), a story of secrets, lies, border politics, and discovering what it means to belong—within a family, as well as in the world beyond, ahead of her Texas Author Series appearance on November 10th, 2023 at the Guadalupe's Latino Bookstore. Join us for NP Live on October 9th, 2023 at 7:30 PM CDT via our Nuestra Palabra's multi-stream platform broadcast on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube! Alma García is a writer whose award-winning short fiction has appeared in Narrative Magazine and most recently in phoebe and the anthology Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century. She is a past recipient of a fellowship from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Originally from El Paso and later from Albuquerque, she now lives in Seattle, where she teaches fiction writing at the Hugo House and is a manuscript consultant. In her debut novel, ALL THAT RISES, two guardedly neighboring families in El Paso, Texas, have plunged headlong into a harrowing week. Rose Marie DuPre, wife and mother, has abandoned her family. On the doorstep of the Gonzales' home, long-lost rebel Inez appears. As Rose Marie's husband, Huck (manager of a maquiladora), and Inez's brother, Jerry (a college professor), struggle separately with the new shape of their worlds, Lourdes, the Mexican maid who works in both homes, finds herself entangled in the lives of her employers, even as she grapples with a teenage daughter who only has eyes for el otro lado—life, American style. What follows is a story in which mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made. ALL THAT RISES is about secrets, lies, border politics, and discovering where you belong—within a family, as well as in the world beyond. It is a novel for the times we live in, set in a place many people know only from the news. 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. Tony 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. Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) in San Antonio Texas, welcomes professor Dr. Jesús Jesse Esparza, Associate Professor in the Department of History, Geography, and General Studies at Texas Southern University, to discuss his book RAZA SCHOOLS (University of Oklahoma Press, 2023) ahead of his Texas Author Series appearance on November 10th, 2023 at the GCAC's Latino Bookstore. Join us on NP LIve on October 16th, 2023 at 6:30 PM CDT as part of Nuestra Palabra's multi-stream platform broadcast on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. In 1929, a Latino community in the borderlands city of Del Rio, Texas, established the first and perhaps only autonomous Mexican American school district in Texas history. How it did so—against a background of institutional racism, poverty, and segregation—is the story Jesús Jesse Esparza tells in RAZA SCHOOLS, a history of the rise and fall of the San Felipe Independent School District from the end of World War I through the post–civil rights era. Telling the complex story of how territorial pride, race and racism, politics, economic pressures, local control, and the federal government collided in Del Rio, Raza Schools recovers a lost chapter in the history of educational civil rights—and in doing so, offers a more nuanced understanding of race relations, educational politics, and school activism in the US-Mexico borderlands. Dr. Jesús Jesse Esparza is an Associate Professor of History in the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University, where he has taught since 2009. His area of expertise is on the history of Latinos in the United States, emphasizing civil rights activism. Dr. Esparza's manuscript, Raza Schools: The Fight for Latino Educational Autonomy in a West Texas Borderlands Town, is scheduled for release in September 2023. The University of Oklahoma Press will publish it as part of the New Directions in Tejano History series. Dr. Esparza teaches Mexican American, Texas, and Civil Rights history. He received his B.A. and a master's degree in History from Southwest Texas State University and a Ph.D. in History in 2008 from the University of Houston. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Internationally renowned ceramicist Veronica Castillo alongside Professor Emerita and Independent Publisher Dr. Josie Méndez-Negrete join us in spotlighting their co-authored book, "Rooted in Clay: El Arte de Verónica Castillo." Tony delves into the book written as a plática in which Castillo shares her life work, inspiration, politics, and history with Méndez-Negrete alongside images of her sculptures and experiences that led her to be one of the first artists requested to submit work for the newly launched Latino Heritage Museum for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. Her artwork, primarily ceramics that focus on the “tree of life,” is deeply connected to her indigenous roots in Mexico as well the transformations in aesthetic expressions that have occurred as a result of her work with revolutionary indigenous groups and moving to San Antonio. *********** Verónica Castillo is an internationally acclaimed artist from Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, México. At a very young age, under the tutelage of her parents, renowned artists Don Alfonso Castillo Orta and Doña Soledad Martha Hernández Báez, she was exposed to the artistic technique of working in polychromatic ceramics, a tradition passed on from generation to generation. Verónica continues to build upon these traditions while focusing on contemporary issues of injustice and inequality. Her exhibits have achieved national and international recognition, from the Smithsonian in Washington DC to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago to the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico. In 2013, Verónica Castillo received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award. She is the owner of E.V.A. (Ecos y Voces de Arte), a gallery on the Southside of San Antonio. Together with an international network of artists, E.V.A. offers the space and support for various forms of cultural art to thrive. Josie Méndez-Negrete PhD, Professor Emerita in Mexican American Studies at the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies (BBL), University of Texas at San Antonio, received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Duke University Press published Las hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed as a revised edition in 2006 and reprinted it in 2010. In 2015, the University of New Mexico Press published her second book, A Life on Hold: Living with Schizophrenia. Along with publishing book chapter and articles on culture, identity, and education, from 2009 2014, Méndez-Negrete served as Lead Editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of MALCS. She served as chair of the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) and of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS). In 2021, The University of Arizona, Tucson, published Activist Leaders of San José, California: En sus propias voces (2021). In March 2017, she established Conocimientos as an independent with the vision of publishing untold or hidden Raza stories. The press's first publication—Women, Mujeres, Ixoq': Revolutionary Visions—edited by Claudia D. Hernández received the 2019 International Latino Book Gold Medal Award. In 2023, Rooted in Clay: El arte de Verónica Castillo was published by Conocimientos Press. Transcript

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center welcomes award winning author and distinguished professor Dr. Norma Cantu to the show to discuss her latest book CHICANA PORTRAITS: CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES OF TWELVE CHICANA WRITERS (University of Arizona Press 2023) ahead of her Texas Author Series appearance on October 13th 2023 at the Guadalupe. Join us for a lively discussion over this amazing anthology that spotlights 12 literary figures from 12 authors who themselves are making a name for themselves. Norma describes the process and reads from the book and shares some of her thoughts on the current state of book bans and censorship culture. Dr. Norma E. Cantú is a scholar-activist who currently serves as the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University. She is founder and director of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. She has published fiction, poetry, and personal essays in a number of venues. Her latest book CHICANA PORTRAITS is an innovative collection that pairs portraits with critical biographies of twelve key Chicana writers, offering an engaging look at their work, contributions to the field, and major achievements. Artist Raquel Valle-Sentíes's portraits bring visual dimension, while essays delve deeply into the authors' lives for details that inform their literary, artistic, feminist, and political trajectories and sensibilities. The collection brilliantly intersects artistic visual and literary cultural productions, allowing complex themes to emerge, such as the fragility of life, sexism and misogyny, Chicana agency and forging one's own path, the struggles of becoming a writer and battling self-doubt, economic instability, and political engagement and activism. Biographies included in this work include Raquel Valle-Sentíes, Angela de Hoyos, Montserrat Fontes, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Norma E. Cantú, Denise Elia Chávez, Carmen Tafolla, Cherríe Moraga, Ana Castillo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros, and Demetria Martínez. 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. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony 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. 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio Texas, welcomes award winning author John Olivares Espinoza to the show to discuss his book THE DATE FRUIT ELEGIES (Bilingual Review Press, 2008) ahead of his Texas Author Series appearance on October 13th 2023 at the Guadalupe. John shares with us his work, reads some of his poems (including unreleased portions of his upcoming book), the inspiration behind his work, as well as his current as editor / poetry coach to several well known literary figures, including Chicana icon Sandra Cisneros. John Olivares Espinoza is a recipient of a 2023 City of San Antonio Project Grants for Individual Artists. Born and raised in Indio, California, and the son of immigrants from Mexico, he received degrees in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside and Arizona State University. He is the author of the poetry collection, The Date Fruit Elegies (Bilingual Review Press, 2008), as well as two chapbooks, Aluminum Times (Swan Scythe Press, 2002) and Gardeners of Eden (Chicano Chapbook Series, 2000). His poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies domestically and internationally such as Alta Journal, American Poetry Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, New Letters, Poetry International, Quarterly West, Rattle, ZYZZYVA and In Xóchitl in Cuícatl: Floricanto: Cien años de poesía chicanx/latinx (1920-2020) (Editorial Polibea: Madrid, 2021). His honors include a writing grant from The Elizabeth George Foundation, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, and a residency at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Espinoza has been a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop since 2004 and lives in San Antonio with his family. John attempts to create a family mythology around their experiences and identities as immigrants, laborers, and New Americans. Meanwhile, other speakers in his poems grapple with their identities as first generation Americans. Poet Christopher Buckley introduces Espinoza's poetry by saying, “…[I]t was the lives of his family, of the people who did not stay at resorts [and the homes of the rich], that became [John's] theme, and his poems risked clarity at every turn to do them justice. John's poems are witness to this life, and with poignancy and inventiveness they reveal the essential dignity and compassion of the people he knows.” 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. Tony 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. * 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. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz welcomes key members of Main Street Theater's current production of CARMELA, FULL OF WISHES, playing Sept. 24 – Oct. 21 at MST's Midtown location at 3400 Main Street, 77002 at the MATCH. Adapted by Nuestra Palabra's very own Alvaro Saar Rios from the best selling book by Matt de la Peña, Tony speaks with Alvaro, Laura Moreno, the play's director, and Jacqueline Vasquez, the actor playing Carmela, about this wonderful play and it's importance in telling our stories. On our show, we have: Laura Moreno (Director) Main Street Theater: (Director) Last Stop on Market Street (Costume Design) Miss Nelson Is Missing! The Musical!, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Dragons Love Tacos; Alley Theatre: (Assistant Director): A Midsummer Night's Dream, What-a-Christmas!; Mildred's Umbrella: Ladies' Night: Beckett Shorts; Lamar University: The Revolutionists; Jewish Community Center: Photograph 51; Horse Head Theatre Company: Church, Judgement of Fools; Gravity Players: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Duchesne Academy: Little Women, The Importance of Being Earnest. Education: M.F.A, University of Houston, Directing; M.A, University of Houston, Arts Leadership; B.F.A., University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance, Acting. Jacqueline Vasquez plays Carmela in our current production, and she'll be back right after Carmela Full of Wishes for Disney's Beauty & the Beast at Main Street Theater! Other credits include: James and the Giant Peach (swing), Miss Nelson is Missing! The Musical; Haven Arts: She Kills Monsters. Education: Texas Christian University. Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago. His plays have been seen in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. His award-winning plays include Luchadora!, On the Wings of a Mariposa and Carmela Full of Wishes. Mr. Rios is Playwright-In-Residence at Milwaukee's First Stage and a proud veteran of the US Army (he used to drive tanks). Originally from Houston, Alvaro teaches playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. About CARMELA FULL OF WISHES Feliz Cumpleaños! It's Carmela's birthday, and she's finally old enough to tag along with her big brother as he runs the family errands. Passing by the bodega and the lavanderia, Carmela picks a dandelion and makes a very important wish… Carmela Full of Wishes illuminates the beauty of working class neighborhoods and the power of community and family. Told through the lens of a heartfelt sibling story, this endearing play explores what hope looks like in a migrant community steeped in Mexican culture. CARMELA FULL OF WISHES Adapted by Alvaro Saar Rios From the book by Matt de la Peña Illustrated by Christian Robinson 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. Tony 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. 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra and the National Endowment for the Arts @neaarts celebrated will Latina Leaders with an amazing event, NP & NEA's The Big Read! The event was a huge success but if you missed it no worries, it is now available on our podcast! Some key moments: As part of our collaboration with the NEA, we gave away 400 copies of INFINITE COUNTRY (@AvidReaderPress) by Colombian American writer Patricia Engel (@patricia__engel) to attendees! The event opened with the powerful poetry of Elisa Garza who shared her previous work from Entre la Claridad and new unreleased poems for our audience. Geraldina Interiano Wise, Board Chair of ALMAAHH, spoke on the importance of having our space, nuestra lugar, and urged folks to fill out the survey for the Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive (ALMAAHH) complex in Harris County. Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Briones shared her passion urging folks not to let others call us "dormidos y hay que levantar y dar pa adelante nuestra fuerza unida" and she presented Harris County's proclamation honoring Tony Diaz & Nuestra Palabra for it's 25 years of service and creating community cultural capital. Lis Atencio, co founder of Monday Paper, debuted the Nuestra Palabra Journal, 100 of which were given to empower our communidad to tell their stories, stories like Liz who immigrated from Venezuela and using her entrepreneurial spirit started her own company providing jobs for folks here and abroad all while in an eco friendly and sustainable manner. Mayra Valle, Director of Learning and Design at the EMERGE Fellowship, shared her personal story, her own writing, and her passion to help students find their voices, especially among Latine students who often find themselves lost in the process. The Honorable Delia Garcia shared her latest book LATINA LEADERSHIP LESSONS with the audience and shared experiences growing up and working where often she was not only the woman in the room but the only Latina. Listen to the podcast on your favorite platform!

Tony Diaz, el Librotraficante spotlights Dr. Carmen Tafolla's latest book WARRIOR GIRL! Carmen talks about the book, it's representation, and how this novel is defying the books bans occurring now and reads several poems from the book. Her book published through Penguin Random House is available through various online stores but also at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore and makes an excellent addition to your family library, public library, and underground library. Carmen Tafolla is the 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. An award-winning poet and children's author, storyteller, perfor­mance artist, motivational speaker, scholar, and university professor, she is the author of more than forty books and a profes­sor emeritus of Transformative Children's Literature at @UTSA. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the pres­tigious Américas Award, the designation of first city Poet Laureate of San Antonio, six International Latino Book Awards, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, the Art of Peace Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award. WARRIOR GIRL (@penguinrandomhouse, 2023) chronicles Celina and her family who are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage, but once she starts school it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately, she's got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it's her Gramma who's her biggest inspiration, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself . Because when you're celebrating, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write, they haven't taken everything away from you. Of course, it's not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire--like when her dad's deported and a pandemic hits--but if there is anything Celina's sure of, it's that she'll always live up to her last Guerrera--woman warrior--and that she will use her voice and writing talents to show the world it's a more beautiful place because people like her are in it. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra features the book "The Alton Bus Crash" on our latest podcast episode which you can stream on your favorite platform. Tony Diaz speaks with Juan P Carmona about his book on the tragic Alton Bus Crash, which claimed the lives of f 21 junior and senior high school students after a bottling truck collided with the school bus, causing the bus to enter a caliche pit filled with water. This terrible incident led to many changes in several industries but also served as a precursor to other catastrophes that have befallen marginalized communities and the government response. Juan P. Carmona is a Social Studies teacher at Donna High School and a dual enrollment History instructor through South Texas College. He graduated with honors from the American Military University with a master's degree in American History and he was the Recipient of the 2018 James F. Veninga Outstanding Teaching Humanities Award by Humanities Texas. He is a member of the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee for Mexican American Studies K-12, and the Social Studies Coordinator for the Rio Grande Valley Coalition for Mexican American Studies. He is the co-author of a 1-year curriculum for a high school class in Mexican American Studies. He has been teaching Mexican American History for dual enrollment for the past 10 years at Donna High School. He is also a member of the award-winning Refusing to Forget Project. His primary field of research is the history of the South Texas borderlands. He is the author of the book The Alton Bus Crash, co-host of the podcast “Mi Valle MI Vida” and produced a podcast with his Mexican American History students called “The Alamo Train Crash of 1940”, which he is now developing into a book project. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Culturalarts Center's Latino Bookstore, spotlights Dr. Mehnaaz Momen's LISTENING TO LAREDO: A BORDER CITY IN A GLOBALIZED AGE. in a lively discussion on place, identity, and the changing conditions of an American border city. Dr. Mehnaaz Momen is an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Texas A&M International University and the author of THE PARADOX OF CITIZENSHIP IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND POLITICAL SATIRE, POSTMODERN REALITY, AND THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (Arizone Press) Her new book, LISTENING TO LAREDO: A BORDER CITY IN A GLOBALIZED AGE, gives an in depth look at the burgeoning Texas town that has grown. Nestled between Texas and Tamaulipas, @officialcityoflaredo was once a quaint border town, nurturing cultural ties across the border, attracting occasional tourists, and serving as the home of people living there for generations. In a span of mere decades, Laredo has become the largest inland port in the United States and a major hub of global trade. Listening to Laredo is an exploration of how the dizzying forces of change have defined this locale, how they continue to be inscribed and celebrated, and how their effects on the physical landscape have shaped the identity of the city and its people. Bringing together issues of growth, globalization, and identity, Mehnaaz Momen traces Laredo's trajectory through the voices of its people. In contrast to the many studies of border cities defined by the outside—and seldom by the people who live at the border—this volume collects oral histories from seventy-five in-depth interviews that collectively illuminate the evolution of the city's cultural and economic infrastructure, its interdependence with its sister city across the national boundary, and, above all, the strength of its community as it adapts to and even challenges the national narrative regarding the border. The resonant and lively voices of Laredo's people convey proud ownership of an archetypal border city that has time and again resurrected itself. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra's Tony Diaz El Librotraficante, Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, welcomes Dr. Ito Romo, who will be one of our our featured authors for the Texas Author Series' September reading at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on September 8th at 6:00PM. Tony will speak with Dr. Romo re: his book THE BORDER IS BURNING being released on paperback, his next projects, and even have a reading in advance to Dr. Romo's appearance in San Antonio Westside! Dr. Ito Romo was born and raised on the border in Laredo, Texas. His recent work, dubbed “Chicano Gothic” and “Chicano Noir,” shows the dark and gritty life along Interstate 35 through South Texas, where his family has lived for nine generations since 1750. He lives in San Antonio and is Professor of English Language and Literature at St. Mary's University. Romo received his PhD from Texas Tech University's Creative Writing Program and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the author of The Border is Burning (2013) and El Puente / The Bridge (2001), both published by University of New Mexico Press. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, the Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, welcomes The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva @borderlandsshax (BSC)! Dr. Kathryn Vomero Santos (Trinity University), Dr. Katherine Gillen (Texas A&M University–San Antonio), and Dr. Adrianna M. Santos (Texas A&M University–San Antonio), who will be our featured authors for the Texas Author Series' September reading at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on September 8th, at 6:00PM. Dr. Brenda Sarmiento Quezada (Purdue University) joins Tony & the BCS to discuss writing curriculum and how important these works are as educational tools for not just traditionally marginalized folks but for all. These curriculums and coursework is all part of a $102,250 grant for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore Education Outreach and Literacy Program. Join us on our show on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston at 7:00 CDT PM or online via www.kpft.org. If not, you can always catch the podcast on our streaming platforms! The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva (BSC) seeks to amplify the work of Chicanx and Indigenous artists who adapt Shakespeare to reflect the histories and lived realities of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. They aim not only to change the way Shakespeare is taught and performed but also to promote the socially just futures envisioned en el arte de La Frontera. The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva are editing a three-volume anthology titled The Bard in the Borderlands. Their work has been supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Dr. Brenda Sarmiento Quezada is an assistant professor of Literacy and Language Education with emphasis on emergent bilinguals at Purdue University. Born in Mexico City, she taught as a Dual Language teacher at a Title 1 school in San Antonio, Texas. Her research area focuses on language practices and identity performances of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Her research and interests also encompass teacher education and preparation programs, literacy integration across content areas, bilingual community engagement, digital spaces and multimodalities, and language policy and practices. 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. Tony 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. * 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, co-host, and producer emeritus 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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra's Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, welcomes author of the acclaimed books ZARZAMORA and WHERE THE RECKLESS ONES COME TO DIE Vincent Cooper, who joins us to talk about his latest book from Mouthfeel Press, INFIDELIS. Tony speaks with Vincent Tuesday on KPFT Houston 90.1 FM on Tuesday August 22nd at 7:00 PM CDT as we discuss Vincent's powerful new book. You can hear it live via KPFT.org if you're not in the Houston area; otherwise you can catch the podcast afterwards! Vincent Cooper's INFIDELIS is a powerful collection of poetry that delves into the life of a Chicano outcast, drawing from the author's personal experiences as a United States Marine. Through lyric and Blues poetry, Cooper paints a vivid picture of the 9/11 era, capturing the raw and authentic emotions that accompanied his journey. Vincent Cooper is a poet living in San Antonio, Texas. He is a former United States Marine and has published in Ban This! The BSP Anthology of Xicano Literature, Big Bridge Magazine: Refreshing San Antonio, and La Voz de Esperanza 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

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

The Sin Muros Festival at @stageshouston has been celebrating and lifting up Latinx artists for six years. Listen on 90.1 FM @kpfthoustontx Tuesday, May 23rd at 7:00 PM CST as we feature organizers and participants of the festival! More than 300 Latinx artists have benefited—both financially and creatively—from participating in the festival. This year, a committee of some of the most influential Latinx voices in Houston has selected four plays by Latinx playwrights and nominated three individuals who serve the Latinx art community to be celebrated in a weekend-long festival May 25-28. The 6th annual Sin Muros Festival, a weekend of play readings and workshops, is a celebration of Latinx voices and stories throughout Texas. Tony Diaz @librotraficante speaks with several of the artists who are a part of the festival as well the organizers. @JasminneMendez, co-founder of Tintero Projects, has been involved in the Sin Muros Festival for years. @thepoetmendez, co founder of Tintero Projects and Current Texas Poet Laureaute, will also join us as well. Additionally, we will also speak with David Davila @davidodavila Josie Nericcio @jotolkin Ricardo Dávila Jesús I. Valles @thejesucia who's plays have been selected for the readings! In addition to the readings, the festival will present the Premio Puente. The honorees are: Ashley Dehoyos @ashleydelara Deniz Lopez @deecolonize Gonzo247 @gonzo247 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

As book bans become fashionable and favorable vs just outright discrimination, one of our own Librotraficantes has been deemed too controversial for K-12. Lupe Mendez, 2022 Texas Poet laureate and award winning author, has had his book "Why I Am Like Tequila?" banned at a Texas Panhandle school along with other BIPOC and LGBTQi+ books. Tony Diaz speaks with our hermano about why this happened, what this means, and what the next move is in the Librotraficante movement. Originally from Galveston, TX, Lupe Mendez (Writer // Educator // Activist) is the author WHY I AM LIKE TEQUILA (Willow Books, 2019), winner of the 2019 John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the founder of Tintero Projects which works with emerging Latinx writers and other writers of color within the Texas Gulf Coast Region, with Houston as its hub. Lupe earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas @ El Paso. Mendez's work can been seen in print and online formats including the Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast Journal, the Texas Review, the L.A. Review of Books, Split This Rock, Poetry Magazine and Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets. Mendez is the 2022 Texas Poet Laureate. Follow Lupe on Twitter, at @thepoetmendez and on Instagram, at @ellupis. 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 spotlights the upcoming event “Encuentro: The Native American Roots of Texas Mexican Food.” Several food scholars explore the culinary scene with chefs and writers, and sometimes, both! Victoria Elizondo is chef owner of Cochinita Co. in Houston where she insists that fresh and preferably local ingredients are key to her vibrant and flavorful Mexican food. At her restaurant in the Greater East End, Cochinita co., she usually has sever al dishes featuring the ancient food that is native to Texas for thousands of years: nopalitos. When she was 12, Elizondo left her native Nuevo Leon, south of the Texas Mexican border, with her mother to move to the United States, where she became a DACA recipient. Following in her mother's footsteps, she got her first job at 16 as a restaurant hostess. During her career she has worked at top Houston restaurants like State of Grace, Pax Americana and Xochi. In 2016 she started her own business venture, Cochinita Co., initially a food truck concept that pivoted to a pop up and catering model, now a small restaurant that is receiving high honors. The Houston Chronicle named Cochinita Co. one of the top 25 Best Restaurants of 2022. This year, Elizondo is nominated for the prestigious national Emerging Chef James Beard Award. Chef Joseph Gomez, is honoring his roots through his new food truck Con Todo, focusing on comida frontera (Spanish for “border town food”). The Rio Grande Valley native debuted the truck in 2021 at Celis Brewery's new beer garden in North Austin. Gomez who's worked at Austin restaurants such as Be More Pacific, Tha i Kun, She's Not Here, and Easy Tiger sees the truck as showcasing the foods and stories of the Rio Grande Valley and his family. It's through the menu that he wants to jump start “a long conversation about Mexican food in south Texas,” and what it truly is. Eater named Con Todo one of America's 15 best new restaurants of 2022. Lilliana Patricia Saldaña is an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies (MAS) at UTSA and is co-director of the UTSA MAS Teachers' Academy. Her activist scholarship draws from Chicana/x studies, decolonial and anti-colonial studies, Indigenous epistemologies, and Chicana/Latina feminisms to investigate teacher identity and consciousness, and decolonial practices in schools and community spaces. She's published in nationally recognized journals, including Latinos & Education, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, and Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, and has published in various edited volumes. When she's not teaching or researching, she's learning about Mexican and Indigenous foodways, facilitating gastronomy workshops, and tending to her kitchen garden. Adán Medrano is a Chef, Food Writer and Filmmaker. Author of “Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage In Recipes” – Book Of The Year Finalist by Foreword Reviews. His most recent book, Don't Count the Tortillas – The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking, is reviewed and listed by “Spruce Eats” in “The 8 Best Mexican cookbooks to read in 2021.” Both history/cookbooks are academically peer-reviewed and published by Texas Tech University Press. Adán Medrano is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. His professional work in restaurant kitchens includes fine dining at “Restaurant Ten Bogaerde” in Belgium, and volunteering as the Chef of Houston's Casa Juan Diego, a shelter for homeless persons. Adán is also an award-winning filmmaker and holds a Master of Arts degree in Radio, Television and Film from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1976 he founded the San Antonio CineFestival, the first and now longest-running Latino film festival in the USA. His recent documentary feature film, Truly Texas Mexican, won “Best Documentary” at the New York Independent Cinema Awards.

2023 ALMAAHH Visual Artist: Viri Ramos - Te Bajé La Luna Y Las Estrellas On today's bonus episode, Tony Diaz speaks with Viri Ramos in support for the ALMAAHH Silent Auction going on now. Viri Ramos was introduced to painting at an early age by her mother who was a classically trained oil painter. Growing up they would often work along side each other. Upon graduating college, she made the move from Monterrey, México to Houston, Texas. It was during her time living on her own that she discovered acrylics, which were better suited for her not so well ventilated studio apartment. She found in acrylics the best match for her laid back relaxed aesthetic and personality. Her paintings are filled with life and fun. They are happy and playful.. at times serious, but mostly not at all. She favors rough strokes and bold colors. Instagram: @viriviriramos Website: www.viriramos.com 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 will feature some special talent for the upcoming event: The 34th Annual Accordion King & Queens (AKG) Join Texas Folklife for a night as big as the Lone Star State, showcasing the amazing musical diversity of Texas accordion styles. It will be on June 3rd, 2023, from 7PM - 10PM at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. Texas Folklife's Accordion Kings & Queens (AKQ) draws thousands annually to Houston's Miller Outdoor Theatre. The event celebrates the cultural diversity of Texas by bringing communities together for an evening of roots music, featuring a variety of Texas accordion music genres. Get your tickets here! https://texasfolklife.org/index.php/AKQ Charlie Lockwood has a decade of experience as a nonprofit arts administrator and public folklorist. A Native Texan, he holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from UC Santa Barbara, where he played the oud with the UCSB Middle East Ensemble and did research with the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans. As the Executive Director of Texas Folklife, Lockwood has overseen a variety of flagship public programs and initiatives, including an archival preservation project to organize, digitize and ultimately disseminate the organization's rich archival holdings dating from 1984. Over the last several years Lockwood has spearheaded programs focusing on the intersections of folk and traditional arts and health, including a military veterans folklore and storytelling initiative with support from NEA Creative Forces and Hechos, No Miedo (Facts, Not Fear), a covid-19 PSA Series in partnership with a variety of central Texas partners. In 2014 he co-produced Traditional Music of Texas Volume 1: Fiddle Recordings from the Texas Folklife Archives, and in 2015 was honored with a Community Sabbatical Research Award from the University of Texas at Austin Humanities Institute to research historic and contemporary Texas regional music recordings. Lockwood served as Vice President (2018-2019) and President of the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains Chapter (2019-2020), Journal of Folklore in Education 2019 The Art of the Interview Advisory Committee, is a member of the American Folklore Society and Society for Ethnomusicology. In 2021-2022 Lockwood served on the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures Task Force: Museum of the Future. He is a former board member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Arts Leaders Austin chapter and has served on a variety of grant review panels and advisory committees for local and national institutions. Lupe Olivares is the Production Coordinator for 34th Annual Accordion Kings & Queens. He is also the Founder, Creator of Bohemeo's music, art, coffee, LLC. Fall of 2006. Located in Houston's Historic East End. Voted one of Houston's most diverse music venue, restaurant, art gallery and community center. Promoting healthy eating and opening minds to art and human compassion. Written and celebrated by NY Post, Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Free Press, and Music News publications. Exposing East End Pride. Artistic Director, and Production Coordinator, for Houston International Festival since 1986 to present. Advancing all top level shows between IFest, artist agents and touring mng. Providing logistical support for artist: Transportation, equipment, PA, Lighting, hospitality, security. Stage mng. heading over 30 support personal on site to assure all shows start and end on time. Owner of G. O. Productions, consulting in all things Festivals, and artist/band development: Audio recording, Photography, Video, and distribution of product. Tony Diaz 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

Today we highlight various authors, poets and educators what have been spotlighted from Huizache Magazine! Maceo Montoya is an author, visual artist, and educator who has published books in a variety of genres, including four works of fiction: The Scoundrel and the Optimist, The Deportation of Wopper Barraza, You Must Fight Them: A Novella and Stories, and Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces. Montoya has also published two works of nonfiction: Letters to the Poet from His Brother, a hybrid book combining images, prose poems, and essays, and Chicano Movement for Beginners, which he both wrote and illustrated. Montoya is a professor of Chicana/o Studies and English at the University of California, Davis where he teaches courses on Chicanx culture, literature, and creative writing. He is editor of the literary magazine Huizache and lives in Woodland, CA. Dagoberto Gilb was born in the city of Los Angeles, his mother a Mexican who crossed the border illegally, and his father a Spanish-speaking Anglo raised in East Los Angeles. Gilb's first publication was a small press chapbook out of El Paso, Winners on the Pass Line (1985), which came after he won his first literary prize, the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. The book's first notice was heard on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" in a review by Alan Cheuse. Gilb went on to earn more recognition, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Texas Institute of Letters' Dobie Paisano Fellowship. He lives in Austin, Texas. He has been a visiting writer at the University of Texas at Austin, University of Wyoming, University of Arizona, Vassar, and Cal State Fresno. He is now a tenured professor in the Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas. He is also the founder of Huizache. Roberto Ontiveros is an artist, fiction writer, and literary critic. Some of his work has appeared in the Threepenny Review, the Santa Monica Review, Huizache, The Believer, and The Baffler. His collection of stories, The Fight for Space, is published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Vincent Cooper is the author of Where the Reckless Ones Come to Die, Aztlan Libre Press 2014, Zarzamora – Poetry of Survival, Jade Publishing 2019 and forthcoming, Infidelis, Mouthfeel Press, Fall of 2023. Cooper's poems can be found in Huizache 6, Huizache 8, Riversedge Journal, Somos En Escrito, Dryland Lit, co-editor of Good Cop/Bad Cop Anthology, Flowersong Press 2021. He is also a member of the Macondo Writer's Workshop selected in 2015. Cooper is former United States Marine currently living in the southside of San Antonio, TX. Yaccaira Salvatierra's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, The Nation, Huizache, and Rattle among others. Her collection, Sons of Salts, is forthcoming with BOA Editions in 2024. She is a committee organizer for the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival and a contributing editor for Huizache. She lives in Oakland, California where she is a dedicated educator to historically marginalized and resilient communities. Jo Reyes-Boitel is a poet, playwright, and scholar, queer mixed Latinx, and parent, now working on their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, where they also serve as a teaching assistant. Their publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and the chapbook mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021). Playing with fire, their book of poetry centered on their upbringing, is forthcoming from Next Page Press in November 2023. “she wears bells”, their hybrid opera, was chosen as a finalist for Guerilla Opera's 2022 annual virtual festival.  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: 2023 ALMAAHH & MFA Studio Artists Spotlight! Tony Diaz will be interviewing a few artists and spotlight them on their artistic work as part of the 2023 ALMAAHH & MFAH community! Viri Ramos was introduced to painting at an early age by her mother who was a classically trained oil painter. Growing up they would often work along side each other. Upon graduating college, she made the move from Monterrey, México to Houston, Texas. It was during her time living on her own that she discovered acrylics, which were better suited for her not so well ventilated studio apartment. She found in acrylics the best match for her laid back relaxed aesthetic and personality. Her paintings are filled with life and fun. They are happy and playful.. at times serious, but mostly not at all. She favors rough strokes and bold colors. Instagram: @viriviriramos Website: www.viriramos.com Gerardo Rosales born in Venezuela is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who has been living and working in Houston, Texas, for 21 years. Rosales first started producing art as a self-taught artist, before attending the Armando Reverón Art Institute in Caracas, Venezuela, where he earned a B.A. in Fine Art. After graduating, he moved to London to study at Chelsea College of Art and Design, where he obtained an M.A. in Fine Art. Achieving recognition for his distinct and original work in Latin America's best known art venues, Rosales has continued developing his art career in Houston. Rosales's art calls attention to social issues, using a personal iconography connected to his experience as an immigrant in the US. His work is informed by traditions of western art and Latin American folk art. Rosales' latest art projects include: Commissioned to produce 3 big artworks for the new International Arrival Terminal at Bush International Airport; “Juicy Jungle” at Bill Arning Exhibitions, Houston (current) ; “Ornamento y Delito” at Carmen Araujo Arte , Caracas, Venezuela , 2022; “The Tree of Life” at Houston Botanic Garden (current); ¡Displaced Mundo! a wall painting at the Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, 2021; “The Banquet” a wall painting at Lawndale Art Center , 2021. During 2018 -2019 Rosales was an artist-in-residence in The TransArt Foundation for Art and Anthropology; from 2019-2021was the artist-in-residence at Lawndale Art Center in Houston. He was awarded the 2019 Support for Artists and Creative Individual Grant from the City of Houston, through the Houston Arts Program. Nela Garzón is a multidisciplinary visual artist with a profound interest in exploring foreign media inspired by traditional crafts and cultures from all over the world. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, she obtained a Bachelor's of Visual Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana on 2004. In Colombia she worked as a freelance artist and took part of national exhibitions such as 12 Salón Regional de Artistas, 41 Salón Nacional de Artistas and 4to Salón de Arte Bidimensional. She immigrated to the U.S. on 2010 and settled in Houston on 2012 where she currently lives and works. Her art has been shown around the U.S. On 2019 she was the 1st place award recipient of the Assistance League of Houston Texas Art Show curated by Jennie Goldstein, Assistant Curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, on 2020 she was selected as a LIFTS grant recipient and two of her works were added to the West Collection located in Philadelphia, PA and on 2022 she was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston to create a temporary sculpture that was showcased at the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden. Nela Garzón www.minkstereo.com 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: Latino Writers Having Their Say has guest host Rodrigo Bravo filling in for Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, author of the book "The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital." Even though Tony may not be here, ya sabes que le damos esquina al Librotraficante and continue talking about cultivating cultural community capital. Nuestra Palabra welcomes Jose Ralat and Gustavo Arellano to the show to discuss their work covering cultura y nuestra gente through food. On our show, we will specifically talk about Tex Mex food, it's evolution, and how that reflects on our Latinidad. Both of our guests will be appearing at the Irma & Emilio Nicolas Media Center in collaboration with the City of San Antonio World Heritage Office to talk in the "Great SA: Tex Mex Debate" to discuss Tex Mex food, how it happened, and why it's so controversial. This exciting panel will take place Thursday, April 20, 2023, doors at 6p, program at 7p, and discussion afterwards at 8p. Supported by: Arts & Culture, City of San Antonio City of San Antonio World Heritage Office Frost Bank, & Texas Public Radio José R. Ralat is Texas Monthly's Taco Editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. He is the author of American Tacos: A History & Guide. In 2022, he won a James Beard Foundation Award for his Texas Monthly Tex-Mexplainer column. Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. He previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.” He's the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy. 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

Frida Festival Showcase! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, interviews artist Lizbeth Ortiz, artist and founder of Houston's Frida Festival! Also joining us are two big contributors to the event! Our show airs Tueday's on 90.1 FM KPFT Houston on Houston's Community Radio 90.1 FM at 7:00 PM CST. We will share a podcast link as well after the show! Alan Gonzalez / Alantude is an Emmy award winning fashion and costume designer based out New York. Project Runway contestant and host of Project Runway Redemption, Alan runs his namesake brand Alantude, as well as working on private commission for TV, Film & Theatre and private events. Constance Vazzino is a mixed media artist and full time educator living in Houston TX. She graduated with a BFA with a focus in Studio Painting. Her art is all about the process that includes different mediums, colors, imagery, and materials within her pieces. Her inspiration comes from oceanic and biology related images. As for Lisbeth Ortiz, she was born in Mexico City, raised in Houston, and thrust into adulthood in New York City certainly have influenced her work. Lizbeth Ortiz graduated from HSPVA/Houston and attended Pratt Institute/NYC.In 2005 along with a community of inspired artists, Lizbeth Ortiz organized the first Frida Festival in Houston. Join us and we'll see you there at the Frida Festival, a month long celebration! Viva Frida! Art Exhibition MECA East End April 8, 6-9 pm Frida en Primavera Dinner + Fashion Show | The Ballroom at Bayou Place April 19, 6-10 pm Frida Festival | MECA April 29, 11 am – 7 pm More info at https://www.fridafestival.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Latino Writers Having Their Say's Tony Diaz the Librotraficante welcomes Award Winning Author and one of the OG Librotraficante Caravan members Diana Lopez to the show to discuss her latest book, the first in a series, "Felice and the Wailing Woman". Diana speaks with Tony about her inspiration behind the book and her literary journey and her current partnerhsip with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Latino Book Store's Texas Author Series to create curriculum and lesson plans from authors, all through a grant spearheaded by Joaquin Castro. To highlight this partnership, Tony also has on the show San Antonio ISD Teacher Celi Manriquez; the Bonham Middle School STEM Academy instructor is developing the lesson plans for Ms. Lopez's book so that students can read stories about them, that they can relate to, and can inspire them. We have a live event on April 14th at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center as well as at Bonham Academy; check our next post for more details! Diana López is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and numerous middle grade novels, including Confetti Girl, Nothing Up My Sleeve, and Lucky Luna. Her debut picture book is now available and is called Sing With Me: The Story of Selena Quintanilla. She also wrote the novel adaptation for the Disney/Pixar film, Coco. Diana retired after a 28-year career in education at both the middle grade and college levels. Her "second act" day job is helping her husband in his physical therapy clinic, FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Center, located in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, but she still enjoys meeting with students when she visits schools to chat about books and writing. 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. As an educator, she ensures that her students have a rich, deep understanding of the culture and contributions of the Latinx/e community and are taught a true history of Texas. 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. 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

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An interview with Dr. Richard A. Tapia and his featured book "Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering" Richard Tapia is the Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering, a professor in computational and applied mathematics and director of the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity, all at Rice University. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the US government's highest honor bestowed on scientists, and the National Science Board's Vannevar Bush Award. He served on the National Science Board from 1996-2002, and two professional conferences have been named in his honor: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Mathematics Conference. He lives in Houston, Texas. In his eye-opening book, Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering, nationally acclaimed scholar Richard Tapia examines the issues that keep domestic minority students out of STEM education and careers. A professor for almost 50 years in Rice University's Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Tapia is struck by the number of foreign students in the hallways and wonders how the United States can remain globally competitive. 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 & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center hosted Ms. Silviana Wood and her debut book "La Quinta Soledad" from Aztlan Libre Press recently to a packed house. Our show highlights the event and features a phenomenal reading by Florinda Flores-Brown. We also had a special performance by Juan Tejeda and Armando Tejeda which is why you have to come by the GCAC live every 2nd Friday of the month! A native of Tucson, Arizona, Silviana Wood received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and has been involved in the local theater community since the 1970s. She is known for her bilingual comedies and dramas as well as for being a professional storyteller, actor, director, and teacher of literature and Chicano Theater. Silviana has twice won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California, Irvine: once for Short Story, and once for Drama. In 2016, Barrio Dreams/ Selected Plays by Silviana Wood was published by the University of Arizona Press. FMI: https://aztlanlibrepress.com/silviana-wood/ 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

Texas State Representative Christina Morales led a press conference on March 8th at the Texas State Capitol to advocate for House Bill 45. House Bill 45 would add Mexican American and African American studies and other ethnic studies courses students can take to satisfy their social studies requirement. This will offer students a more robust view of Texas history and studies show it can lead to academic success. State Rep. Christina Morales authored HB 45. She is re-filing it this year, after an identical bill passed in the House in 2021 but died in the Senate. On Wednesday at the Capitol, Morales was joined by Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Alma Allen, Rep. Ron Reynolds, Rep Victoria Neave Criado, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, & Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, as well as members from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and Texas Legislative Black Caucus, as well as Tony Diaz, educator and one of the chief advocates for the bill outside of the legislative body. Morales pushed that courses such as ethnic social studies lead to higher graduation rates and a higher likelihood of students enrolling into college. She said that was especially important in the "post-pandemic world" we are living in. She also touted that bipartisan support efforts like hers have received in the past. "Mexican American studies and African American studies were unanimously approved by the Republican and Democratic members in the state board of education," Morales said. "So this is bipartisan." Co-authoring this bill, among others, is Rep. Alma Allen. She said she would support HB 45 as many times as it takes to pass. "Texas history is American history," Allen said. "American history is all of our history." Educators joined lawmakers for the lawmakers' press conference in support of ethnic social studies courses. Tony Diaz, an educator in Houston, said these types of courses were first taught in Houston Independent School District. "Texas was the first state to unanimously support Mexican American history and African American history," Diaz said. "It lets students know why this history is important." Reynolds said HB 45 is a chance to take steps forward instead of backward. "This bill will certainly be a great reflection of the true diversity of this state, which is our strength and certainly help with healing," Reynolds said. * 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: José F. Aranda, Jr. interviews Tony Diaz LIVE! on Nuestra Palabra! In this twist of an interview, it will be José F. Aranda, Jr. interviewing Tony Diaz and asking questions about his book, "The Tip of the Pyramid, Cultivating Community Cultural Capital" José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022. 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: Preview of “Images & Words: Media's Influence on the Struggle for Civil Rights” Tony Diaz discusses with the Rothko Chapel team about the MLK tribute on Jan 15th and their work supporting this effort. Kelly Johnson (she/they) is an arts and culture organizer, curator, and writer. She is the Director of Public Programs at the Rothko Chapel, a sacred art space dedicated to community engagement through contemplation and action at the intersections of art, spirituality, and social justice. Kelly has organized programming at the Chapel for 6 years, including concerts and performances, lectures, conversations, meditations, and conferences, covering issues such as racial equity, climate justice, civil rights, and more. They earned an MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, and a BA in Art History from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. Kelly is a board member of Houston's Center for the Healing of Racism and completed a New Leaders Council (NLC) Houston Fellowship in 2022. Devin Allen, Baltimore native is a self-taught artist who gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was published on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, making him only the third amateur photographer to have his work featured in the publication. Following the untimely deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest was published on the cover of Time magazine in June 2020. In 2017, he was named the first fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as a debut author for his book, A Beautiful Ghetto (Haymarket Books, September 2017). In 2020, he was named an ambassador for Leica Camera AG—an international, premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. His photographs have been published in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aperture; and are also in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. He is the founder of Through Their Eyes, a youth photography educational program, and recipient of an award from The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture for dynamic leadership in the Arts and Activism. His new book, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, was released in October under the Legacy Lit imprint of Hachette Book Group. Lisa Volpe, Associate Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Lisa Volpe is the Associate Curator, Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Before arriving in Houston, she was the Curator of the Wichita Art Museum where she oversaw all areas of the museum's collection. Additionally, she held various curatorial roles at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), and fellowships at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Cleveland Museum of Art. 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

A more in-depth walk-through of the application in Spanish with Tony Diaz facilitating the conversation with artists Gabriela Magana and Arielle Masson from the Latina American Women's Artists of Houston, a collective of Latin American Women Artists working in the greater Houston Area since 2017. This Spanish info session will include background and guiding questions from our panel. Video and audio includes responses to posted Q&A from live session. For more FAQs - check out https://support.houstonbanf.org for updated answers to questions posed in prior sessions. Gabriela Magana is a Houston based artist born in Mexico. Her work has evolved hand in hand with the exploration of her place as a woman and as a Latina in this age and time. Therefore, she has come to use mixed media in her paintings, as well as thick paint as an exploration of materials and storytelling. She uses the physicality of her works as a symbol to the subject matter, making the viewer feel closer to the work, and giving clues about the story behind it. Arielle Masson, being born from a Mexican mother and a French father, being bilingual from birth, and now trilingual, and, after having grown up in Europe and traveled extensively in Africa, in India, and in Latin America, and having elected to live in Houston for the past 30 years, has given up trying to define, fit and belong to any specific cultural idiosyncrasy. Her hybrid position makes her acutely aware that most people identify seamlessly with their native culture without questioning it. It is only in the movement of migration, immigration that the problem of identity arises. In turn, she understand the contemporary discourse of multiculturalism, pluralism, and today's globalism, being generated mostly by relentless human technological advancements. BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, or BANF, was created to provide resources and networks that support the vibrant Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and other communities of color of Greater Houston in fully displaying their power, values and traditions. Its goals are achieved through grant funding, advocacy, and community-building networking initiatives that revolutionize the local funding landscape, break down silos within the arts ecosystem, and welcome everyone to support and learn from BIPOC arts communities. BANF is an independent initiative funded by the generous contributions of national and local foundations, including Houston Endowment, the Ford Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Cullen Foundation, Kinder Foundation and The Powell Foundation. Nuestra Palabra fully supports and appreciates the work of these folks and entities as we empower marginalized communities. 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An Interview with José F. Aranda, Jr. Tony Diaz interviews José F. Aranda, Jr. who is a Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures and will talk about his book "The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948" José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Dr. Aranda has a dual appointment in the departments of English and Modern and Classical Literature & Culture. He is a board member of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. Co-founder with Priscilla Ybarra of Avanzamos: El Taller Chicana/o, an annual workshop focused on advanced scholarship in Chicanx Studies, sponsored by Rice University and the University of North Texas. In July 2020, he joined the Board of Trustees of Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston. In 2022, along with Carmen Lamas, Yolanda Padilla, and John Alba Cutler, co-founding editor of the journal, Pasados: Recovering History, Imagining Latinidad, University of Pennsylvania Press. 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

HOUSTON, Texas – Representative Morales will be hosting a press conference to discuss the reintroduction of her Ethnic Studies bill that passed the House during the 87th Legislative Session. She will host local leaders to discuss the importance of Ethnic Studies as well as the renewed efforts to pass this bill in the upcoming 88th Legislative Session. Representative Morales will be joined by Senator Carol Alvarado, Representative Gene Wu, Tony Diaz, and other local leaders. The bill passed with unanimous support out of the House Public Education Committee last session, and in a historic vote on May 11th, 2021, passed on third reading in the Texas House of Representatives. Texas State Representative Morales said, “Throughout my life, I have been empowered by knowing my family and community's history. This bill would ensure that all Texans, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to learn their history. Tomorrow we will come together to once again bring renewed effort to making these courses available statewide.” Community organizer Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, added, “It is an honor to unite to support courses that are proven to increase graduation rates, academic achievement, and inspire students to profoundly examine the role of our communities in forming this state and this nation.” Afterwards, Dr. Valerie A. Martinez & Dr. Angela Valenzuela discuss the importance of SB 45 and why it is important to have these type of courses in our high schools. 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents our latest supercut of some of the amazing readings, poetry, prose, y musica from the last few months! Included in this edition: Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Xavier Garcia, Veronique Medrano, David Romero, Marisol Cortez, Matt Sedillo, Leticia Urieta, David Vidaurre, and more! 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, literary curator of the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, hosts Xavier Garza, to discuss his journey and read from his work as part of the Texas Author Series. Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He is an enthusiastic author, artist, teacher and storyteller whose work is a lively documentation of life, dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of South Texas. Garza has exhibited his art and performed his stories in venues throughout Texas, Arizona and the state of Washington. He has received such recognitions as the Pura Belpre Honor book and the Libro de las Americas Honor book awards. He lives with his wife and son in San Antonio, Texas, and is the author of numerous books. 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 Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

We will have a Christmas Special focusing on Moody Gardens and The Alley Theatre who are reaching out to the Latino community by hiring Latinos for key posts. Sharing these amazing opportunities are Marie Elena Cortés, Public Relations Coordinator, Moody Gardens & Baldemar Rodriguez, Community Manager of Partnerships, Alley Theatre. Marie Elena Cortés is a proud Latina who taught for 26 in Houston schools with her energetic and powerful dedication. Marie has experience as a photographer, published author, artists, actress, model, teacher, podcast host, and educational consultant. She is also an entrepreneur under Cortes Educational Services and inspires parents and teachers through her story telling, art projects and writing workshops. Cortes and her son share a podcast; Shine with Marie & Mark, where they highlight citizens and community leaders who are doing what they love. This summer, Marie Elena moved to Galveston Island and joined Moody Gardens as a Public Relations Coordinator. Her passion continues to glow as she promotes a non-profit educational destination that utilizes nature in the advancements of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation, and research. “Never stop shining your light, because it will show you the way!”-Marie Elena Cortes Baldemar Rodriguez (@myfilmdirector), the Manager of Community Partnerships at the @alleytheatre, will be co hosting our event at the Alley Theatre! Join us at the Nuestra Palabra 2022 & The Zocalo Committee's “Houstonians Who Shape The Nation” event at the @alleytheatre on Monday October 3rd. Get your tickets today by clicking the bio on our link! Baldemar Rodriguez was studied acting at the University of Houston's School of Theater where he transitioned into writing, directing, and producing. His resume includes In Search of the American Dream (2012), FlasNovelas (2015) and Grey Focus (2008). 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 Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com