Latino Role Models is a FREE conference for Santa Cruz County students from grade 6 to college and their families. LRM features Latino college students and professionals.  The conference is conducted in Spanish with English translation.

2023 SPEAKERS

Keynote speaker Olga Talamante is Executive Director Emerita of the Chicana Latina Foundation (CLF). She became the first Executive Director of CLF in January 2003 serving in that position until she retired in March of 2018.

Ms. Talamante’s family migrated from Mexico to Gilroy, California in the early 1960’s where they worked in the farm fields for several years. Those formative years formed the basis for her activism as an organizer and supporter of the nascent United Farm Workers labor union.

She is widely respected for her long-standing community activism and leadership. During the mid-seventies, she became well known for her experience as a political prisoner in Argentina. As a result of a successful grass-roots campaign, she was released after spending 16 months in an Argentine prison. After returning to the United States, she remained active in the Chicana/o, Latin American solidarity, LGBTQ and progressive political movements. She serves on several boards and currently co-chairs the Caravan for the Children, which advocates for the release, reunification and healing of the children separated at the southern border.

She holds a B.A. in Latina American History from UC Santa Cruz and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the School of Education at the University of San Francisco.

During the month of October 2022, she received the following awards: The Visionary Award from Horizons Foundation, The Rosario Anaya Community Service Award from The San Francisco Latino Heritage Committee, The History Maker Award from the GLBT Historical Society and the Distinguished Citizen award from the Commonwealth Club.

Juan R. Fuentes grew up in Watsonville and is a graduate of San Francisco State University. He taught at Mission Campus/City College SF, the California College of the Arts, and was visiting faculty in the San Francisco Art Institute’s print department. He was also director of Mission Grafica at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.

Inspired by the Chicano Movement and mentors Rupert Garcia and Malaquias Montoya, Juan has dedicated his art as an artist/activist in supporting and being part of a global movement for social change. His posters and relief prints have addressed many issues as they relate to communities of color, social justice, racism, and international struggles for liberation.

Juan’s studio Pajaro Editions is part of Consejo Grafico Nacional, a collective of Chicano/Latinx print studios. His prints and posters reside in various institutions and museums including, the Mexican Museum of San Francisco, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, the Library of Congress, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles and CEMA, the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of Santa Barbara. CEMA has also set up a personal archive for his works. 

Awards:

2019 Harriet Barlow Award, Blue Mountain Center

2010 Activist Award, Southern Graphics Council International

2009 Art is a Hammer Award, Center for the Study of Political Graphics

2005 Honorary Membership, California Society of Printmakers