Meet Us

Graciela I. Sanchez

See above.

Norma E. Cantú, professor, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M at Laredo and Kingsville, respectively, and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. At Laredo State University, later renamed Texas A&M International University, she taught and served as Chair and Interim Dean. She was a senior arts administrator with the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC and was Acting Chair of the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her teaching interests include Cultural Studies, Contemporary Literary Theory, Border Studies, Chicano/a and Latina/o Literature & Film, Folklore and Women’s Studies. Dr. Cantú has published articles on a number or academic subjects as well as poetry and fiction. Her publications on border literature, the teaching of English, quinceañera celebration and the matachines, a religious dance tradition have earned her an international reputation as a scholar and folklorist. She has co-edited four books and edited a collection of testimonios by Chicana scientists, mathematicians and engineers. Her award winning Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera chronicles her childhood experiences on the border. She edits the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Culture and Traditions book series at The Texas A&M University Press. She is currently the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.

Rachel hails from the Appalachias. She came to San Antonio to teach at the University of the Incarnate Word and now works at San Antonio College as an adjunct professor in English.

is a retired educator from the San Antonio Independent School District. After having taught English at Lanier, she became an administrator - Middle School & High School Principal and Human Resources Director. She then was a Teacher Certification Officer at University at the Incarnate Word and Assistant to the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Our Lady of the Lake University.

La Voz de Esperanza Editor

A native of Austin, Gloria has lived in San Antonio since 1977 is a retired bilingual early childhood educator. She was active in the anti-war movement and Chicanx movement as a student at UT-Austin in the late 60s and early 70s where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She has been involved with the Esperanza since its opening in 1987. Currently, she is a member of the PreK4SA board of directors, the Esperanza's Conjunto de Nepantlera

Lilliana Patricia Saldaña is a Chicana activist scholar raised in San Antonio’s Southside. Saldaña attended Boston University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and International Relations, with a concentration in Latin American Studies and a minor in Journalism in 1998. Shortly after completing her studies, Saldaña worked at a dual-language school in San Antonio’s Westside and earned a master’s degree in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2002. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was involved in numerous campus-activist projects and worked in community settings, synthesizing her passion for research and social change. As a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Saldaña worked with Latina/o families to establish Nuestro Mundo, the first dual-language school in the city, and Formando Lazos, community development project with Latina immigrant mothers. She earned a doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Studies, with a minor in Chicana/o families, schools, and communities, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010. Her dissertation—“¡De mi barrio no me voy!: The identity and consciousness of Mexican American teachers at a dual-language school—examines the life histories of Raza teachers and the ways in which they transform, negotiate and reproduce the culture of schooling in San Antonio, Texas.

Nadine is a Lebanese-Syrian immigrant who has been working with the Esperanza to educate San Antonio and South Texas residents about the struggles in the Middle East. A translator, Nadine works to bridge the gap between “American” and “Arab American” through cultural understanding and translation, literally and figuratively. She writes for La Voz de Esperanza and speaks in the community on the plight of Arab immigrants.

Rodolfo Rosales was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. After receiving his BA from St. Mary’s University and his MA from Trinity University in San Antonio he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He received a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Ford Foundation/NRC and now is a Senior Scholar at the Ford Foundation/NRC. In the natural course of events he was then appointed to the faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he is now retired as an Associate Professor. He is the author of The Illusion of Inclusion: The Untold Political Story of San Antonio (UT Press, 2000) and co-editor of Latino Urban Agency (Univ of North Texas Press, 2012).

Amy is a senior professor of law at St. Mary's University Law School and a member of the bar in Texas and New Mexico. She is a nationally recognized authority on contract law, having co-authored a widely-known text entitled Contracting Law.  Professor Kastely also has written numerous articles exploring how law is shaped by narratives of race, gender, class, and other systems of subordination. Kastely served as lead counsel in Esperanza et al. v. City of San Antonio, the first case recognizing the importance of cultural rights in public arts funding. In addition, she has represented the Esperanza and numerous community coalitions in litigation and organizing projects involving a broad spectrum of important issues, including protection of the Edward's Aquifer; the right of communities to use public streets, sidewalks, and parks for cultural events and political expression; racial bias in the City's historic preservation practices; and the public's right to witness government deliberations and to hold government officials accountable to democratic values.

"I am a lifelong resident of San Antonio, I have been with the love of my life for 22 years and we have two kiddos in college. I graduated from UTSA with Bachelor's in Political Science and Sociology and a Master's in Political Science and began my relationship with the Esperanza when we as a family began attending the International Women's Day March over two decades ago. I have come to realize that, as someone who grew up on the northeast side of San Antonio, that if you've never been to the westside or seen the work that the Esperanza has done, you may have resided but never 'lived' in San Antonio. I joined the Board in the Fall of 2020 and I am still humbled by the fact that they have welcomed me; and with that said, 'Todos Somos Esperanza!'"