Topic by Category: Texas

Stephanie Elizondo Griest grew up in South Texas and considers herself biracial, as the daughter of a mother with Mexican roots, and a father whose European ancestors settled in Kansas. Neither she nor her sister grew up speaking much Spanish, and Stephanie shares her struggles with her ethnic identity and the stories that arise from her voyage in Mexico during 2005 and 2006 in her recently released book, Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines.

Josephine F. Garza is the Executive Director for the National Latino Children’s Institute (NLCI), the only organization dedicated solely to focusing on issues impacting Latino children and to building healthy communities for Latino children and their families. She is Mexican-American and from Texas.

Award-winning author and professor Norma Elia Cantú is a Chicana postmodernist writer and a professor of English and U.S. Latina/o Literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired), and Founder & President of Educational Achievement Services, Inc. is an Army Veteran, Author, Motivational Speaker, and Educator. She is of Mexican descent and grew up in the
Texas-Mexico border region.

Lora Villarreal is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer for ACS (Affiliated Computer Services). Lora is Mexican American and grew up in East Los Angeles, but currently lives in Dallas, Texas.

Adriana Vela, Mexican-American founder and CEO of NanoBioNexus, a a not-for-profit corporation whose goal is to promote safe and market-accepted advances in nanosciences.

Nancy Rodriguez, Artist, Arts Administrator and Activist. Mexican-American and from San Antonio, Texas, Nancy is the Owner of Tochtli Angel Arts, a cultural arts management and planning company.

Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Mexican-American and from a small town on the Texas/Louisiana border, she was Staff Director and General Counsel for the House Committee on Homeland Security at the time of her interview.

Elma Gonzalez, cell biologist, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, and the fourth Chicana to ever receive a Ph.D. in the sciences.