Artists + Practitioners + Organizations

Haydee "Betty Bangs" Juarez

San Diego County

"Betty Bangs is a queer Chicana artist, working with the medium of painting in acrylic and murals, but also sewing and DJ-ing. Bangs paints shapes representing women of all shapes & sizes. She has painted murals in San Diego and Mexico City and assisted in painting four murals in Chicano Park. Of utmost importance to her is representing her cultura & lifestyle through her work.

Ernesto "Pisado" Gonzalez

San Diego County

A transborder artist, Ernesto Gonzalez is activated by the cultural energy surrounding his community of South San Diego, acknowledging that his practice takes place on Kumeyaay land. Motivated to create meaningful change, he has dedicated his career to building a [digital] voice to broadcast his community's need for justice, equality, and inclusion. Gonzalez is passionate about filmmaking, music, and new media art, and he uses these mediums as anchors in his artistic process and exploration. Through his work as Executive Director of BLK Box Gallery & Creative Center in the borderlands of San Ysidro, he works to engage and support artists through community-centered programming. He received a Bachelor's in Visual Arts: Media (film) from the University of California San Diego and a Master's in Film from San Diego State University. His work as a creative is inspired, informed, and fueled by his Mexican heritage, family, struggles, blessings, and community.

Angelica "Babay L. Angles" Tolentino

San Diego County

Babay L. Angles, aka Bomba Brown (Angelica Janabajal Tolentino), is a Pilipinx interdisciplinary performance artist, DJ, joy and rest practitioner, educator, and community organizer from San Diego, CA (Kumeyaay Territory), Okinawa, Japan, and Olongapo, Philippines. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California San Diego and a Master of Arts in Urban Education and Social Justice with a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Social Studies. She practices deep listening and channels movements to express the inherited resilience of the Pilipinx psyche and is moved by funk, bass, percussion, environmental sound, breath, and land memory. Angles blends decolonial hxstorical research, ethnography, trauma-informed facilitation, movement, installation, adornment, sound, and ritual to heal and get FREE. Weaving connections between the strength of Pilipinx of the diaspora, BIPOC, womxn, LGBTQI+ communities, and those at the margins. She builds community through the shared creation of holistic artistic resistance and wellness.

Oscar J. Romo

San Diego County

Oscar Romo graduated as an architect with master's degrees in urban planning, social housing, and computer science and doctoral studies in environmental sciences. His concentration is art, reflecting scientific discoveries and exemplifying his academic research. An advocate of sustainability, he has created hundreds of art pieces made entirely from repurposed materials. He has worked in several countries on sizeable public art structures down to miniatures, always inspired by natural systems and resource conservation. Committed to education since he was in college, he has led thousands of students to appreciate science.

Alicia Siu

San Diego County

Alicia María Siu’s art centers on revitalizing a Mesoamerican mural tradition and recovering historical memory through art. As a first-generation refugee from the political violence of Central America, Siu came to the U.S. in 1998 at the tender age of 15, eventually earning a master's degree in Native American Studies from the University of California Davis. Her love for her own Mayan/Nahua-Pipil culture and awareness of Colonialism's political reality inspired Siu to advocate for Indigenous and environmental rights. Her art highlights Indigenous and marginalized peoples' ongoing struggle for respect, dignity, and sovereignty while celebrating a spirit of resiliency, healing, and hope.

Trixi Agiao

San Diego County

Trixi Anne Balinggan Agiao’s first experience dancing was with traditional Igorot dance she learned from the Northern California chapter of BIBAK. Her first ties to dance were about heritage, community, and joy. Trixi is a socially conscious performer, choreographer, and filmmaker using the digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. Trixi creates work centered on fighting the stigma against mental illness. Utilizing her visual storytelling experience, Trixi sets out to make work that kinesthetically and mentally connects with her audience. She is a company dancer for Visionary Dance Theatre, where she also runs their educational training company, V2. 

Trixi is also an active volunteer. She is a lead volunteer for the San Diego, Filipino Cinema, United AAPI Artists and Mental Wellness for Artists. Agiao co-founded The Filam Film Collective which focuses on Filipino American representation in the media, and they also provide free affinity spaces for AAPI artists and actors.