HONORING LEADERS AND PATRONS OF THE ARTS

JUNE 24, 2014

NALAC HOUSTON HONORS

6:30 pm RECEPTION MUSIC by MECA Mariachi Juventud

7:00pm WELCOME Adan Medrano, Chair Host Committee & NALAC Board Member

7:30pm SIGNIFICANCE OF HOUSTON HONORS Charles Rice-González, NALAC Board Chair

7:35pm RECOGNITION OF SPONSORS María Lopez de León, NALAC Executive DIrector

8:30pm KEYNOTE SPEAKER LUIS VALDEZ Award-winning Playwright

8:45pm CLOSING

8:10pm CHRISTINE ORTEGA Southwest Airlines

8:20pm ALICE VALDEZ MECA Performing Arts

7:55pm HONOREE INTRODUCTIONS María Lopez de León & Charles Rice-González

8:00pm GWENDOLYN ZEPEDA Houston Poet Laureate

7:40pm REMARKS BY HOUSTON MAYOR ANNISE D.PARKER

TONIGHT’S ITINERARY

7:45pm OPERA by Vanessa Cerda Alonso and Saul Avalos Houston Grand Opera

ABOUT NALAC

THE HOUSTON HONORS HOST COMMITTEE INCLUDES:

Adán Medrano, NALAC Board Member/JM Communications (Chair); Ernest Bromley, Bromley Communications; Helen Cavazos, M. H. Cavazos & Associates; Deavra Daughtry, TWEF Founder; Margarita de la Vega-Hurtado, Ph.D. and Pat Jasper, Houston Arts Alliance.

WHO WE AREThe National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is the nation’s only multidisciplinary Latino arts service organization. For 25 years, NALAC has delivered programs that stabilize and revitalize the US Latino arts and cultural sector by providing critical advocacy, funding, networking opportunities, leadership development and professional training for Latino artists and arts organizations in every region of the country. The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development, and cultivation of the Latino arts field.

For more info, visit www.nalac.org.

This first annual NALAC Houston Honors Fundraiser honors three local individuals for their diverse achievements in supporting the Latino Arts in Houston and across the Americas.

HOUSTON HONOREES

2014

GWENDOLYN ZEPEDA Poet and Author Houston’s First Poet Laureate Gwendolyn has published three critically acclaimed novels:

Houston, We Have a Problema, Lone Star Legend, and Better with You Here; four award-winning children’s books: Growing Up with Tamales, I Kick the Ball, Sunflowers, and Level Up; a short-story collection: To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him and a book of poems: Falling in Love with Fellow Prisoners: Poems. Her second poetry collection, Monsters, Zombies, and Addicts, will be published by Arte Publico Press this fall.

Zepeda was born in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She was the first Latina blogger and began her writing career as one of the founding writers of entertainment site Television Without Pity.

Gwendolyn is a a two-time Houston Arts Alliance literary fellowship winner and a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title for Growing Up with Tamales.

As Houston’s Poet Laureate, Gwendolyn Zepeda represents the city by creating excitement about poetry through outreach, programs, teaching and written work.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD

Houston Honors is the first in a series of fundraising/awareness-building events bridging NALAC’s national work to our local constituents. This series honors, celebrates and strengthens bonds in important Latino arts communities around the country. With this event, we are grateful to have established and deepened relationships with patrons of the arts in Houston, with the goal of creating a strong network of artists, patrons and stakeholders committed to helping the Latino arts continue to prosper. We’re especially grateful for the diverse work and support of our dynamic honorees, each of whom has contributed to a movement to grow Houston’s flourishing arts & culture world, and who have impacted the field on a national level. We send fuerte abrazos to our honorees and applaud Houston for leading this new series.

Charles Rice-González NALAC Chair of the Board

ALICE E.VALDEZ Founder and Executive Director

Multicutural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA)

Alice has worked for over three decades to help disadvantaged youth and families create a brighter future for themselves and the community.

Known as a visionary and community leader, Alice Valdez’s work has had a tremendous impact on hundreds of Houstonians. Valdez has directed several major public mural projects and major sculpture projects in various Houston elementary schools and parks.

Valdez is a member of the American Leadership Forum. Some of her honors include Houston LULAC Hispanic Woman of the Year, Fiestas Patrias Distinguished Hispanic Award, Barbara Jordan Leadership Award in Visual and Performing Arts, Whitney M. Young Humanitarian Award, Outstanding Contribution to Youth Award by the Community Volunteer Youth Council, YWCA of Houston Outstanding Woman of Achievement in the Arts, Spirit of Community Award to the Hispanic Community from the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students Association of the University of Texas Law School, Sor Juana Woman of Achievement Award, and the Freedom Heroes Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

CHRISTINE ORTEGA Manager of Community Affairs and Grassroots

Southwest Airlines

For the last 23 years, Christine has helped build community

partnerships to carry out the company’s mission of helping people connect through low-cost travel.

Christine’s passion for civil rights, education and social justice, lace her many endeavors as a leader with Southwest Airlines.

Ortega currently serves as board member for the Smithsonian Latino Center, National History Day; and is Board secretary for the PEACE Initiative, a domestic violence prevention and intervention collaborative.

Christine is intent on making a difference in the daily lives of those she serves as a good corporate partner to dedicated groups from coast to coast. Some of the awards she has received include: “Share the Spirit” Southwest Airlines President’s Award; Texas Governor’s Yellow Rose Award City of Houston’s Hero Recognition; “Outstanding Latina Role Model,” Image de San Antonio;- “40 Under 40 Rising Star” Award, San Antonio Business Journal; “Corporate Award” at the Hispanic Heritage Awards, La Prensa Foundation; and most recently 2013 Elaine Mendoza Visionary Award, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The NALAC Houston Honors is made possible with the support from: - Patrons: JM Communications; Southwest Airlines- Leaders: The Law Firm of Vinson & Elkins- Table Sponsors: Christine Ortega, Friends of Alice Valdez, FValdezLaw PC, Lopez-Negrete Communications, M. H. Cavazos & Associates, The Women’s Empowerment Foundation of Houston, The Houston Arts Alliance- Sponsors: Bayside Printing Co., Ernest Bromley, Excelsior Wines, Dr. Gilberto Cardenas and Dolores Garcia, Glazer’s, Inc., HEB, LD Systems, L.P., Sorrel Urban Bistro

Special thanks to Ernest Bromley, Lorenzo Cano, Alberto Cardenas, Helen Cavazos, Deavra Daughtry, Joanne Dodd, Pat Jasper, Dr Richard Jimenez, Dr Luis Malpica y de Lamadrid, Mardi Mayerhoff, Adán Medrano, Alex Negrete, Christine Ortega, Mayor Annise Parker, Armando Perez, Eliseo Trevino, Clarissa Valdez, Jane & Michael West and NALAC Staff.