Jocelyn Martinez
Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in LA, Jocelyn is a fourth year English major with a minor in Chicanx Studies. She is passionate about writing, fostering community, and telling the stories of immigrant communities and people of color through journalism, poetry, and short stories. When she’s not stressing over school, you can find her eating pho and excessively caffeinating herself.
Elena Diebel
Managing Editor
Elena is a third year art major from San Francisco who is interested in discussions on multi-ethnic identities. She hopes to pursue an interdisciplinary career in arts and education. In her free time she likes to dance to Kool and the Gang and other funky soul music.
Anakaren Andrade
Editor
Anakaren is a fourth year Environmental Science major and Theater minor who was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. She enjoys watching theater performances, novelas, and films that showcase important issues. In the future, she hopes to create films about environmental racism and films that combat Latinx stereotypes in the media.
Rosa Garcia
Editor
Rosa Garcia is an English and Psychology double major at UCLA. She likes to explore topics from all angles in order to consider the bigger picture at the heart of the issues. She believes that language has a lot of power that can bring together many communities.
Andrea Martinez
Editor, Radio Coordinator
Andrea is a third year Political Science major who hosts the Chismeando Con La Gente radio show. She enjoys Mexican produced films, nostalgic novelas, and Rock en Espanol. She hopes to one day give back to her community by providing supplemental help to Latinx students struggling in school in order for them to pursue a higher education.
Alexis Morales
Radio Co-host
Alexis Morales grew up in East LA, where he gained a fondness for music, film, and other media arts. He studies English and shreds guitar in his free time. He is currently a co-host of Chismeando con La Gente, a radio show on UCLA Radio.
Jesus Perez
Radio Co-host
Jesus Perez Lopez is a Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology major at UCLA. After spending 4 years at an art school for Creative Writing, he managed to get a piece of flash fiction published on the online literary magazine Quail Bell. When he’s not stressing over memorizing amino acids and gene pathways, he spends his time looking for new music at Amoeba Records and trying to convince himself and others that he can play guitar.
Elizabeth Garcia
Writer, Radio Intern
Elizabeth Garcia is a second year Political Science and History major born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. When she is not busy finishing schoolwork or working, she is most likely trying some new LA restaurant with friends, watching her favorite bands perform, or practicing guitar. She also loves to discuss and educate herself about different social issues regarding feminism, racism, homophobia, and animal rights, and she hopes to further this discussion as a part of La Gente.
Carolina Sanchez
Writer, Radio Intern
A human being.
Born at a very young age.
Meet the plainest of bagels.
Maria Amaya
Writer
Maria Amaya is a second year Pre International Development Studies major. She grew up in the beautiful country of Mexico and currently lives in Tulare, California. She is a museum junkie, a dessert lover, and a Criminal Minds fanatic. She aspires to attend medical school and one day work with Doctors Without Borders. She also enjoys kayaking, learning about different cultures, watching animal documentaries, and long walks on the beach.
Evelyn Arroyo
Writer
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Evelyn Arroyo now calls LA her second home. She is a Sociology major, with a minor in Chicanx Studies, at UCLA. She enjoys all things music, art, and fashion--and embraces the positivity and self-empowerment of women in the various realms of artistry. Give her some tacos al pastor y champurrado and she will gladly welcome you with open arms. Que viva la raza!
Gabrielle Biasi
Writer, Photographer
Gabrielle is majoring in Fine Art, with an emphasis in photography, and is minoring in sociocultural anthropology. She is passionate about intersectional feminism, and is eager to explore how photography and social media can together ignite a movement. Pottery, museums, and empanadas de jamón y queso are among her favorite things.
Kimberly Caal Garcia
Writer
Kimberly Caal is from El Monte in the San Gabriel Valley. Her favorite things include watching Law and Order: SVU, enjoying new historical shows, day dreaming, and being a little savage.
Natalia Cadena-Másmela
Writer
Natalia is a Latin American Studies major with a passion for literature and the art of writing. In creating pieces of eloquence, poetry, and emotion she hopes to reach the hearts of others through her desire to shine a light on injustice in the Latin American community as well as the uplifting stories that Latinos help forge. She believes that her art could not be written by solely her own efforts but is rather inspired by the lives that her fellow Latinos live through times of struggle and times of accomplishment.
Alondra Castanon
Writer
Alondra Castanon is a Chicana, born in Mexico and raised in the Bay Area. She is a traveler, a coffee enthusiast, an advocate for social justice, and a feminist. She is passionate about writing, exploring new places with a camera in hand, and listening to angsty rock music. In her free time, you can find her watching her favorite bands and musicians live (Ed Sheeran is her one true love.)
Gisselle Cortez
Writer
Gisselle Cortez is a first year, Pre-Human Biology and Society major with a minor in Spanish. She was born and raised in Salinas, California as an only child. She loves to run for fun and jam out to Mana, Beyonce, and Calle 13. One day she hopes to be able to help developing countries, especially people in Latin America. Oh, and she has a really unhealthy relationship with Hot Cheetos.
Anthony Garcia
Writer
Anthony Garcia studies an array of subjects at the University of California, Los Angeles to develop a multi-level perspective on national and global issues starting with the roots of each crises. He considers himself a server to his community and will advocate for their well being just as they have fought to provide him an opportunity of higher education.
Victoria Garcia Lecuona
Writer
Victoria García Lecuona is a first year majoring in International Development Studies and Gender Studies. Originally from Mexico City and and now living in Los Angeles for school, Victoria looks forward not only to immerse herself into the distinct culture, but also to challenge the variety of negative stereotypes that have been imposed on Latinos. She wishes to bring a different and international perspective to La Gente, especially within the area of sociology.
Cristina Gonzalez
Writer
Cristina González was raised in the city of San Bernardino, CA, her home. She is a fourth year Psychology and Spanish double major. Ella disfruta todas las cosas con arte, cultura y comunidad. On her free time she loves watching movies, going to concerts, reading, drinking horchata, and taking lots of pictures.
Vanessa Gonzalez Soto
Writer
Van is a 24 year old Latina writer based in Wilmington, CA. She is a UCLA Comparative Literature major trying to establish her imprint in the world and working to become a journalist. She rides solo most days, loves a mean iced green tea, owns the cutest Siberian husky named River, and fills her days with writing, school, and exploring museums. Her writing is conversational, sensitive, and scattered but uniquely intriguing and atmospheric. She is always plugged into some Kid Cudi (her musical soulmate), Frank Ocean, and Radiohead.
Joseph Mejia
Writer
Joseph Mejia is a first-year transfer student from Riverside, California, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Labor & Workplace Studies. His areas of interest include leftist movements, local history, garage rock, and pepperoni pizza. Growing up with influences like George Orwell and Che Guevara, Joseph found his passion in the Chicano movement and politics, discovering that a working-class hero was something he should be.
Cindy Montoya
Writer
Cindy Montoya is a Political Science major and a Chicana/o Studies minor. Her family is from Guanajuato, Mexico but she was born and raised in the Central Valley and absolutely loves the diversity of culture, experience, and adventure of living in SoCal. She loves her mom’s cooking, her mom, banda music, old school rock’n’roll, drinking coffee, chocolate, and elephants. She hopes to fulfill her dream of attaining a job focused on reforming public policy and to live in Italy in the near future.
Irlanda Mora
Writer
Irlanda Mora is a second year from Pomona, California. She’s passionate about social justice and advocating for marginalized communities. In her free time, she reads about urban development, specifically about the impact of development projects on the members of the communities they intend to ‘revitalize’. She also enjoys a good laugh. Ha!
Danial Nadeem Zafar
Writer
Danial is a first year Economics (and maybe Psychology or Communications Studies) major. He enjoys self-help books and writing about diversity and inclusion. His guilty pleasures include bad romantic comedies and Peter Pan aesthetics.
Kenneth Sanchez
Writer
Kenneth hails from the wonderful city of angels. He prefers to be called Keny. His favorite sport is eating and he practices it a couple times a day. Some of his other past times include dosing off and pressing the snooze button (too many times than he actually should). He likes diving into the mystical and folkloric side of life as a means of escaping reality. Movies also form part of his escapist act and are of great value to him. On occasions you’ll see him sewing, photoshopping, or performing various amounts of random crafts. Kenneth enjoys the simple things in life like piña-coladas and getting caught in the rain. Oh, and one of his greatest desires is world peace *puts on awkward pageant smile*.
Kristian Vasquez
Writer
Kristian Emiliano Vasquez lives in the City of South Gate. As a first-year transfer studying sociology and Chicana/o Studies, he hopes to become a professor who highlights cultural productions of resistance in Raza communities. He grew up with punk rock, thrash metal, and a tendency to binge buy vinyl records.