Maria Christina Moroles - President

In 1959, Maria's parents moved to Dallas to find employment there they lived in government housing until enough money was saved to buy an old house which the whole family worked to remodel.

Lucia Lopez Perez - Board Member
Lucia Lopez Perez Hall is full blood Mayan, of the western Cakchiquel branch. She is originally from San Antonio Palopo', which is located on the eastern shore of Lake Atitlan, in the highlands of Guatemaya. There is much history in the highland region, where the lake was known as the navel of the Earth. Her home town is at least 3,000 years old.

Lucia is married to Jerry Hall, and she is mother to four children, and one adopted son, and a granddaughter. They live mostly in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they operate a shop of handcrafts, and also raise and sell organic blueberries, and other produce.

Lucia has no formal education, but is fluent in Cakchiquel, Spanish, and English. She is an experienced weaver on the traditional mayan backstrap loom (Kem), and has many years experience in small business.

Lucia maintains her ties to her family at Lake Atitlan with yearly visits, and has raised and distributed funds to help the local school, and also for the recent flooding disaster which occurred all around the lake area.

Jerry Hall - Board Member
Jerry Hall is of European, and Native American ancestry. He is the seventh generation since his more recent ancestors first arrived in the Southwest Ozarks area. They were an interesting collection of immigrants, French Huegenaughts farmers, and developers, who left France by way of Ireland in search of adventure, religious freedom, and monetary reward on the frontier of the early United States of America. They became successful at the expense of Native Americans, and with help from their African Slaves. Some of his ancestors were German Immigrants, who are remembered as hard workers who were also musically talented, and held parties often. One Scottish ancestor started out as a schoolteacher, then became a stone mason, whose many old stone buildings are still standing.

Jerry's Choctaw, and Cherokee ancestors came to the Ozark area before The Trail of Tears, when the area was known as Cherokee West, in a futile effort to maintain their freedom from U.S. domination. They were hunters, farmers, orchardists, and builders. They chose to stay in Arkansas after it became a State, and eventually intermarried with early Scottish, English, German, and French immigrants.

Jerry is father to 2 children, and 3 adopted children, and one granddaughter, and married to Lucia Lopez Hall. He has studied Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Horticulture, and Spanish, at the University of Arkansas. He is currently managing building projects in Fayetteville Arkansas, and San Antonio Palopo' Guatemala. He is planting 16,000 hardwood trees along the West Fork of the White River in Fayetteville, and with much help from his wife Lucia, grows organic fruits, and vegetables.

Randi M. Romo - Advisory Board Member
Randi M. Romo (Mexican-American) is the co-founder and current director of the Center for Artistic Revolution, CAR, based in Little Rock, AR. CAR is an inclusive, multi-issued, statewide grassroots community organization that is building a progressive movement in Arkansas. CAR utilizes a holistic combination of education, community organizing, advocacy and creative/cultural work as its vehicle for creating change. The organization’s current focus includes the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community’s fairness and equality issues, removing the use of American Indian imagery as a mascot for Arkansas State University, youth support and leadership development, immigrant communities and creating an entity to receive and determine civil rights complaints in the state.

Randi’s first act of activism was at age 17 when she organized other girls at a residential school in Corpus Christi, Texas to shut the school down for its physical and emotional violence against those in its care. Since then she has worked in the southeast on a variety of issues including; LGBTQ rights, immigrant communities, pesticides, farmworkers, HIV/AIDS, youth/young adults, workers and women. Randi is also a poet, spoken word artist, writer, visual artist, bookworm and loves the outdoors.

Arturo Ramirez
Arturo Ramirez, a native Texan, now living in Mountain View, AR was born in Corpus Christi in 1957. Of Spanish and Yaqui Indian descent, Arturo is one of 9 children. He spent his childhood years between Corpus Christi, California, and Dallas. Currently Arturo is married with five children, his oldest is 24 and his youngest son is 5.

At the age of 17, Arturo joined the US Marine Corps, earning several commendations before his honorable discharge. After leaving the Marines, he earned two college degrees, an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and an Associate of Applied Science degree in Computer Programming.

Professionally, Arturo has vast experience in the commercial graphic arts industry, fine wood-working and custom furniture design and construction. He is also a skilled fine artist and a new juried member of the Arkansas Craft Guild and member of the Mountain View Art Guild. His specialty is in photo-realism pencil drawings.

Arturo has recently left the board an is now an Advisory Board Position. A genuine committed soul, he is excited about this opportunity because it gives him a chance to put his time and talents together creating and contributing to something he whole-heartedly believes in.

Virginia Vega - Advisory Board Member