Project Management: Fronteridades

Projects

What happens when you bring together university resources, grassroots advocacy, and the power of storytelling at the US-Mexico border? You get Fronteridades, an initiative dedicated to changing the narrative around the borderlands by elevating the voices of people living in and crossing the border.

As the Project Manager for this $1.5 million initiative at the University of Arizona's Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, my job is more than reviewing budgets and crafting agreements; it's about building partnerships based on trust and reciprocity with over 50 regional partners—from public entities like the City of Tucson Cultural Affairs Office to dedicated advocacy groups like Coalición Derechos Humanos.

Funded by the Mellon Foundation, Fronteridades: Nurturing Collaborative Intersections in the US-Mexico Border has allowed me to

  • Implement an undergraduate internship program that placed 31 students across campus in local non-profits and public-sector offices, including Chicanos por la Causa and the Florence Project. These internships gave students real-world experiences that turned into direct career hires.
  • Amplify overlooked narratives through our Border Arts Collective program. We worked directly with regional artists and organizations, such as the O'Odham Art Exchange and the Museo de Nogales, to create spaces for communities to challenge mainstream border stereotypes through their own art and history.
  • Support local research and creative endeavors by administering a competitive fellowship program where more than 40 faculty and graduate researchers, alongside 24 creative members of the community, received funding for their projects.
  • Participate in various events as a spokesperson, including the Latinx/a/o Studies Association Conference "Justice + Joy" in 2024, the National Humanities Alliance Conference "Crossroads," and the Annual Association for Borderlands Studies Conference in 2023.

Fronteridades has shown me that true community impact happens when we start listening, share resources, and build lasting, self-sustaining coalitions.