Our Team

Project Developer

Gloria has a diverse background in video production, photo /journalism, music and art promotion,
special events producer/director and coordinator, art education, arts administrator and artist. She
creates time-limited projects that serve as national and international platforms for artist both in
visual arts and entertainment. The artists work in various mediums to create bodies of works for
special events followed by gallery exhibitions, formal and informal showcases settings. The artist
face challenges in themes, formats and space configurations. Gloria creates concepts for these
platforms, raise funds, select sites, invite artists, organize staff and oversees every aspect of the
project and it’s promotion.

Gloria was Assistant to Sister Karen at Self Help from 1997 to1992 providing administrative support to Master Printers, wrote grants, and liaised with artists and museum colleagues. She scheduled Atelier program exhibitions and archive institutions. Translated english to spanish the Chicano Expressions exhibition catalog. As a guest artist of SHG her work is now part of the permanent collection of LACMA. Gloria has a diverse background in video production, photo/journalism, music and art promotion, art education, arts administrator, and artist. She creates, directs and produces time-limited projects that serve as national and international platforms for artists in both visual arts and entertainment. These artists work in various mediums to create bodies of work for special events followed by gallery exhibitions in formal and informal showcase settings. Produced and Directed “LA QUEEN” 1st transvestite beauty pageant for a Day Without Art at SHG. Moderate 1992 – 1997- Wearable art fundraiser for AIDS. Developing concepts that challenge her invited artists, and manages every aspect of these events, from curating to site selection/configuration to fund raising and production.
Currently/past 16 years, staff at LACMA in the education department as teaching artist and has been part time staff education department at MOCA LA from 1996 – 2009.

List of TV and Film Production Credits

• 2006-2007 – Vacación, Producer of TV Pilot shot in 8 countries on location in Latin America, Midnight Train Media
• 1999 -The Price of Glory, Extra Coordinator 1997 -Selena, Production Manager 3rd Unit
• 1996 -Parental Skills, Video location manager and 2nd AD for Director Elia Arce
• 1995-PBS Christmas Spec. Production Assistant for The 25th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
• 1995 -Pocho Novela Video Video Producer, collaboration with Coco Fusco and comedy troupe Chicano Secret Service
• 1986-87 -Vivid Productions, London, Production Manager of music videos shot in L.A. MC
• When the Sun Goes Down, Red 7 • Electric Hoedown, MCA Records
  Dweezil Zappa, Chrysalis Records
• 1999-2000 – Conducted media P.R. and screenings for
  top 30 US Latino markets in the US for The Arenas Group: The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca • The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
  Nutty Professor II: The Klumps • What Lies Beneath • The Road to El Dorado
• Chicken Little • Price of Glory

He is the videographer, editor, post production and completion of the reel.
Antonio is an accomplished Director, Producer and videographer initiating his career working for FERCO, (Film Equipment Rental Co) as a Lighting Tech from 1973 – 1975, moving on to Floor Manager for PBS’s “Infinity Factory” in 1976. WBZ/TV-4 in Boston began his passion for cinematography and editing from 1977 to 1980 on public affairs documentaries and the nationally syndicated PM magazine show. Antonio produced and shot a 10 part news series entitled “Nicaragua Hoy.” for KVIA-TV 13 in El Paso, Texas in 1980,

Moving to Los Angeles he continued with the seminal Independent feature film “El Norte” in 1982 as an Assistant Director and served as Producer on the pioneering bilingual TV magazine show “O.K. L. A.” for KSCI Ch: 18 in 1985. He also worked as a Production Assistant on the films “Sweet 16”, a PBS Wonderworks film, “Gangs” a CBS after school special and “Colors” a SOLO film company production. Additionally, Mr. Ogaz served as 1st Assistant Director on “El Segundo Viaje” in Puerto Rico in 95’, “Fish Otta Water” in 94’ and “Never Trust A Serial Killer” in 1998 in Los Angeles, California.

Antonio produced three educational videos (English-Spanish) in 1991 for the Los Angeles County Tobacco Control Program incorporating advertising and research marketing techniques (community focus groups) to create culturally appropriate and entertaining educational videos. In 1998, Ogaz served as a Media Consultant for the Santa Ana Unified School District developing their instructional cable TV channel creating “Education First” a newsmagazine show featuring the school district’s accomplishments.

In 1995, Mr. Ogaz directed and produced, “On Any Day: A Visit to Four L.A. Neighborhoods,” for the Los Angeles Convention Center & Tourist Bureau. In 1996, Antonio directed “AUTOVISION” a 30 minute TV pilot for the Telemundo Television Network and served as segment producer for AT&T LA Fiesta Broadway 96’ All Access Entertainment’s Univision TV special. Freelancing as a news videographer for KTLA CH:5, KVEA CH:52, KCOP Ch:13, and KMEX Ch:34 throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, continued his videography work.

Antonio filmed in Veracruz, Mexico on “Extreme Expeditions” an extreme sports reality show in 2003 and Co-Directed the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Documentary the same year. In 2004/5 Antonio worked as Stage Manager for “TRATO HECHO” a game show based on “Lets’ Make A Deal” for the Univision Television Network, adding two television specials featuring Lupillo Rivera for the Telemundo Television Network as Stage Manager.

Antonio contracted with ESPN for five years (2008-2013) as a Supervisor–Production Operations with the Content Edit group managing editors and daily operations. Here Antonio led several initiatives by developing an After Effects Training program geared for Sports Center editors to incorporate the graphic enhancements of After Effects into their daily workflow to increase production value enhance viewer engagement and heighten postproduction value to the daily SC show. Ogaz returned to the LA area and produced 22 radio spots on immigration reform for the Alliance for Citizenship,” he directed five community service announcements on mental and health education for the LA metro Transit Bureau, and was Director of Cinematography for two independent dramatic shorts., “Love Always” and “Chuy”

Mr. OGas provides media specialist services for the Milagro Strategy Group –Media Training, I-61 Strategic business Development and California Resource Corporation.Most recently Antonio provided production an post production services for the 38th and 39th annual The Radiotron celebration in Los Angeles, California featuring the original break dancing artists who established a community center near MacArthur Park where West Coast break dancing and hip hop were nurtured in the West Coast by a local Chicano community youth activist.

Exectutive Producer

Roland Palencia, MA, is a Professor at California State University Northridge’s (CSUN) -Tseng College in the Diverse Community Development Leadership MA program, and an award-winning filmmaker. He is the former Community Benefits Director and corporate trainer at L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest public health plan in the nation. He is also the former Executive Director of Clinica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero and Equality California, and former multi-County Regional Director at The California Endowment and Chief of Operations and Vice-President at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

In 2001, he was honored as a “Local Hero” by KCET (PBS affiliate) and Union Bank of California. In the early 1980s, he became one of the founders and a pioneer of the blossoming LGBTQ Latine movement in the greater Los Angeles area, including co-founding Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) and VIVA!, a Queer Latine artist collective. Palencia has been featured in a number of books and publications such as “Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians” by Stuart Timmons and Lilian Faderman (2006). “Central Americans in Los Angeles” by Rosamaria Segura (2010); and “The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle” by Lilian Faderman (2015).

The 165-page Master thesis by David Guzman, M.A., (CSUN 2014) records Palencia’s life journey as a Guatemalan political refugee and community activist. His Executive film Producer credits include “TransVisible: Bamby Salcedo’s Story,” a documentary depicting the life and activism of the nationally renowned Trans Latina activist Bamby Salcedo,“UNIDAD: Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos,”  which chronicles the early 1980s queer Latino activism in Los Angeles, and “Art as Activism,” which depicts the history of Self-Help Graphics & Arts, the seminal East L.A. based arts organization founded in 1970. Palencia received a B.A. in History from UCLA and a Masters in Depth Psychology & Creativity from Pacifica Graduate Institute based in Montecito, CA.

Co-Producer, Marketing/Art Director

For over 30 years, she worked both as a freelance designer and art director for various companies. Client lists include: Guitar Center, Providence Hospital: St Joseph, Disney, Mattel, and Gehry Partners, LLP.
2000 – 2002, she was the Associate Creative Director for internet provider EarthLink. 1982-84, The first Art director for Rhino Records.

Grace studied graphic design/packaging at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She has taught at Junior Barnsdall Art Center, Art Partners in L.A., Laguna Art Museum Children’s Workshop, Comision de Femenil Gifted Children Program and the 2nd Street School in Boyle Heights. Introduced to Self Help Graphics and Arts by Eloy Torrez in 1988. She became a part of a core group pursuing other forms of printmaking both traditional and experimental. In the early 90’s, working with Sister Karen Boccalero and Jean La Marr, the Etching Studio was setup and revived. She participated in various monoprint, etching, lino-cut workshops. She created two serigraph, Atelier 14 and 19. These prints are in collection at LACMA, Laguna Art Museum and Blanton Museum of Art. She had her first exhibition at Galleria Otra Vez in 1989. Grace’s artworks have been shown throughout California, Hawaii, Paris, and Mexico.

Screen Writer

A former Executive Director of Self Help Graphics & Art with firsthand experience and diverse expertise, will serve as an interviewee and advisor in nearly all aspects of the project: content, research, rough cut reviewer and development. Tomas has been an advocate of Chicano/Latino arts and culture for nearly 40 years. He has served as a consultant to the Smithsonian Institute, the President’s Council for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, the Mexican Fine Art Center Museum in Chicago, and the California Arts Council. He has lectured on Chicano art and culture in Berlin, Mexico City, London, Glasgow, and Pretoria South Africa, and throughout the U.S. Tomas served 20 years as an Arts Commissioner for the County of L.A., and is currently on the board of the

Californians For The Arts/California Arts Advocates. He is a founding board member of LAN (The Latino Arts Network), and is currently Board Chairman. He represented the

L.A. cultural arts community in Israel through the L.A./Tel Aviv Exchange Project of the Jewish Federation in 2003. He has worked with Plaza de la Raza, Bilingual Foundation for the Arts, Teatro de la Esperanza, Teatro Café (his own teatro company), Shakespeare Festival L.A., and the late C. Bernard “Jack” Jackson at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, a pioneer multicultural arts performing center. As a writer, Tomas wrote his first produced film, SALSA, (Cannon 1986), and has since written for Fred Roos,

Starz Encore Films, CBS Television, and other producers. He has been working

with Nancy de los Santos for several years on THE TEXAS BOYS, an epic story of the Mexican American civil rights movement, which is now in pre-production. Tomas recently completed THE GULLY and EASTSIDE STORIES to be released as online books in late 2018. He is featured in the literary anthology SONGS OF OURSELVES, published by Blue Heron Press in fall 2015. He is currently working on a novel based on the multicultural history of Boyle Heights, (often called the “Ellis Island of the West”). Tomas is a founding member of the Latino Baseball History Project and has contributed to seven volumes to date, and is an advisor for the Smithsonian Museum of American History’s future national Latino baseball history exhibition.

Nancy was born and raised on the southside of Chicago, and headed for
trouble. She left Catholic high school for public high school and joined a
Latina girl gang. One thing led to another, and she turned her life around,
graduating from UT Austin and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Nancy
began her career in Chicago as producer of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s
film review program At The Movies. Under her tutelage, the show was
nominated for two national Emmy Awards.

She’s worked iconic Latino features “My Family” and “Selena,” and
television shows “Resurrection Blvd., American Family, and East Los High.
Nancy met writer Nora Ephron at Equinox, the Sundance of Europe, where her feature script “Answer To My Prayer” was work-shopped. Nora invited Nancy to submit for her theatre production “Love, Loss, and What I Wore”. Nancy sent a story about her old gang sweater. The play has been staged in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Mexico City, proving the adage… “It all comes around…”

TV CREDITS – Writer:

• East Los High, HULU, Staff Writer, 3rd Season
• One Hot Summer – Lifetime Movie Network. Adaptation of the best selling novel
• American Family – PBS Award-winning series
• Resurrection Blvd. – Showtime
• Gotta Kick It Up! One of The Disney Channel highest rated movies.
• The Bronze Screen: One Hundred Years of the Latino Image in Hollywood Cinema.
• The quintessential documentary on Latinos in Hollywood cinema – HBO Cinemax

THEATRE CREDITS – Writer:

• UAC ETA TBD Plaza de la Raza Youth Theatre Workshop 2015
• 8 WAYS TO SAY I LOVE MY LIFE (Writer, Director) CASA 0101 2012
• BEHIND THE SCENES DRAMA Plaza de la Raza Youth Theatre Workshop 2011

STAGE SHOW CREDITS:

• The San Antonio Tricentennial – Team Member, Writer, Consultant – Current
• The NCLR Capital Awards – Writer 2010 – 2017
• The Cesar Chavez Foundation Dinner – Writer / Director – 2016
• The NCLR ALMA Awards – Writer / Video Producer – 2009 – 2015
• The Hispanic Heritage Awards, Production & Script Consultant – 2015
• Hispanas Organized for Political Equality – Stage Writer, Consultant – 2011- 2016
• The Aspen Institute / Latinos and Society – Stage Writer – 2016

Of Note:

• Nancy is the first Latino to serve on the WGA Board of Directors.
• She was awarded the “2013 ALMA for Industry Excellence and Community Service.”
• She is a long time member of Toastmasters International and served as President of the Los Angeles club, “Voces Latinas.”

In 1982 he earned a BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1990 a MFA California Institute of the Arts,  currently resides and works in Pasadena, California.

Aguirre has mounted over 15 solo exhibitions in the United States and Mexico, over 125 collective exhibitions nationally and internationally and has produced over 40 permanent works of public art in Southern California, Colorado, Illinois, Texas and Mexico. For over 30 years he has established a strong reputation as a cultural worker and a visual arts educator. Aguirre works on paper and paintings are included in permanent collections in various institutions and museums in Cuba, Germany, Mexico, Scotland and the United States.

Jose Antonio Aguirre has received national and international awards, including the Fulbright-García Robles awarded by the United States State Department and the Cultural Exchange International grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

In 2013, Mr. Aguirre was appointed Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, in 2020 he joined William James Association as board member. Aguirre continues to work actively as an artist, lecturer and educator.

Alex alferov was the Exhibition Print Program Director for the numerous traveling exhibits at Self Help Graphics.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1946, to Russian-Serbian parents first escaping Communism then Nazism, eventually immigrated to the United States in 1955. Initially the family moved to Worcester Massachusetts under the sponsorship of the Tolstroy Foundation. In 1960 the family moved to Los Angeles where Alex finished his schooling earning a BA in Fine Arts from the California State University at Northridge in 1973. He has been an active artist and curator in Southern California for the past twenty years.

Alex came to Self Help Graphics in 1986, taking classes in the workshop program and participating in the Atelier Program. Due to his previous experience at organizing and curating numerous exhibits around the Los Angeles area, Alex created and become the Exhibition Print Program Director in 1987. Since then, he has been instrumental in helping Self Help Graphics develop its touring art exhibits to local, national and international galleries and museums.

Alex has been vital to the development of several major exhibitions of Self Help’s Atelier Program, including the nationally seen “Chicano Connection” Tour in conjunction with the Phoenix Art Museum and MARS (Movimineto Artistico del Rio Salido, and Arizona based artists collective), The Southwest Museum retrospective of Self Help prints, the Laguna Art Museum retrospective (Across the Street: Self Help Graphics and Chicano Art in Los Angeles) and DADA (Downtown Arts Development Association) He has also served in support of other major exhibits, including the USIA Arts America “Chicano Expressions” tour, and the tour of prints to Mexico through the Festival Inernacional de la Raza.

Alex’s crowning achievement has been in development of VOICES/VOCES, a traveling exhibit of Self Help prints, accompanied by a photo-essay of the East Los Angeles area, as well as a comprehensive sound and environment installation. The VOICES/VOCES tour has been highly successful and popular with several universities and art institutions throughout California.

Executive Producer

Award winning Manager/Producer Steven Adams is a Founding Partner at Alta Global Media where he represents international media companies and talent. Clients include PEDRO ALONSO & LUKA PEROS of the hit series MONEY HEIST, JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS, TAMARA TUNIE of LAW & ORDER SVU, and frequent Spike Lee collaborator ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH amongst others.

He is a producer on the Netflix Original adaptation of Roger Guenveur Smith’s solo performance piece RODNEY KING, directed by Academy Award winner Spike Lee. Adams recently collaborated on the marketing of 2 seasons Spike Lee’s hit series Netflix SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, and the Academy Award winning BLACKKKLANSMAN.

Adams served for 4 years as a VFX Executive Producer with Paris-based VFX house BUF. His credits there include such Academy Award winners as James Cameron’s AVATAR, Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI, THOR for Marvel Studios, as well as GREEN LANTERN, GREEN HORNET, Stephen Sommers’ ODD THOMAS, and Tim Burton’s DARK SHADOWS.

Steven was also VFX Executive Producer for French VFX house Digital District whose credits include the Academy Award winning features THE ARTIST & THE INTOUCHABLES.

As a partner in Luna Ray Media, Adams produced the Peabody Award winning A HUEY P NEWTON STORY, directed by Spike Lee, the first Starz original Production. Other indie credits with Luna Ray include GOD’S WAITING LIST, JUSTICE and BURNING SHADOWS, and the Sundance indie pilot IT’S NOT ABOUT JIMMY KEENE..

Television credits also include 3 seasons as Consultant on THE CULTURE CLASH SHOW.

Adams previously served as President of FilmPro Finance, consulting for such film finance based clients as Bloomberg/Cite and its predecessor the Atlas Film & TV Finance Summit, Film Production Capital, and various global film commissions and festivals.

An accomplished host, Adams moderates panels at the Motion Picture Academy, Co-produced and hosted the web series Show Me The F$#!ing Money: How to Invest, Raise Finance, and Recoup Money in the Film Business, featuring interviews with over 150 top names in the world of Film Finance.
He is a frequent public speaker at Cannes, NATPE, Sundance, Content London, Toronto, amongst many others.

Steven began his career at the Paradigm Talent and Literary Agency.
Steven is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Television Academy, Advisory Board member Catalyst Content Festival, Content London and the Los Angeles Art Association Advisory Board and serves as Board Ambassador for the Blackhouse Foundation, an official partner of the Sundance Institute.