​MEET OUR STAFF

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             Coordinators

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Azucena Campos López

 

 

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Azucena is a clinical psychologist whose main focus has been prevention and intervention of child abuse and neglect. She was born and raised in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. The oldest of four siblings in a monoparental matriarch household, she was fully educated in Mexico, until she graduated from the Universidad de Sonora with a B.S in Clinical Psychology. After college Azucena became an international Au-Pair in the United States, working for a family of professors at the Champaign-Urbana UIUC campus. She still in touch with the three “kids” she took care of. During her time as an Au-Pair she met her husband, and after moving back to Mexico for one year, she came back to the United States to get married. She has worked mainly in nonprofit organizations involving children’s welfare, and doing Spanish-English interpretation/translation/transcription. 

     She currently lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband and two sons, and has recently became involved with the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, of which she is now one of the codirectors of Cultura.

      She is now an employee of TST BOCES Regional School Success Department.

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Enrique  González-Conty

Enrique González-Conty is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature at Ithaca College. He was the 2013-14 Pre-Doctoral Diversity Fellow at this same institution. He obtained his PhD in 2014 from The University of Texas at Austin where he also received his MA in Hispanic Literature. Previously, he obtained three bachelors degrees (two BAs and a BS) from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, in Hispanic Studies, Music, and Biology, respectively. His current book project examines the close relationship between post-revolutionary Cuban Literature and Film and their ties to important Cuban state institutions such as Casa de las Américas and the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC). He is currently teaching a course on World Cinema and is the director of Ithaca's very own Cine Con Cultura Film Festival, now in its fourth year. 

     On the Web, Enrique currently writes for the film blog cinecero.blogspot.com and has used weblogs in his Spanish courses (pizarronbilingue.wordpress.com) as well as in his Caribbean Literature and Film course (caribbeanidentities.blogspot.com).

To visit his professional website go to: http://egonzalezconty.wordpress.com

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Yen Ospina

 

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Art Exhibition Curator 2023 

Fiesta Coordinator 2023

 As a proud Latinx artist, Yen's work centers on themes of power, mysticism, and visibility. Her signature style is recognizable around town in large-scale murals as well as many homes and shops featuring her digital prints. Yen creates her art to inspire inquiry and expand the viewer’s subconscious assumptions of what feminine, queer, and diverse power looks like.

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         Founding members:

Carolina Osorio Gil 

I've been ​living in Ithaca for over 20 years and I am a grassroots organizer and Phd student in Development Sociology at Cornell. 

I was born in Colombia, where I lived with my mother and my grandmother until I was four. It was at four years old that my mother decided that if I was going to have a life free of violence and fear in Colombia’s treacherous political climate we had to flee our country. Together we braved a perilous journey through the desert of the Mexico-US border and made it to New York City where we started our new life.  I spent my first seven and a half years in this country undocumented. I became a Permanent Resident at the age of 12 and as soon as I could, at the age of 18, I was sworn in as a U.S. Citizen.

      I haven’t forgotten where I come from. My early immigrant experiences have led me to a deep and profound appreciation for my citizenship. I am proud to be an American and want to use my privilege of being a citizen to help others yearning to join our country.

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Debra A. Castillo

Debra Castillo comes from a ninth generation, family-operated, small dairy farm in Wisconsin.  From a very young age she was attracted to arts and culture:  she wrote her first novel, Brownie, The Horse that Talks (co-illustrated by younger siblings), along with other short novels and memoirs beginning at age seven; her magnum opus, Never Say Dull, based on stories she told her siblings during barn chores and before bed, was written between the sixth and eighth grades. She scripted plays for sock puppets, organized variety shows, was a protective fashion designer for her knock-off Barbie, Andromeda, and took over many cooking duties for her family starting at age nine.  Sadly, her artistic ambitions were unaccompanied by any significant talent, except for cooking, which she really is very good at. 

     As a Cornell professor, she has taught a lot of students, written a bunch of academic books, and has been an administrator for local and international organizations. In addition to her work with Cultura Ithaca, she dabbles in the arts through a longstanding collaboration with Teatrotaller, the Cornell Latino/a theater troupe.

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¡BIENVENIDXS TODXS A CULTURA ITHACA!

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