By Ambar Collective, 2024
With community partner Texas Folklife
CJ Chenier, the "Crown Prince of Zydeco," brings Louisiana’s vibrant music to the world with his soulful accordion performances. Honoring the legacy of his father, Zydeco legend Clifton Chenier, he blends traditional rhythms with funk, blues, and R&B influences.

By Carmen Rangel, 2024
With community partner Texas Folklife
Freddy Fender was a talented American Tejano singer, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He was one of the first Mexican-Americans to top the country music charts, becoming an inspiration to a generation of musicians.

By Litzy Rea Valdez, 2024
With community partner Texas Folklife
Jackie Venson, an Austin native, is celebrated for her soulful voice, electrifying guitar skills, and dynamic live performances. Blending blues, rock, and soul, she’s reshaped the local music scene, cementing her role as a leading voice in Austin’s rich musical legacy.

By Hope Hummingbird, 2024
With community partner Texas Folklife
Eve Ybarra, "The Queen of the Accordion," is a trailblazer in Tejano music and one of the first female accordionists to achieve widespread acclaim. A San Antonio native, she has inspired generations by breaking barriers and elevating traditional conjunto music to new heights.

By Veronica Ceci, 2024
With community partner Texas Folklife
Flaco Jiménez, the "King of Conjunto," is a Grammy-winning accordionist who has redefined Tex-Mex music. With a career spanning decades, he blends traditional sounds with country, rock, and pop, leaving a lasting impact on the genre and reaching global audiences.

By Catie Lewis, 2022
With community partner Latinitas
Alice Ming Fei Yi has mobilized Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Austin for over 25 years. She founded the Texas Chapter of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association and serves as chairperson of the Austin Asian Community Civic Coalition.

By Paola Sire, 2022
With community partner Latinitas
Ángela María Angulo is the publisher of Austin-based El Mundo Newspaper. Since being founded by her parents in the 1980s, Ángela runs the weekly newspaper and has built a circulation of 28,000 papers, giving Spanish-speaking Central Texans vital information for free.

By Litzy Rea Valdéz, 2022
With community partner Latinitas
Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette is an educational administrator at historically black colleges and universities. In 2015, she became the first female president of Huston–Tillotson University, and in 2021, the Austin Chamber of Commerce named Burnette the Austinite of the Year.

By Ambar Collective, 2022
With community partner Latinitas
Gloria Pennington worked with Austin ISD and political campaigns throughout the 1970s. She found her calling in supporting the elderly. This led her to host the show “Senior Forum,” which ran for 23 years. She was the first Hispanic woman on Austin television.

By Carmen Rangel, 2022
With community partner Latinitas

Laura Donnelly founded Latinitas and is a journalist, book publicist, and documentary filmmaker. Laura has been honored as an Austin Under 40 winner, the YWCA's Woman of the Year Leader of Promise, and Austin Women in Tech's Innovator award for her service empowering Latina youth.

By Veronica Ceci, 2022
With community partner Latinitas

Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez is a journalist and professor, researching the intersection of oral history and journalism as well as U.S. Latinos and the news media. She founded the Voces Oral History Project and volunteers to bring greater diversity to the news media.

By Lolita Rodriguez, 2022
With community partner Latinitas

Reji Thomas is an iconic community leader, glass artist, painter, and mosaicist. Reji’s Pine Street Station played an important role in the Austin culture of art, music, literature, and community, becoming an Eastside hub for numerous events over its 35-year run.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman and youngest Latina ever to serve in Congress in 2019. Over her first term, she introduced a total of 23 pieces of legislation, and since then, has created an incredible amount of change.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Malala Yousafzai is a household name for her continual activist work encouraging girls' education, being the world's youngest Nobel Prize recipient, and co-founding the nonprofit the Malala Fund, which has helped educate over 10 million girls around the world.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Malcolm X was a Muslim minister and a human rights activist prominent during the civil rights movement. He was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment "by all means necessary" and the promotion of Islam within the Black community.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Mr. Matt has been a technology teacher at American Youthworks for a decade, working with young adults trying to better their lives by training them in computer refurbishing, video production, and job skills.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Nipsey Hussle was a rapper and activist who, along with being a Grammy nominee, denounced gun violence, spoke openly about his experiences with gang culture, and funded improvements to neighborhood schools in the Crenshaw area where he was born and raised.

By Youthbuild Graduates & Mosaic Workshop Team, 2022
With community partner American Youthworks

Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana. She is now chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which she formed in 1999.

By Lolita Rodriguez, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Bertha Sadler Means was an educator and activist who broke racial barriers and fought segregation. She worked with the Austin Independent School District in both elementary and secondary education, and she was a pioneer in reading education.

By Litzy Rea Valdéz, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Cathy Vasquez-Revilla founded La Prensa newspaper and co-founded the Olé Mexico Business-Neighborhood Association as well as served on the city Planning Commission.

By Veronica Ceci, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Dr. Teresa Lozano Long was an educator and philanthropist, supporting Austin arts and education. In 1999, Long and her husband founded the Long Foundation, and by 2004, they had endowed 100 scholarships for Hispanic students at the University of Texas.

By Carmen Rangel, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Martha Cotera was instrumental in the building of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center and authored “Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S.” and “The Chicana Feminist.”

By Litzy Rea Valdéz, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Peggy Vasquez is a producer, journalist, and social justice advocate, created "Hispanic Today," a television program that has introduced Austin to many leaders in the Hispanic community.

By Lys Santamaria, 2021
With community partner Latinitas

Co-founder of Mexic-Arte Museum, Sylvia Orozco has led the arts group since its founding in 1984. As executive director, she has built the museum's collection of Mexican and Mexican American art while expanding its programs into the community.

By Lys Santamaria, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Azie Taylor Morton (1936–2003) was the first African American to serve as the United States Treasurer, from 1977–1981. Morton made a big impact in Austin, too, working at Texas AFL-CIO and serving on the Austin Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

By Lolita Rodriguez, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Barbara Jordan was the first Southern Black woman ever elected to Congress and the United States House of Representatives, where she sponsored and cosponsored 70 bills including Texas's first minimum wage law.

By Litzy Rea Valdéz, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Sisters Cynthia and Lidia Pérez ran the beloved cafe and community hub Las Manitas until the building was torn down in 2008 due to rapid city development. They still bring that community spirit, running La Peña, a Latino cultural gallery and cafe with a thriving community.

By Lolita Rodriguez, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Denise Oliver-Velez is an American professor, contributing editor, activist and community organizer. Oliver-Velez was a member of both The Black Panther Party and The Young Lords, where she campaigned for the end of sexism within the group.

By Alison Skinner, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Diana Casrañeda was a local civic activist and community leader. She became the first Latina elected to the Austin school board in 1992.

By Alison Skinner, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Dorothy Height was an African American civil rights and women's rights activist, one of the first to recognize intersectionality. She participated in the Civil Rights Movement and was considered a member of the “Big Six.”

By Kimie Flores, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and civil rights activist who worked alongside Cesar Chavez to unionize farmers as well as originated the iconic phrase "Sí, se puede"

By Aime Polivka, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Dorothy Nell Turner was an incredible Austin activist as president of the Black Citizens Task Force, fighting for equal treatment of Eastside minorities.

By Lys Santamaria, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Gloria Arellanes is an activist and Tongva Elder who worked with the Brown Berets where she headed El Barrio Free Clinic before leaving due to gender inequality. In response. she founded Las Adelitas de Aztlán, a Chicana discussion and support group.

By Veronica Ceci, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an author and scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers contains over 125 feet of published and unpublished materials from 1942-2004 and is housed at University of Texas at Austin.

By Aime Polivka, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Janie Rangel is an environmental activist, serving as a member of the Gardens Neighborhood Association, a Board Chair of PODER, and a member of the Tank Farm Area to keep pollution out of Austin's Latino and African American communities.

By Ambar Collective, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Sisters Cynthia and Lidia Pérez ran the beloved cafe and community hub Las Manitas until the building was torn down in 2008 due to rapid city development. They still bring that community spirit, running La Peña, a Latino cultural gallery and cafe with a thriving community.

By Martha Diaz, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Linda Faye Moore Smith worked with the Urban League Movement, a national civil rights organization. She served as Assistant Director of the Houston Urban League and started the Austin Urban League, where she became Executive Director, among other positions throughout the movement.

By Carmen Rangel, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Septima Poinsette Clark, commonly referred to as “The Mother of the Movement” by Martin Luther King Jr, made an incredible impact on the Civil Rights Movement, developing literacy and citizenship workshops because “knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal legal equality couldn’t.”

By Lys Santamaria, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Sylvia Herrera is a local Austin environmental activist. As co-founder (with Susana Almanza) and health coordinator of PODER @poder.austin, she has protected her east Austin neighborhood from hazardous industrial developments and empowered citizens to speak out at public meetings to protect their community’s health and livelihoods.

By J Muzacz, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

Velma Carter Roberts made an indelible impact on Austin with her work with the local Welfare Rights Organization and Black Citizens Task Force, founded in part by Roberts. Alongside Dorothy Turner, she tackled issues like welfare discrimination, police brutality, and employment discrimination.

By Litzy Rea Valdéz, 2020
With community partner Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

In 1968, Wilhelmina Ruth Delco was elected to the board of trustees for the AISD, becoming the first African American elected to public office in Austin. Delco was elected to the House of Representatives for Travis County in 1974 and served for 20 years