Meet the team
Dr. Ricky Gutierrez-Maldonado
Nopal Co-Director and Raíz Co-Owner
Ricky Gutierrez-Maldonado is a higher education leader and Ethnic Studies instructor. He co-directs Nopal and Raíz Café y Cultura. He enjoys good movies and shows, music, working out, traveling, and food.
Dra. Nancy Huante-Tzintzun
Nopal Co-Director and Raíz Co-Owner
Born in Michoacán, Mexico and raised in Stockton. Her work is driven by her lived experiences and fueled by projects rooted in social justice. She is an Assistant professor at Sacramento State University and Nopal Co-Director. As a Chicana scholar-activist and community organizer her love and passion for educación is felt and passed down to her daughters and the larger community in hopes they continue to build and create opportunities to engage with justice work for future generations.
Karla Garcia
Nopal Youth Power Intern
Karla Garcia (She/Her) was born and raised in Stockton. Karla joined Nopal as a Youth Power Intern in 2022 and graduated from Sacramento State with a BA in Sociology shortly after. Karla has always dreamed of helping others and bettering her community. Aside from working with Nopal, Karla works with a local non-profit based in San Joaquin County that strives to provide change in the community through advocacy and education. When not working, you can find Karla listening to a podcast, solving the daily Wordle, or taking a nap with her three cats.
Daniel Hernandez
Nopal Youth Power Intern
Daniel Hernandez is from Sacramento, but grew up in Yuba City. He studied at Sacramento State, where he received his BA in Economics with minors in Marketing and Chicanx/Latinx studies. He is truly grateful to his family, friends, and mentors for their support and guidance through his academic and professional journey. He joined Nopal in 2022, and since then he had the pleasure of working alongside Co-directors Dr. Nancy and Dr. Ricky, as well as his fellow interns. He aspires to make a positive impact and is committed to serving the community of Stockton.
Maria Montes Arvizu
Nopal Youth Power Intern
Maria Montes Arvizu, originally from Guanajuato, Mx. and raised in Stockton, is an amateur archivist and library worker. They are involved in California Coalition for Women Prisoners and Nopal Stockton. They enjoy being in nature, reading, and learning to work with different art mediums.
Bianette Perez
Nopal Youth Power Intern
Bianette is a second-generation immigrant born and raised in Stockton, California. She’s a Youth Programs Director at the nonprofit Little Manila Rising and a Nopal Youth Power Intern. Through her work, she seeks to empower young people and continue advocating for her community.
Hugo Balmaceda
Nopal Volunteer
Hugo was born in Guerrero, Mexico, and raised in Northern California. His work is driven by his experience as an undocumented student and instructor. He has a B.A. in Chicana/o/x and an M.A. in 20th-century Mexican American movement from CSU Sacramento. Hugo was the founder and president of the Sierra College Dream Club and now serves as the advisor for the Sierra College and Folsom Lake College Dream Clubs. As an undocumented scholar, Hugo advocates for undocumented students, their families, and community members affected by the undocumented experience. Professionally, Hugo is an Ethnic Studies instructor at Sierra College and Folsom Lake College. As an educator, he uses cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for students of all backgrounds.
Deja Landeros
Nopal Volunteer
My name is Déja. I am a soon-to-be graduate from Sacramento State University. I am biracial and identify as Latina. My personal experiences with being Latina has shown me that there needs to be more dialogue surrounding diverse ethnicities and cultures in lower-level education and youth spaces. We need to make space for the complex, unique, and beautiful identities that our newer generations are growing into. They are the seeds of change, but we need to nourish the environment they are planted into. I aspire to put work into my community that will free future Latinx generations from the burden of trauma from those before them. In my spare time, I love discovering new places and disconnecting from mainstream culture to look within my ancestral practices of mindfulness and reflection.
