Ron Arias was born in Los Angeles of Mexican American parents, raised in L.A. and El Paso until 13, then moved throughout the U.S. and to Germany as a military dependent.  He received a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in journalism from UCLA, spent a year in Buenos Aires as a newspaper reporter, two years in Peru as a Peace Corps volunteer, a year as a journalist in Venezuela, and stints with other newspapers and magazines over the past four decades. Arias' novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, was nominated for a National Book Award.  He is also author of a number of non-fiction books, including Moving Target, a memoir about the search for his absent father, a POW in two wars and an Army spy.  Arias lives with his wife of 46 years, Joan, in Hermosa Beach, and has one son, Michael, a director of anime and feature films in Japan.

Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlain was recently honored by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who presented the Pasadena artist with a certificate of achievement before handing over the microphone so she could address a crowd of people and elected city officials gathered last month to celebrate Latino History Month.  A longtime Chicana activist, Aparicio-Chamberlin in the 1970s was involved in teatro, the street theater movement rooted in East LA that called attention to a number of social injustices.  She is a painter, printmaker, mural artist and an altarista. In addition, she uses art and storytelling to teach at-risk youngsters how to read and write. Aparicio-Chamberlain has won art commissions from MALDF and printmaking awards from Women Painters West, The Cal Poly Kellogg Foundation, The Pasadena Society of Artists and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

Alejandro Murguía is the author of Southern Front and This War Called Love (both awarded the American Book Award).  He is also the author of the non-fiction book, The Medicine of Memory, which highlights the Mission District in the 1970s during the Nicaraguan Solidarity movement. He is a founding member and the first director of The Mission Cultural Center and is currently a professor of Raza Studies at San Francisco State University.

Michael Sedano (moderator) is the co-founder of the Chicana Chicano Latina Latino Literature-oriented La Bloga.  He hosts the Tuesday column where he features book and arts reviews, photographic essays, original short fiction, and the popular On-Line Floricanto, a virtual poetry festival inspired by the 1973 and 2010 Festivales de Flor y Canto.  Sedano holds a Ph. D. in Communication Arts & Sciences from USC.  He is a veteran of the United States Army, 1969-70 and writes about L.A. life and culture at readraza.com.