Verónica Castillo-Pérez

Verónica Castillo-Pérez is the Executive Director of Raíces Culturales Latinoamericanas, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization in Philadelphia.  The organization’s mission is to support, promote and increase public awareness of the richness, beauty and diversity of Latin American culture through performing and visual arts, as well as educational programs.  From 2006-2009 she served on the Board of Directors of the Mexican Cultural Center in Philadelphia, which promotes a multitude of events promoting the arts and culture of Mexico and raises awareness of Mexican culture throughout the Delaware Valley.

Ms. Castillo-Pérez is a native of Texas born in Lampasas, a small rural town 68 miles north of the state capital of Austin.  She has always been very active in the Latino community having boycotted grapes in the late 1980s where she marched alongside Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers Union.  She formed a nonprofit organization, LUPE Arte (Latinas Unidas Por El Arte/Latinas United Through Art), which brings local artists and schoolchildren together for after-school and summer instruction in Austin, Texas’ underprivileged neighborhoods.

Her move to the East Coast did not diminish her quest to spread Latin American cultural awareness and appreciation.  As a recipient of the 2008 Most Influential Latinos in the Delaware Valley and the recipient of a Senate Proclamation sponsored by Senator Christine M. Tartaglione on April 27, 2009, she is, without a doubt, a central figure in Philadelphia’s Latino community.