Catalina Cantú (Xicana) is of Indigenous Mexican/Madeiran heritage born in San Francisco, California. Before moving to Washington, Cantú lived on the border in Brownsville, Texas, where the Cantú family has lived since it was México. Her immigrant maternal grandparents came to California from Madeira, an island colonized by the Portuguese, west of North Africa. Cantú is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary artist, social justice activist, Jack Straw Fellow, and Alum of VONA/Voices, and The Mineral School. She has received funding from Artists’ Trust, Hugo House, Centrum, and Hedgebrook. Cantú’s poems and stories have been published widely and anthologized. She has earned a B.A. in La Raza Studies, and a J.D. from the University of Washington, where she was a co-founding member of the groundbreaking Latinx groups MEChA, and Teatro del Piojo. As a volunteer attorney, she managed the King County Bar Association Bilingual Spanish Legal Clinic. Cantú has produced eighteen literary events and performed my poetry and prose in thirty-two venues. Her leadership and service include, among many others, the following: Co-founding Member and Board President, La Sala Latinx Artists’; Board Member, UNESCO Seattle City of Lit; Member, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI); Seattle BIPOC Arts Leader, Seattle University Arts Ecosystem Research Project; Panelist, Artists of Color Expo & Symposium (A.C.E.S.); and Member/former organization Chair, Los Norteños NW Latino Writers.