Rebeca Maria Barrera, MA - Executive Director
Rebeca María Barrera is a long-time community builder with an education background. As a teacher in the Edgewood School District and faculty at two of the Alamo Community Colleges, Barrera learned of the vast disparities in opportunities for minority students. Her own experiences as a minority student has driven her to create solutions to barriers and myths about Latinos. She is a social entrepreneur and program designer and has created numerous private and non-profit enterprises and projects that have touched Latino families throughout the country.
As Executive Director of Somos Cultura y Más, Barrera encourages friends and colleagues to get involved in culturally rich activities and events. Her entrepreneurial skills help her plan projects that require many partners who add their special talents to each project. After several years of these "volunteer" projects -- building Día de Muertos ofrendas, cultural fashion shows, book festivals, classes and workshops it was obvious that a new organization was being born, thus the beginning of Somos Cultura y Más.
Barrera is known for founding the National Latino Children's Agenda, bringing together 40 national organizations to work on equity issues for young Latinos. This movement was her leadership project in the National Hispana Leadership Institute, and it evolved into her founding the National Latino Children's Institute (NLCI) in 1997. She served as President of NLCI for 10 years. As its primary visionary, she led the development of programs such as the award-winning Salsa, Sabor y Salud, Corazon de Mi Vida, Words for the Future, ¡Ay Chispas! and Onda Sana. In 1998 she developed the national holiday El Día de los Niños Celebrating Young Americans (a companion to Mexico's holiday) now celebrated in over 200 cities and communities on April 30 each year with U.S. Senate resolutions since 1999. She is the lead author of AMANECER the first bilingual curriculum for Head Start adopted by 65% of Migrant Head Start programs and Scholastic's Early Childhood Workshop/El Taller adopted by over 75% of Texas pre-K programs during the 1990's. She also created ¿Qué Pasa? a student planner for Palo Alto College, and Puentes: a Family Engagement Program now being used at Pre-K SA.
Barrera is one of few Latinas to serve on a Fortune company Board of Directors. In 1995 she was elected to the Board of Directors of Scholastic, a global publishing company and held that position for 13 years. Later she became an executive in the company as Director of Latino Initiatives for 8 years. At the same time she was elected to the Board of Directors for NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the largest early childhood education organization in the world. An inductee of the San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame, Barrera's vast networks and experiences led her to provide the vision and energy to establish Somos Cultura y Más and serves as its founding President.
Barrera established Tres Rebecas, a Cultural Arts Design Studio, Boutique and Libreria in 2006. Most famous for its collection of cultural textiles, the products are now sold online.
Barrera is a 10th generation Texan through her father's family and second generation through her mother's family. She has interacted with Mexico and Latin America all her life and thrives on being bilingual and able to move in many cultural circles.