Staff
Jennicet Gutiérrez (she/hers/ella) is a transgender immigrant Latina from Tuxpan, Jalisco. She organizes nationally trans and queer Latinx and immigrant communities at the intersections of trans and queer rights, and migrant and racial justice.
Francisco Cortes is a queer Mexican immigrant from Philadelphia. For a decade, Francisco has passionately worked in LGBTQ youth development, HIV advocacy and immigrant rights work locally in Philadelphia and at the national level. Francisco is eager and energized to lead Familia:TQLM in our focus work.
Mariella Saba (she/they)
Grassroots Leadership and Healing Justice Organizer
mariella@familiatqlm.org
Mariella Saba is grounded and moved by her roots from Palestine to Mexico. Born and raised in occupied Tongva land in Los Angeles, where they dedicate life to healing and organizing in a collective duty to our struggles for all life’s freedom, joy, love, dignity, justice, liberation y más.
Fighting to love queerly and freely and happy to begin their journey in motherhood with her two bebes. Mariella is the co-founder and abolition organizer with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, among other grassroots-based organizations; co-lead, research organizer of Our Data Bodies Project.
Luz worked extensively to change the narrative of migrants, indigenous, formerly or currently incarcerated communities through organizing, storytelling and the arts in Arizona.
They played a key role in the communications strategy and implementation for the campaign ‘Bazta Arpaio’ campaign that unseat the racist sheriff of Maricopa County in 2016. Luz also runs @grafica.canela, a collaborative space for them to work with healers, movement builders, artists and organizers through multimedia, illustrations and graphic design. They are currently Design & Creative Strategist for Familia TQLM since September 2020.
Sol is a trans immigrant from Mexico City, a first-generation DACA recipient, and renowned makeup artist. They have coordinated local and national racial justice work, prioritizing transgender communities and Black trans women.They currently serve as the Social Media and Narrative Creator for Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, working to end trans detention. Sol holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley.
Max (he, they) is a Queer, cis-gender, gay man born in Acapulco, Mexico and now living on occupied Quinnipiac lands in Connecticut. Max started his community work near Boston, MA after being diagnosed with HIV in 2012. While working at an AIDS Service Organization for nearly five years he joined the Ryan White Planning Counsel for New Haven & Fairfield Counties. In 2019, Max started working at a local shelter, where he noticed how undocumented LGBTQ+ people were treated and felt compelled to bring change to that community. In early 2020 Max was hired as the inaugural Latinx Program Curator for the New Haven Pride Center. At the Center, Max provided gender affirming advocacy, popular education campaigns and community healing programming for undocumented LGBTQ+ people in Connecticut and beyond. During 2021, Max forged a partnered between the New Haven Pride Center and Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement which resulted in the resurgance of Connectucut Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. Now is currently the Border Butterflies Organizer.
Nghia sashays the lines of intersectional identities such as woman, transgender, Vietnamese, refugee and she fights as a survivor, artist, and activist. She was born in Vietnam, raised in Southern California, and sharpened her political teeth in Portland, Oregon. She has organized many movements such as #ReclaimPride, #JusticeforRoxsana, #Fightfor15, #DisarmPSU, and many others. Nghia’s passion for art and creativity is embedded into her passion for justice, love, and compassion. She writes and acts to break the silence and chains that have been enforced on her community through colonization, sexism, racism, and transphobia. She is working to disrupt, dismantle and disarm oppressive structures for an equitable future.
Antonio joined Familia: TQLM in September 2022 as the Development and Operations Coordinator. They are based in Phoenix, AZ and call the Sonoran desert home. They envision a liberated future free of border imperialism, capitalism, the patriarchy, and climate catastrophe. In their free time they enjoy listening to new music, attending concerts, bike riding, and leaning into joy by traveling to cities with no set plan and finding new adventures each day.