Meet our Storytellers
Artist, native-consultant, & Handmade Native Crafts demonstrator, Antonio Moreno has been a California native cultural practitioner for most of his life, aspiring to preserve and maintain native culture via traditional songs, dances, customs and traditions for future generations. Antonio has been sharing and demonstrating traditional cultural crafting to schools, parks, museums, and the general public for over a decade and a half. He’s been active in his California Native community, who are poised to accept any amount of “Land-Back” (State/Federal or private) for cultural community gatherings and more. His hopes are that his public sharing endeavors serve as bridges to educate and inspire the general public of the importance native knowledge & histories offer regarding the natural world, and our human potential of proper, reciprocal relationships with our Mother Earth for all future generations.
Alfonso Ramirez is a Story Teller from the Rumsien-Ohlone People who were located in the Carmel Valley area of California. He is the Son of Alex O. Ramirez who was a historian and culture bearer. Through these ancient stories, Alfonso has passed on the values and traditions of his people to schools, youth groups, Boy and Girl Scouts, 4-H, and incarcerated people across the Bay Area. These stories embody timeless messages of equality, environmental responsibility, loyalty and redemption. Alfonso carries two Master’s degrees, one in Business Management and one in Theology. He is active in many community activities especially those that promote the under served, poor or incarcerated.
Vicente Moreno is Otomi (Hnahnu) and shares Comanche lineage on his mothers side. He has lived his life embedded in community and Culture within the Bay Area. Specifically, Vicente focuses on sharing with indigenous youth and families native arts as a way to remain connected to ancestral wellness. He believes that connection to the Earth, our mother here on turtle island, is what will heal the Earth and all living beings.
Zoë García is a Mexican-American lyric-coloratura soprano from Northern California. She is a graduate from St. Olaf College with a B.M. in Vocal Music Education. Currently, she teaches first through eighth grade choir and classical voice lessons. Her fulfillment comes from creating spaces where young people can be inspired by music’s creative power, and its ability to bring more beauty, joy, and compassion into the world! On the rare occasion that she is not singing, Zoë finds joy in watercolor painting, photography, and Latin dancing.
Lydia is an Iranian-Armenian-American folk multi-instrumentalist, songleader, culture-tender, grief-worker, and mischief-maker. In her performances, she weaves together her songwriting, folk standards, Iranian ballads, love of harmonies, fiddle, banjo, and collective singing into an altar of music to lay at our feet. She is the creator behind Singing the Bones, a course with Leah Song of Rising Appalachia, and a music project that brings American artists together to explore and share folk music from their ancestries, encouraging cultural revitalization and diasporic healing. She has engaged in vibrant collaborations with world-renowned artists Climbing PoeTree, Rising Appalachia, MaMuse, and Lyla June.
Frances Reneau has a wealth of stories from her life in the Santa Cruz mountains, from serving as a ranger, and then a docent for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, to her volunteer work with children at Hidden Villa. She views her job, whether enforcement or education, as teaching people to value, respect and care for the natural world. Further stories from her time as a ranger can be found in her book, “Rangerchick,” available on Amazon.
Jenny Purushotma is from the lands down under, New Zealand and Tasmania, Australia. She has lived in the Bay Area for 34 years. Her story takes us to a village in the Jordan Valley that provided her with the model and the inspiration to grow an Urban Food Forest at her home in Sunnyvale. Her Baha’i Faith guides her commitment to solving climate change, promoting regenerative agriculture, building community at the neighborhood level, and creating spaces for Interfaith conversations.
Mark Bachelder is a retired general contractor, specializing in material- and energy-efficient construction. He has been a devoted activist and volunteer since 1979, working for the end of hunger, and the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. His hobbies are the liberation of the human spirit, and designating an economic system that works for all people and all life – and that includes the restoration of the climate. He has two grown daughters, and 3 grandchildren, and lives in San Anselmo, California.