People of SWOP
Current Staff of the SouthWest Organizing Project
Tomás Garduño is a 30 year-old, Native New Mexican Chicano, born and raised in Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico. His family is from Nambé, New Mexico (the border crossed us we didn’t cross the border). He lived in Portland, OR for seven years where he did student organizing and anti-racist organizing in the anti-globalization movement culminating in the WTO protests in Seattle, and has been doing social justice work ever since. He has worked for Western States Center, Community Alliance of Tenants, and co-founded ‘ROOTS! Reclaiming Our Origins Through Struggle, a racial justice organization. Most recently he was a campaign organizer with the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. He is also a traditional organic farmer, and is currently SWOP's Director of Mass Base Organizing.
E-mail Tomás at tomas@swop.net
Roberto Roibal was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, receiving a BA degree in anthropology, history and fine arts. He has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice issues in New Mexico for over 39 years. He was a SWOP volunteer since 1980 and joined SWOP’s staff in 1991, where he's had a number of positions, including the marketing and distribution of the book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures and related materials, production of our news magazine Voces Unidas, field organizer, grant administration and now office management. He is responsible for our information and technology needs, and is our database developer and administrator. He is the father of three daughters, all of whom have gone through SWOP’s youth internship programs. Rosina, who graduated from Loyola University and received her Master’s Degree from UNM, and Lolita, a graduate of Stanford Univesity, currently live in Oakland. Lucía graduated from Barnard College in 2009.
E-mail Roberto at roberto@swop.net
Tomasita González was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a mother of 2 and resides within the South Valley of Albuquerque. Tomasita joined SWOP’s staff in 2003 as an environmental justice organizer. She is a community expert on the effects of industrial pollution in the South Valley. She worked a number of years as a Promotora with the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation, and represented SWOP on the New Mexico Environmental Justice Planning Committee, helping that committee plan a series of EJ Listening Sessions around the state in 2004. Since 2007 she has been SWOP's administrative coordinator, and is currently pursuing a degree in Accounting at the local community college.
E-mail Tomasita at tomasita@swop.net
Joaquin Lujan is a native New Mexican who has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice efforts for over 30 years. In the 1970s he was a member of the Black Beret organization, an Albuquerque youth organization focused on Chicano liberation. He also collected stories and helped produce El Grito del Norte, a northern New Mexico Chicano political publication, and later worked with the Chicano Communications Center that produced the book 500 Years of Chicano History. In the early 1980s he was part of SWOP's southwest voter registration project, that brought in over 20,000 new Chicano voters. After leaving the state for a decade, he came back in the late 1990's and worked as an organizer for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, during which time he helped organize the SNEEJ delegation to the WTO protests in Seattle. He farms four acres in Polvadera, New Mexico and joined SWOP’s staff in 2004 as an organizer working with Chicano farmers in the Middle Rio Grande valley. He currently spearheads SWOP's community garden and back yard cold-frames campaign, to reconnect our communities with the land and the food they eat.
E-mail Joaquin at joaquin@swop.net
Marisol Archuleta is a native Burquena who has a strong love for New Mexico and tries to spend her life improving the beautiful place she lives in. She likes to read and spend time outdoors camping or riding roller coasters. A life-long resident of Albuquerque, she began the Albuquerque chapter of the League of Pissed Off Voters and co-authored How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office, in 2004. She ran the LULAC Upward Bound Program at Highland High School before accepting the position at SWOP. For the past 6 years, she has served on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Board, which gives grants to local community organizing and economic development non-profits. She loves traveling and specializes in writing and being particularly organized. Marisol brings leadership experience and a genuine passion for achieving social justice as the Development Coordinator at SWOP.
E-mail Marisol at marisol@swop.net.
George Lujan joined the staff as Communications Organizer in 2009, after being a life-long member of SWOP. He worked on Community Garden and Youth projects, as well as contributing artwork for Voces Unidas magazine. He studied Media Arts at the Universidad de Nuevo Mexico and now works on promoting SWOP's media presence. In his free time he enjoys walking his dog along the bosque and watching samurai movies.
E-mail George at george@swop.net
Robby Rodriguez became the youngest Executive Director of SWOP in 2003, at the age of 29, and helped to lead the organization through a leadership transition and generational shift. Since 1997, he has helped to organize New Mexico communities to achieve social change in various capacities with SWOP. Between 1998 and 2001 Robby was a trainer for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ), the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries, the Lifting New Voices Initiative and Youth Action. In 1999, he represented SWOP and the SNEEJ at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, WA. During the years 2000 and 2001, Robby was co-chair of the Youth Leadership Development campaign of the SNEEJ and a member of the International Environmental Justice Working Group that participated in the World Conference against Racism. From 2002-2005 he was a member of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Corrales Air Quality Task Force and the City of Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Resources Advisory Committee. He is a past board member of the New Mexico Non Profit Association and is a current board member of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Since 2004 Robby has been a project team member of the Building Movement Project and a founding steering committee member of the Pushback Network where he currently serves as Chair. Robby has recently co-authored, along with Frances Kunreuther and Helen Kim, a book entitled Working Across Generations: Defining the Future of Nonprofit Leadership published in 2008. He has represented the U.S. social justice movement as a speaker, panelist and trainer throughout the United States and in Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Switzerland, South Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba and Brazil.
E-mail Robby at Robby@swop.net.
Mónica Córdova is a native New Mexican born in Clovis and raised in Albuquerque. She grew up in youth organizing, from working with her local neighborhood association youth group as the first young person elected to a neighborhood association board of director’s. She also worked with many other youth organizations from across the city regarding youth rights. This built a strong framework for social justice and empowerment that she continued to build upon as the Youth Coordinator at SWOP. At SWOP she developed her leadership at both the local and national level rapidly, through local youth rights campaigns and in planning the first United States Social Forum. Currently Mónica is a Co-Director at SWOP. Monica has her bachelor’s in Social Work from New Mexico Highlands University.
E-mail Monica at monica@swop.net
Marjorie Childress is a Co-Director of SWOP. She directs the Communications and Media program area, and serves as editor of the organizations publications, El Grito and Voces Unidas. She also directs the Grassroots Fundraising area of work and serves as grant writer for the organization. She has a master's degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico. During her tenure at UNM, she worked at the Resource Center for Raza Planning. She is also a longtime local Albuquerque blogger, writing for The New Mexico Independent, a state-based political news journal, from 2008-2010.
E-mail Marjorie at marjorie@swop.net
