Carlos Vásquez, a native New Mexican, is a graduate of UCLA and Stanford University with graduate degrees in Social Theory and History.  He has taught at UC Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of New Mexico. He is the author or editor of several books and numerous exhibition catalogues. Since 1999 he has been the Director of History and Literary Arts at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. In that capacity Dr. Vasquez founded the National Latino Writers Conference in 2002 which will celebrate its 11th anniversary in May of 2014.