Nuestra Palabra Rewind - Our October 2020 Interview with Mario K Castillo

On this Nuestra Palabra Rewind from October 2020, join us as we listen to an early interview Tony Diaz had with Mario Castillo, who at that time made history as the first Latino President for the Lone Star College System being named Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It's been a few years since Mario shared his story and demonstrated the power of leaders leading with Latino values, interests, and needs in mind.

Ahead of the Celebrating Latino Art & Culture con el Chancellor Mario K. Castillo event on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, relisten to the interview that helped Houston get to know the future leader and now Chancellor, Mario K. Castillo. Join us on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, at Lone Star College - University Park at the Visual & Performing Arts Building at 930 University Park Campus Dr, Houston Texas, 77070 at 12 PM Noon with a special recognition for the Chancellor, followed by the eagerly anticipated 7th Annual Juried Student Art Show.

Thank you to the following:

Lone Star College Partners

Lone Star College Board of Trustees

The Latino Cultural Experts Committee

LSC LASO Houston North

Puente LSC - HN

Thank you to our Community Partners:

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say

The American Leadership Forum

ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts

& Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County

Que Onda Magazine

LULAC

Mario K. Castillo J.D.

was named the fifth Chancellor of Lone Star College System in August 2023. Prior to that, Castillo served the College as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. His responsibilities have progressed through the years; starting as the College’s General Counsel in 2015, he was promoted to Vice Chancellor and General Counsel in 2016 and again promoted to Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel in 2017. Additionally, he served as Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year.

Castillo’s focus is the College’s students. He has reshaped processes and procedures to be student centric and student informed. He understands you cannot be what you cannot see, and therefore ensures he meets students where they are at. Castillo provides numerous student scholarship and internship opportunities and regularly meets with students to offer career advice. He prioritizes student speaking engagements and student outreach.

Castillo received his Juris Doctorate from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington and received his Bachelor of Arts in Government from The University of Texas at Austin. Castillo is a first-generation high school (on his mother’s side), college, and law school student as well as a first-generation American. He enjoys overly ambitious home improvement projects, recently completed Ironman Texas, and is an avid reader.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com