Human Rights and Social Justice
Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke is Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg and the mother of three children. As founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, she has worked for two decades on restoring the local land base and culture of the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Women's Network and has worked in a national capacity for the Honor the Earth Fund. In 1994 she was named by Time magazine as one of America's fifty most promising young leaders. Ms. LaDuke has twice served as the Green Party’s Vice Presidential candidate, bringing her perspective as an indigenous citizen activist. She has received numerous awards, including the Thomas Merton Award and the Global Green award. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, she has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. Her books include: Last Standing Woman, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, In the Sugarbush (for children), and a forthcoming, Winona LaDuke Reader.

Arts & Culture
Daniel Valdez

Composer, musician, singer, and actor, Daniel Valdez celebrates Chicano life and heritage with his vibrant rhythms, mythic stories, and dazzling theater. A founding member of El Teatro Campesino, Mr. Valdez learned Teatro as a teen-ager on United Farm Workers picket lines. His solo album, Mestizo, was the first Chicano album produced by a major label. A well known concert performer and composer, Mr. Valdez wrote original music for Chicano film classic, Zoot Suit, and produced La Bamba, the life story of Ritchie Valens. He has acted in several films including The China Syndrome. He composed the original score for Mexico, considered one of the top 15 IMAX films in the world. Currently Mr. Valdez is working on a musical play, El Sol Que Tu Eres, a joint project with four theaters, including Denver’s Su Teatro, which incorporates Aztec and Mayan myths. This winter he was a visiting theater professor at Stanford University and staged Ollin, an original musical performance based on the conquest of Mexico.

Business and Community Development
Pat Cortez

Pat Cortez has broken down barriers and opened doors for Chicanos and other minorities into the world of finance, banking, and corporate donations. With over 25 years experience at Wells Fargo, she headed an “emerging markets” initiative to increase banking services to African-American, Asian, Latino and Women’s markets –with responsibility for consumer financial assets worth over $1 billion.. Currently as Senior Vice President and Statewide Director of Community Relations, she oversees Wells Fargo’s government relationships programs and corporate giving in Colorado and Wyoming. Her efforts have made it possible for Chicano organizations to receive corporate donations for the first time –not only from Wells Fargo but from other corporate foundations. Pat is actively involved in the Denver Community, including service with the Colorado Scholarship Coalition, the Denver Public Library trustees, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Volunteers of America, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museo de Las Americas, and the Planning Commission for the City and County of Denver.

Education
Vincent G. Harding

College professor, African-American historian, author, essayist, civil rights activist, and film producer, Dr. Vincent Harding has explored, documented, and recorded the history of African-American champions of change. As founder and co-chair of the Veterans of Hope Project, Dr. Harding has produced videotapes and study guides celebrating the African-Americans who embody the struggle for human justice. He has served as senior advisor for film and television projects on Afro-American history and the civil rights movement, and has published nine books and numerous essays. Dr. Harding could be the subject of one of his own films. During the sixties, he was a civil rights teacher, activist, and negotiator with the Southern Freedom Movement, and been involved in a variety of national and international peace and justice activities. He has inspired thousands of young people during a distinguished teacher career. Currently, he is a Professor of Religion and Social Transformation with the Iliff School of Theology and continues to serve as advisor to churches, synagogues, schools, prisons, and community groups.

Literature
Ana Castillo

Ana Castillo is a poet, novelist, artist, and xicanista. Her titles shine like literary jewels: I Ask the Impossible, Peel My Love Like an Onion, Goddess of the Americas/La Diosa De Las Américas : Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe, and My Daughter, My Son, The Eagle, The Dove. Castillo's work appears in many anthologies. She writes newspaper and magazine essays on varied topics such as Selena; gender roles in the Farmworkers movement, motherhood; and Feministas turning 50. She has been profiled on National Public Radio, The History Channel and featured in Vanity Fair and Hispanic magazines and is in demand as a national and international speaker. She has received many writing awards, including the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters. In April 2000, Ms. Castillo was honored as one of the Chicago’s best writers with inclusion in a city history mural that is on the Sears tower Skydeck. Ms. Castillo teaches English at DePaul University and has recently completed another novel.

Humanitarian Award
Bishop Ruiz

“Don” Samuel Ruiz, a native of Guanajuato, Mexico, has consistently worked for the human rights of all people, but especially of the indigenous populations of Mexico, Latin America, South Africa, Spain, England, Italy, and the United States. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, “Don” Ruiz became the first consecrated bishop in the Cathedral of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the State of Chiapas, Mexico. In 1968 he created the National Bishop Center for Indigenous Ministry and 1980 became involved with the refugees fleeing Guatamala. In 1987 he founded the Fray Bartolomé Center for Human Rights. In 1993 when the Papal Nuncio asked for his resignation, thousands of indigenous peoples honored him for his prophetic work. A champion of the Chiapas people, “Don” Ruiz served as a peace mediator between the Mexican government and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation from 1993 to 1997, but resigned due to government politics. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times, “Don” Ruiz speaks ten languages including four indigenous languages.