Edgar R. Ayala

Edgar is a Guatemala-born graphic artist and political activist who lives in Oakland, California. As immigrant from Guatemala, he settled in San Francisco in 1986. His first incursion as a graphic artist was when he joined the team at La Raza Graphics Center, in San Francisco’s iconic Mission District, in 1987.  La Raza Graphics was a community based social justice organization at the forefront of the Latino/Latina organizing efforts using graphic media in the SF Bay Area. 

For Edgar, "La Causa," "The Struggle," in the SF Mission District, was no different to the movement back home in Guatemala. Thus he joined other activists and artists from Central America on the streets, graphically and professionally, consulting for a wide array of local, nationally and transnational non profit organizations.

Linked to social justice causes in Guatemala and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, Edgar R. Ayala was hired as part of a Vesper Society international team organization a series of "off-the-record" Guatemalan Peace Talks, to re-boot the stalled Guatemalan UN-sponsored, Geneva peace negotiations about Guatemala. A series of "off-the-record" round tables peace talks ahead of the 1996 historical Guatemalan Peace Accords. These roundtables brought over 40 Guatemalan representatives from civil, labor, academy, church and government representatives, —including the infamous Guatemala General Rios Montt, found guilty of genocide on April 1, 2018, by a higher court in Guatemala. 

In 1998 Edgar took a free lancing approach to his graphic work by lending his skills to local and transnational organizations advancing for immigrant rights and other worldly causes.  Grassroots Publishing was funded as an independent graphic design studio in 1998, since, producing a myriad of identity graphic and digital materials, in English or bilingual. 
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Affiliations:

• The Latino Advisory Council at the Oakland Museum of California, OMCA
• Member of the Founding Committee of NALACC, National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, most recently know as Alianza Americas
• Board President of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Berkeley, California, a faith based organization at the forefront of political asylum for immigrants in Northern California
• Board member and once President of the Central American Resource Center, CARECEN•SF, an immigrant rights services organization in San Francisco
• Member of the Host Committee of Network in Solidarity With The People of Guatemala (NISGUA), an focused on human and territorial rights in Guatemala
• Member of the Circle, a governing body at the Oakland Catholic Worker in Oakland, California, a house of hospitality for Latin American and other immigrants
• ​Founding member of the Guatemalan Coalition of Guatemalan Immigrants, CONGUATE