Nelda Ruiz

Biography

Nelda Liliana Ruiz Calles is a prominent community organizer, cultural worker, and folklorist based in Tucson, Arizona. After becoming involved with Regeneración (formerly known as Tierra Y Libertad) in 2010, Ruiz has worked on issues involving the environment, food justice, and social justice, making sustainability accessible, and building community capacity throughout the south side of Tucson. Additionally, she currently works as a program manager and educator at Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA). In this role, she manages community-based ethnographic documentation projects highlighting diverse cultures and traditional knowledge in southern Arizona's indigenous, Mexican, and Chicano communities. She was born and raised in Ambos Nogales, Arizona and Sonora. She lived her early life traveling back and forth on a daily basis and her experience of the gradual militarization of the border deeply informed her analysis of border politics and helped fuel her activism.