Graciela Sanchez

Sanchez started her career working for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.^[2] She also worked with activist Willie Velasquez on the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.^[3] 1986, Sanchez became the first American accepted to Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión, a film school in Cuba.^[5] Interested in how America's policies at the time impacted people throughout the world, Sanchez made a documentary called Testimonios de Nicaragua on the Sandinista revolution.^[2] She produced another film in 1988 about queer rights in Cuba entitled No porque lo diga Fidel Castro.^[2]

In 1987, Sanchez founded the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.^[6] The center was established to advocate for LGBTQ rights, basic civil rights, and economic justice.^[7] The center also works to preserve historic buildings in San Antonio’s West Side.^[8] In founding the center, Sanchez aimed to create a new organization that was more broadly focused than other civic organizations in San Antonio at the time.^[9] Sanchez became director of Esperanza in 1988.^[9]

Sanchez is a founding member of multiple organizations in San Antonio, including the Lesbian Gay assembly and the Lesbian/Gay Media Project.^[1]

In 2019, Sanchez was honored by the National Women's History Alliance as a "Champion of Peace and Nonviolence".^[5] In 2021, she received a Cornerstone Award from the Texas Society of Architects at its 82nd Annual Conference and Design Expo.^[8]

The National Women's History Alliance describes her leadership as having "changed the political character of San Antonio".^[5] Journalist Jade Esteban Estrada has said of Sanchez: "If it's unjust, she's on it."^[4] In response to death threats she has received over her life's work, she says: "You can't separate art and culture from justice and respect".^[10]