ROXANA BENDEZÚ

FOUNDING DIRECTOR / PUBLISHER

Roxana Bendezú is a descendant of the Quechua People of the Andes, born and mostly raised in Lima, Perú. She migrated to Turtle Island first in 1993 and later in 1999. She is an activist documentarian, socio-political analyst, and the founder and executive director of Migrant Roots Media. She has been working on pro-migrant, pro-human rights causes at different capacities for the last decade.

Pronouns: She / Ella

DUBIE TOA-KWAPONG

GUEST EDITOR

AFRICA MIGRATION ETHNOGRAPHER

Dubie Toa-Kwapong is a cyclical migrant born in Norway to Ghanaian and British parents. She is an independent researcher, writer, and editor. She holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, as well as a certificate in African and African American Studies, from Duke University. Her research practice and commitment to migrant justice flow from an attunement to the ongoing consequences of European imperial border-making, along with other inheritances of colonialism, on the lives of Africans on the continent and in the global diaspora – including the entangled migratory journeys of her ancestors.

Pronouns: She / Her / Hers

EMELY ARREDONDO

CHAPTER COORDINATOR

Emely is a graduate of Duke University with Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Policy and International Comparative Studies. As a proud Dominican immigrant with lived experiences across the U.S. mainland and territories, she is driven by grassroots work that advocates for the agency, rights, and dignity of (im)migrants. Throughout her undergraduate experience, these interests also intersected with her research endeavors focused on human rights violations inflicted by authoritarian regimes in Latin America. Emely brought these interests to her multichapter honors thesis project, “Revisiting Memory, Truth, and Justice in the Dominican Republic”, where she explored the contemporary implications of transitional justice and its lack thereof in a post-dictatorship Dominican Republic and Kiskeya. 

Pronouns: She / Ella

ALEJANDRA MEJÍA

CO-LEAD VOS* DEL SUR PROGRAM

SERVED AS CHIEF EDITOR (2019 - 2026)

Alejandra (Ale) Mejía is the Chief Editor of Migrant Roots Media. Her politics and commitment to migrant justice are largely informed by her lived experiences as a working-class Central American immigrant in the U.S. South. She is an Assistant Editor at Duke University Press, where she acquires books in Latine/x history, and an editor for Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Pronouns: She / Her / Hers

JONATHAN PERAZA CAMPOS

CO-LEAD VOS* DEL SUR PROGRAM

Jonathan Peraza Campos is a middle school teacher, teacher educator, community organizer, and co-founder of the Vos* del Sur program. He provides professional development, does outreach, and creates resources to support the teaching of Central American studies in K-12 with the Teaching Central America program at Teaching for Change. Jonathan merges his knowledge of ethnic studies and Central American studies (CAS) education and community organizing to amplify the ongoing work for liberatory education in the South through his sixth grade classroom, Vos* del Sur, Escuelitas on Buford Highway, and the Atlanta chapter of the Association of Raza Educators. Jonathan received his undergraduate degree in Sociology and English in 2018 from Emory University. He holds master’s degrees in Social Foundations of Education and in Secondary English Education from Georgia State University along with a graduate certificate in Latin American Studies from Georgia State and an ethnic studies K-12 teacher specialization certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently completing a Master of Arts in History from Georgia State University. His educational and historical work examine the links between racism, imperialism, immigration, militarism, incarceration, policing, and education, especially in the Latinx South and pertaining to Central Americans.

LOAN TRAN

Loan Tran was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam to a Vietnamese mother and a Vietnamese-White father who was born to a U.S. military personnel during the American War on Viet Nam. Their family migrated to the U.S. in the mid-90s. They grew up in Charlotte, NC where they began organizing around migrant justice and LGBTQ student safety. Their family's experience with imperialism and the prison system is what informs much of their organizing. Loan is currently based in Durham, NC where they support grassroots organizing led by Black, Brown, LGBTQ, and migrant communities.

Pronouns: They / Them / Theirs

RICKY LEUNG

Ricky is co-founder and Communications and Outreach Director at North Carolina Asian Americans Together. Ricky was born in Hong Kong and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, when he was 8 years old with his immediate family. He studied journalism and mass communication at UNC Chapel Hill, concentrating in visual communication and design. He began his career in DC at National Geographic and at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where he learned more about his identity as an Asian American in the United States and the historical legacy, diversity, and positionality of people with Asian heritage, both those who were born in this country and those who migrated here because of myriad different reasons. After getting more involved with AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) grassroots organizers in DC, Ricky returned to North Carolina in 2010 in hopes of bringing that AAPI experience to the state he considers now his home and worked at NC Policy Watch, a project of the North Carolina Justice Center, before joining NCAAT fulltime, where he now focuses on building relationships and community among Asian American populations.

Pronouns: He / Him / His

RAHI HASAN

Rahi is a dancer, cultural organizer, educator, impact strategist and a multimedia artist experimenting with ways to challenge power on all fronts and create space for healing and radical imagination. They immigrated to Queens, New York from Dhaka, Bangladesh and lived there for almost 15 years before moving to Durham, NC. Rahi completed their BA in Philosophy and MA in Philosophy of Law from Queens College prior to completing their certificate in Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Rahi’s work spans autobiography, collaborative social documentary, experimental video, installation, reflective/theoretical discourse, and text-based approaches.

Pronouns: They / Them / Theirs