Who We Are

It all started when…

Maria De Lourdes Briseno Perez, Founder

At the age of eight Maria de Lourdes Briseño Perez, and her sister Miriam Lilia Briseño stayed behind in Huanusco Zacatecas to care for their 8 siblings while her parents immigrated to the United States to create a better opportunity for their family.

Her mother, Maria Briseño worked at a vitamin factory and their father worked as a bracero in Arkansa. Lourdes and her sister passed on extra activities such as dance, art, music and sports to obtain jobs to help provide for their family in Mexico. One of their school teachers, Maria Luisa Rodriguez, offered to help teach the two sisters dance without charge. They couldn’t afford to purchase costumes, a local seamstress let Lourdes and Miriam use their sewing machines to make their costume out of skirts of paper crepe. 

Performing at various locations (ranchos), the two sisters were then invited to participate in competition in Tabasco Zacatecas, Mexico. Although they didn’t win first place, it was an opportunity that will never forget. This gave the sisters the ability to develop skills and an insight to understand the world.  

Once Lourdes and her siblings became citizens in the United States, Lourdes graduated from Bell High School and become a teacher’s Aid in Watts, where she began teaching her first Ballet Folklorico class. Lourdes saw the importance and benefits of cultural arts and understanding their roots in children. Lourdes continued to teach ballet folklorico in Paramount, under the recreation program. She saw herself in many children in the SELA community and wanted to find a way to help them they way her teacher helped her.

Art inspire and shapes our understanding of the world, it creates creativity and helps structure the mentality of what we can imagine the world can be. Lourdes believed that by creating the nonprofit organization, Latinas Art Foundation, she can help inspire others to do something unique and empower them to surpass their wildest dreams.