OUR staff - Nuestro equipo
Juan L. Sánchez (he/him)- Executive Director/Founder
Juan L. Sánchez (he/him/él) is a singer/songwriter, educator, recording artist and artistic director born in Málaga, Spain. He holds a BA from Complutense University in Madrid and an MA from UCLA. He studied violin, choral singing and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid. Since 1991 he has worked as a teaching artist and performed extensively throughout the United States and Spain. He has released three music albums and worked as a professor at CSUMB's Service Learning Institute for 20 years.
In 2016 he co-founded Palenke Arts and has since served as its executive director. In 2018 he received the Marian Penn Award from the Service Learning Institute at CSUMB for his commitment to service, social responsibility, civic action and social justice. In 2019 he received on behalf of Palenke Arts the Arts and Culture Award from the Nonprofit Alliance of Monterey County and in 2022 the Champion of the Arts from the Arts Council of Monterey County.
Cindy Aguilar-Castañeda (She/They) Director of Programs and Operations.
Cindy grew up in Gonzales, CA. She attended UC Berkeley where she received her B.A. in Sociology and a Minor in Education. She brings extensive experience in facilitation, strategic planning, youth leadership development, and bilingual community engagement. Cindy has led and supported initiatives across Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, including transportation planning, civic engagement, and educational equity projects. Her work spans public and nonprofit sectors, where she has developed original curriculum, conducted outreach, and built strong partnerships with local governments, schools, and community organizations. Passionate about equity and systems change, Cindy is committed to creating inclusive spaces that empower communities and drive meaningful impact.
In her free time, Cindy enjoys visiting the beach, trying new coffee recipes, attending concerts, and spending time with family.del Valle! ¡Bienvenida, Valentina!
Jocelyne Reséndiz Nieto (she/them) - Program Coordinator MLKSOA
Jocelyne Reséndiz Nieto (She/Her/Ella) has lived in Seaside for the past twenty-five years after immigrating from Guanajuato, Mexico. Growing up, her family was deeply rooted in their culture. As a direct result, she was part of multiple dance groups in Monterey County. She came to work with Palenke Arts with a diverse artistic background including violin, mariachi, ballet folklóriko, and Aztec dance. Reséndiz Nieto is an avid reader and is currently running Palenke Arts’ Spanish Book Club/Club de Libros en Español.
Lirio Hernández (she/them) - Teen Arts Center Coordinator
Lirio Hernandez (She/They) is our Teen Arts Center Program Assistant. Lirio is an alum of Cal Poly Pomona, graduating with a BA in Music! They come to us from LA, after working with Young Musicians Foundation in South Central L.A. and Chicxs Rockerxs.
Paul Richmond - Visual Arts
Paul Richmond is an internationally recognized visual artist and activist whose career has included exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States as well as publication in numerous art journals and anthologies. His work is collected by individuals around the globe. As an illustrator, has created over four hundred novel cover illustrations. He is a co-founder of the You Will Rise Project, an organization that empowers those who have experienced bullying to speak out creatively through art. He is Executive Director of Art Makes Us, a virtual creative space dedicated to providing opportunities for each individual to discover and nurture the artist within. Richmond lives with his husband Dennis in Monterey, California. He is represented by Muse Art Services.
Artist Statement–
Paul’s paintings are an investigation of identity, vulnerability, and human nature. Reality and abstraction compete within the figurative foundation of each piece to make the subjects’ inner struggles more tangible. He often draws upon personal history to approach universal themes. The expressive application of pigment reduces the literalness of the depiction, engaging with an exploration of color, form, shape, and pattern as windows into the psyche. By deconstructing and rebuilding the figure, his paintings invite understandings that reach beyond the immediate surface and reveal the complexity of the individual.
Jessica Diaz-Martinez (She/Her) Program Assistant, MLKSOA
Jessica is an alumna of CSU Northridge, graduating with a B.A. in Cinema and Television Arts in 2023. She’s a talented photographer, as well as a Seaside High School graduate. She teaches our Intro to Photography classes.
Paul Contos - Jazz/clarinet/saxophone teacher
With over thirty years in jazz performance, education, and faculty positions at UC Santa Cruz, CSUMB and MPC, Paul Contos’ talents and abilities encompass worldwide performance, recording, production, conducting, and mentorship.
Contos served as saxophone clinician with The Monterey Jazz Festival for 30 yrs., as Director of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra & Monterey County All-Stars for 20 yrs., and as Education Director (2011-2019). He continues as Director of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars Orchestra (2009-present), and is an annual guest artist in Japan, Brazil, and the United States annually. Lecturer in Saxophone at Univ. of California Santa Cruz (1996-present) Generated and taught the Recording and Music Technology component in the music major at CA State University Monterey Bay (1997-2009). Contos’ pedagogical statement can be encapsulated thus: He is constantly working to provide inspiration and motivation to the world’s young generation of new jazz artists for the continuation, persistence, and relentless development and evolution of the jazz language.
Under Contos’ direction, many of the ensembles he has conducted have been awarded first place at competitions and festivals throughout the U.S. In 2017, Contos was awarded Downbeat Magazine’s national Jazz Education Achievement Award for Jazz Educator, and in 2015 was awarded the Champion of the Arts: Educator Award by the Monterey Arts Council.
Hector Aguila (he/him)! Teen Arts Center Program Assistant
Hector is a bilingual filmmaker and creative producer focused on storytelling, youth empowerment, and cultural impact. He is the creator of the web series 916 and leads community-based projects that blend film, education, and advocacy. He has also worked as Program Coordinator for the Watsonville Film Festival! 🎬
He holds a double BA degree from UC Santa Cruz in Film and Digital Media, as well as Education, Democracy and Social Justice! We are so excited to have him join our team!
Jenny (Nereida) Robles - Ballet Folklórico
Maestra Jenny Robles is an original dancer and instructor for the founding of Centeotl Danza y Baile, where she has taught for 12 years. In 2009, she joined Esperanza del Valley Dance Company and danced under the direction of the late Maestro Ramon Morones and Janet Johns, both of whom were mentors and serve as an inspiration for the work she carries out in Santa Cruz, California. Robles studies and consults with experienced folkloric dance teachers in California and Oaxaca to ensure the authenticity of the cultural traditions she is teaching. Robles currently performs with Esperanza del Valle in Watsonville. Each spring she teaches at the Danzantes Unidos Festival, the largest gathering of folkloristas in the United States. Robles is studying for a masters in dance at Colegio de Bellas Artes de Oaxaca.
Belém Mata - Ballet Folklórico
Belém Mata, a native of Baja California Sur, has been part of the ballet folklórico culture for five decades. She originally got involved in classes in the Casa de la Cultura.
Her teaching experiences span over a decade as both as assistant, lead teacher and choreographer. She has led student groups at Salinas USD, Monterey Peninsula USD and of course at Palenke Arts, where she has led both youth and adult ensembles.
She simply loves la cultura y la danza!
Chloe Canton Rice - Piano
Chloe Canton Rice received her Doctor of Musical Arts at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. in 2014. She holds a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the College of Music, University of the Philippines (2001, 2004).
Dr. Rice started taking piano lessons when she was three and a half years old. At the age of five, she became a representative to the First Philippine National Suzuki Conference in Manila. In 1991, she was awarded the Salvador & Pilar Sala Foundation Scholarship, and gave her debut solo recital at the age of 15. Thereafter, she pursued piano studies at the University of the Philippines College of Music, where she was the recipient of the Carminda Regala Piano Scholarship.
She has performed at the Kennedy Center and at the National Museum of Women in the Arts where her interpretation of Leonard Bernstein’s Seven Anniversaries was praised by The Washington Post. In February 2016, she won Third Place in the American Protégé International Competition and was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, New York.
Dr. Rice maintains her own teaching studio in Monterey, California.