Community Driven

At Indigenous Roots, our foundation is built on the creativity, knowledge, and leadership of the communities we serve. Every decision, program, and initiative is shaped by multigenerational voices, ensuring that our work reflects the lived experiences, needs, and aspirations of Black, Brown, Native, and Indigenous peoples. We center community input through collaborative planning, advisory councils, and grassroots engagement, creating a space where culture, art, and heritage thrive. By grounding our organization in community, we honor ancestral knowledge, foster intergenerational connection, and cultivate resilient, inclusive, and culturally vibrant spaces for all to grow.

Indigenous Roots Cultural Center (IRoots) began in 2006 as a dance and drum community circle known as Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli and formally incorporated as a nonprofit in 2015. In response to the community voicing a need for spaces to preserve and reconnect with ancestral knowledge systems as well as arts and cultural practices, we opened our brick-and-mortar cultural center in 2017. In 2018, with a groundswell of community support, we purchased our building, inspiring locally, nationally, and beyond, and positioning IRoots as a trusted partner for allyship and consulting.

In 2021, Indigenous Roots was named one of ten Regional Cultural Treasures by a collaborative including the Ford, McKnight, Bush, and Jerome Foundations, and became administrator for the McKnight Foundation’s Culture Bearer Fellowship, helping to re-envision and restructure the program with authentic, community-centered grantmaking in mind.

In 2024, we expanded our work internationally with the purchase of land in Mataxhi, Mexico, where we are developing Centro Noxtitlan, a Culture Bearer Residency Center. This initiative deepens cross-border cultural exchange, provides a dedicated space for artists and culture bearers to practice and share ancestral knowledge, and elevates Indigenous and Mexica traditions through immersive residencies, workshops, and collaborative projects that strengthen both local and international networks.

Co-Founders

mary anne ligeralde quiroz | CO-founder | executive director

Mary Anne Quiroz is an Indigenay, an Indigenous Islander Mama, Dancer, Artist Organizer and Community Activator. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States at the age of 9. Together with her life partner and duality, she is a Co-Founder/Co-Director of Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, a traditional Mexican/Nahua/Aztec dance and community group that they founded in 2006. Quiroz is also a Co-Founder/Co-Director of Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center where she and a collective of artists, organizers and cultural groups provide accessible space and programming opportunities that promote and practice holistic well being through arts, culture and activism. Guided by ancestral knowledge, Quiroz believes that arts and culture is an ecosystem for community development. Today, Quiroz continues to build collective power with and for Brown, Black, Native and Indigenous artists, organizers and community members

sergio nochtzin quiroz | CO-founder | executive cultural architect

Sergio Nochtzin Quiroz is a Tlamakaze, Culture Bearer and Founder of the traditional Mexica Nahua dance and drum group, Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli. Quiroz has led and presented at community events, conferences, artist residencies and workshops locally, nationally and internationally for over 20 years. Quiroz reconnected with his path as a Mexica danzante and mazehual in high school and today continues to provide and teach free classes in the community. In addition to his leadership role as a lead dancer for Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, Sergio co-founded Indigenous Roots (2015). In May 2017, Indigenous Roots opened its cultural arts center on the East Side of Saint Paul in partnership with a collective of artists, cultural groups and organizations. As the Executive Cultural Architect, Sergio plays a critical role leading a crew of volunteers and builders in public art projects, arts programming as well as remodeling and makes-shifting spaces in the building to fit the needs of artists and community groups that utilize the cultural center.

Contact: info@indigenous-roots.org | 651.395.7145

Board of Directors

Luis Elizondo | CO-CHAIR | JOINED October 2023

Luis Elizondo (he/him) - has been part of the Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli community since 2015 and has played a vital role as a volunteer with the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center since its opening. He has dedicated much of his time towards building out spaces at the center with Sergio so our community members feel safe and welcome. Luis is bilingual in Spanish and also one of the main gallery volunteers involved in about 90% of exhibits and public art installations that Indigenous Roots hosts. Luis remains a consistent pillar both in the manual labor and as a thought partner when creating/imagining plans to level up Indigenous Roots

GREGORY KING | SECRETARY | Joined January 2023

Gregory King (he/him) is the current Board President of Minnesota Interfaith Coalition Immigration (ICOM) as well as the founder and lead member of Filipinx for Immigration Rights and Racial Justice MN (FIRM). From 2010 to 2016, King was actively involved with education advocacy, successfully mobilizing a moratorium on suspensions of students below the third grade. King was born in Minneapolis, but his ancestral roots connect back to the Philippine islands. He is a dancer for the Cultural Society of Filipino Americans which was founded by his mother a Native Cebuana.

DANIELLE SWIFT | CO-TREASURER | Joined JANUARY 2023

Danielle Swift (she/her) is a community organizer with a specific lens in real estate, land use and non-profit community development. She began her career working at Hiway Federal Credit Union. After 8 years she moved on to working in real estate sales with a primary focus on Saint Paul. Danielle is currently working as an Anti-displacement Organizer at the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, Realtor with ABC Realty and serves on the Board of Zoning Appeals at the City of Saint Paul. In her personal life she is an East Side homeowner as well as social and racial justice activist and most importantly a mother to Elijah, Londyn and Soleil.

DR. SAMUEL TORRES | CO-CHAIR | Joined JANUARY 2023

Samuel Torres (he/him) is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), and has been organizing justice and healing work around intergenerational trauma since he was hired in 2019. Samuel earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice from Loyola Marymount University and his research encompasses the impacts of colonization on historical and contemporary education methods, particularly the legacy of boarding schools. With his extensive experience as a researcher, writer, educator, and leader, Dr. Torres holds a deep passion for decolonizing fixed knowledge systems, centering ancestral knowledge and histories, and working in community to promote Indigenous futures. Samuel was born on the unceded ancestral lands of the Kizh Nation (Los Angeles, CA) and currently resides in Imniza Ska (St. Paul, MN). A bicultural human being, Samuel Torres is Mexica/Nahua on his father's side, and Irish/Scottish on his mother’s. In addition to actively learning and practicing Nahua language, traditions, and ceremony, he belongs to the Mexica kinship community, Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli. Dr. Torres also serves on the Board of Directors for the Educator's Institute for Human Rights.

ABRIL (AB) MACIAS | CO-TREASURER | Joined JANUARY 2023

Abril (AB) Macias (elle/they) is an educator who completed their Teacher Preparation Program at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul. AB has extensive experience in collaborating with intergenerational peers and community partners through study, work, and volunteering that included an awareness of utilizing a restorative based lens to guide collaborative facilitation of goals. AB also serves on the School Climate Committee at Riverview West Side School of Excellence which has provided AB with skills in collaborating with fellow educators in using analytics and data from student and educator voices to monitor school and district wide goals. Working and volunteering with diverse community educational and cultural organizations throughout the Twin Cities in Mní Sóta Makhóčhe, has fostered their cultural knowledge of collective practices for an inclusive environment.

Contact: board@indigenous-roots.org | 651.395.7145