Los Descendientes de Tucson is a 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the rich heritage of the presidio and the ‘Old Pueblo’. Founded in 1990, mission is to preserve the unique cultural influences by safeguarding, documenting & educating community on the rich tangible and intangible heritage, historical places, culture, and traditions
About its directors:
Rikki Riojas was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. She has a B.A. in Mexican American Studies and History from the University of Arizona. She is currently a Master’s Candidate at the University of Colorado, Denver for a dual degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban and Regional Planning. Rikki advocates for highlighting community histories and believes in the power of the shared and generational knowledge within the community. She believes that systems should serve the people they are for and has utilized her position to advocate for historic preservation policies that allow for community-led preservation.
Since 2019 she has been a member of Los Descendientes. From 2020-2025 she served as District 5’s appointee to the Tucson Pima County Historical Commission, serving as a general member and on the Plans Review, Task Force on Inclusivity, Budget, and Celebration of Tucson Committees.
Alisha Vasquez is a krip, Chicana mama whose Tucsonense family has occupied the unceded homelands of the Tohono O’odham, Apache, and Yoeme people for six generations. Becoming a parent funneled all of her past experiences, knowledges, and beliefs into a new solidification of her values where she became a more joyous version of her analytical self. She honors her Mexican American-Tucsonense family, punk rock, living disabled, an acceptance and rejection of the academy, and existing within community as the epochs of her education until becoming a parent.
Vasquez holds a BA in History and Women’s Studies from the University of Arizona and MA from San Francisco State University where her graduate work examined the rise neoliberal capitalism alongside multiple social movements in the United States, emphasizing disabled and Chicanx intersectional material realities. She taught middle school, high school, and college using these positions to resource the community. She is currently the Communications and Accessibility Manager Southwest Folklife Alliance / National Folklife Network; Co-Director of the Mexican American Heritage and History Museum at the Sosa-Carrillo House; and is following through on passion projects that use her training as an historian, community organizer, and educator to capture what it means to exist in so-called Tucson.