Rafael Ayala

Rafael Ayala has been actively engaged in helping developing individuals for the past 25 years as an educator, cultural activist, musician, and as a family therapist.He started his work in South Central Los Angeles at 109th Street Elementary School in South Central Los Angeles.He has worked in the China Town District, and in East Los Angeles.He continued his work in Monterey California, Maui Hawaii's, and in Mexico City, where he gained knowledge and appreciation of the many different cultures and worldviews.

Rafael was born in Los Angeles California and proudly proclaims himself as a Chicano.He grew up in Los Angeles during the Chicano Movement that echoed the inspiration of social change in America for a fair and equal participation of the Mexican-American and other minority groups that were seeking political action and social change that mirrored the civil rights movement of the sixties and 70's.

In the eighties he worked as a cultural activist and collaborated with many Central American organizations in Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Bay Area.During this time he was a member of various innovative musical groups; "Chiltic-Istac" a musical group that promoted peace and liberty through the "Nuevo cancion" song movement of Latin America; "America Mustafa" was another Nuevo Cancion musical group that he helped form with Xavier Quijas, the group dedicated themselves to the dissemination of the cultural legacies of Latin America; "America Indigena" and "Chimoztoc" were meso-american, an indigenous musical group that followed in the footsteps of the concheros of Mexico who performed throughout California during the late eighties and early nineties.

Rafael was a founding Board member of "First Night' Monterey"; board member for the "Monterey Cultural Council" of Monterey in Carmel California; Director of "Casa Cultural Mexicana" of Maui Hawaii; founded "Calafia Productions" in Salinas, California where he produced historical documentation of the "Chicano" and "Hawaiian" cultures.