Pablo Macias was born in Carlin, Nevada, a small town 20 miles west of Elko, where the local population of Latinos was small. He has lived in Las Vegas since 1990.

He is the youngest of nine children born to Sofia and Tomas Macias, who met and married while living in Utah. Tomas was born in the United States and worked as a railroad laborer. Sofia was Mexican born and found work as a maid to help provide for their family.

In 1971, Emilia Marquez was born in Virginia to her Uruguayan immigrant parents, Alicia and Carlos. When the family returned to Uruguay in 1982, she experienced being an outsider in her parents’ home country. As she describes it: when in Uruguay she is Uruguayan; when in the U.S., she is an American citizen. Over the course of her life, she has proven to be an adept navigator of language and cultures. In 1990, she and Juan Carlos Mussio married. They have three daughters, Ashley, Emily and Jessica. The family moved to Las Vegas in 2001.

“I identify with being part of the AAPI community, and our family has adopted Las Vegas as our town, again doing what we can to make impact because we feel that this town has really blessed us with so much opportunity. It’s our joy to be able to give back.”