Juan Contreras is a native El Pasoan and a graduate from Bowie High School.  He received his B.S. in Secondary Education and M.Ed. in Instructional Specialist from The University of Texas at El Paso.  Since then he has taught in local public and private schools, has written several books of bilingual poems and prose pieces, and has given lectures and readings throughout the southwest and as well as locally, in the universities of Ciudad Juárez and school districts in the El Paso area. His books include: The Wizard of Sas, Above All There is Love..., Palabras de Amor/Words of Love, and Morning song/Mañanitas. His poems and prose pieces exemplify particularly well the music that can be achieved when Spanish and English are braided together, as they so often are on our border. His art honors everyday speech and affirms the sounds and rhythms that color the childhoods of many individuals, the sounds of their memories, the sense of culture handed down to them by oral history. As an educator who is particularly concerned with issues which, in his words, "afflict/affect the Chicano/Hispanic communities," the development of student self-esteem and alternative programs for at-risk student populations, Contreras uses writing and performance to enact questions, influences and affirmations arise from his own experiences as a youth and now as an educator. Mr. Contreras is currently a administrator in the Ysleta Independent School District.