Leticia Hernández-Linares is a bilingual, interdisciplinary, award winning, writer, artist, and racial justice educator. The first-generation U.S. born daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, she is the author of Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl and Alejandria Fights Back!  ¡La lucha de Alejandria!  a project of Rise-Home Stories, a collaborative of multimedia storytellers and housing, land, and social justice advocates. 

Widely published, her writing has appeared in literary anthologies, journals, and newspapers, some of which include Maestrapeace: San Francisco’s Monumental Feminist Mural, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, Bomb Magazine, Huizache and The San Francisco Chronicle.  She has created numerous interdisciplinary performances and art installation projects and has presented her poemsongs throughout the country and in El Salvador.  Her university teaching includes courses in Gender Studies, Creative Writing, Ethnic Studies, Oral History, Central American Studies, Latinx Literature, and English Composition.  Hernández-Linares is particulary focused on Central American Diaspora Studies and Mesoamerican History and Culture.  

Throughout her career, she has convened and collaborated  with other Salvadoran and Central American artists and writers.  While working in journalism, she contributed to the Izote Vos book project, and authored the Central American section of an Ethnic Studies textbook.  In 2001, she was part of Foro 2000, an artivist delegation to El Salvador; and in 2003, she performed in Epicentrico: Rico Epicentro (A Night of Central American Performance) at Highways (L.A). Her poetic, interactive installation, Papeleo, was featured in the group exhibition, Mourning and Scars (2013, S.F.).  She performed at the Encuentro Poético: Salvadoran-American Poets at the Smithsonian in D.C., in 2014, and Variedades sponsored by Stanford and Grand Performances in L.A., in 2019.  She has worked on numerous projects in Washington D.C.: she taught an online bilingual poetry class at the Oyster Adams Bilingual school; served as poet in residence with Sol & Soul; together with Split this Rock, organized the Wandering Song book launch at Busboys and Poets; and, she was guest of honor at Hechizo, Arte y Poesía at La Casa de la Cultura Salvadoreña.  Her bilingual poetry appears in  Theatre Under My Skin: Contemporary Salvadoran Poetry published by Kalina Press and in Poeta Soy: Poesía de mujeres salvadoreñas, a book published by the Salvadoran Ministry of Education and Biblioteca Escolar Presidencial, 2019. Her work was also included in the first convening of Central American Women Writers in El Salvador in 2019 at the Otro Modo de Ser conference. In 2024, she hosted a two-day program, Places We Call Home,  both on campus and in the community. These three events, funded by the Library of America and the San Francisco Public Library, featured Salvadoran and Central American female poets, two of the poets joining from San Salvador and Santa Barbara. 

For over thirty years, she has worked in the arts, public K-12 schools, universities, and community-based organizations, nationwide. She has worked in various capacities in arts education, community engagement and leadership, and school reform, and has extensive experience in SFUSD.  Advocacy, sharing best practices, and community building has taken her across the country and beyond. She spoke for two consecutive years at the National Service-Learning Conference, and in 2007, she presented before all the Central American ministers of culture on the topic of arts education and violence prevention in El Salvador.  She has delivered keynotes and presented on panels throughout the United States and in El Salvador. She has presented to student and community groups on diverse topics such as Gentrification, Youth Development, Global Majority Feminisms and Ethnic Studies and Salvadoran Culture & History.

A two-time San Francisco Library Laurate, she received the Community Appreciation Teyolía Award from the SF International Flor y Canto Literary Festival in 2023. Since 2024,  she has served as the English language MC for the historic Carnaval San Francisco Parade in the Mission. She is a five-time San Francisco Arts Commission grant awardee, and she has lived, created, and protested in the Mission District of San Francisco for three decades.