Founder
Native Like Water

Marc Chavez, of Nahua, Michoacán and New Mexican-Spanish descent, founded the Young Native Scholars and InterTribal Youth programs in San Diego in 2000. Now in their 26^th year, these widely-recognized initiatives have engaged youth and mentors from across North America, Hawaii, Panama, Jamaica, and Mexico in programs that enhance knowledge in such domains as technology, culture, health, environmental science, and self-sustainability, and that also help link young people to universities and career paths. Chavez has also worked on major art exhibits, murals, overland journeys, music, dance and theater productions along the U.S.-Mexico border region and internationally. In 2014, he founded the nonprofit Native Like Water, and he recently wrote, directed and produced Haagua, a film about a new wave of Indigenous surfers.