Production Team
Justine Fernandez
Justine Fernandez (Technical Director & Lighting Designer: PachuquÃsmo) is a theater and museum worker born and raised in the Bay Area. For La Mezcla she acts as both Lighting Designer and the Stage Manager. She also works as a freelance TD/technician at venues around the Bay and as a preparator at the Oakland Museum of California where she enjoys and takes pride in creating and working with her hands.
John Jota Leaños
John Jota Leaños (Film Co-Director, Animator & Videographer) is a Mestizx (Italo/Chicanx/Chumash) media artist and animator focusing on critical convergences of history, memory, social space, and decolonization. Leaños’ animation, installation, opera, performance and public media fuse traditional practices and aesthetics with new technologies and contemporary reconfigurations. His work has been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Short Corner, PBS.org, the Whitney Biennial, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and a variety of other art and public contexts. Leaños is a Guggenheim Fellow in Fim & Media and Creative Capital Foundation Grantee who has received the United States Artist Fellowship, National Association for Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) Master Artist Award, the San Francisco Art Commission Individual Artist Grant, and the Creative Work Fund Award. He has been an artist-in-resident at the Center for Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, the Center for Arts in Society, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. Leaños is currently a Professor in the Department of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Ariana Cruz
Ariana Cruz (Hair & Costume Design, Stylist: PachuquÃsmo, world premiere of Ghostly Labor) is a seamstress, costume designer and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked with La Mezcla since 2018, styling hair and costumes, and creating visual art installations for the show PachuquÃsmo. Ariana is the creator of Sew Frisco, a wearable thread art brand inspired by growing up in San Francisco through iron on patches and pins. She continues to work with La Mezcla as costume designer for their upcoming show Ghostly Labor.
Emanuel Zarate
Emanuel Zarate (Audio Engineer) is an audio editor, sound designer, and live sound engineer with over 10 years of experience creating emotionally compelling and technically polished audio for theater, music, podcasts, and digital media. Based in the Bay Area, Emanuel has collaborated with artists, directors, educators, and production teams to deliver high-quality sound for live performances, recordings, and broadcast content.
His work spans live theater engineering, podcast editing, sound design for animation, studio recording, and audio system installation. In addition to professional production work, Emanuel is a dedicated educator, training middle and high school students in hands-on live sound engineering at Brava Theater Center. With a strong aesthetic sensibility, deep technical knowledge, and a collaborative approach, he brings clarity, impact, and intention to every audio experience he helps create.
David R. Molina
David R. Molina (Sound Design & Audio Engineer: PachuquÃsmo, world premiere of Ghostly Labor) is a composer, musician, sound artist/designer, and instrument inventor who works on performing arts and multimedia productions. Credits: El Borracho (The Old Globe), King Lear (STL Shakespeare Festival), Quixote Nuevo (Tour 2019-2020, Round House 2021), Mojada (Rep of St. Louis, CTG, OSF), Two Trains Running (Seattle Rep, Arena Stage), Macbeth (Play On Podcasts). Resident Artist: NAKA Dance Theater, Human Shakes, Brava Theater. Awards: L.A. Ovation, Creative Capital, Wattis Fund, InterMusic SF Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission Grant. Multimedia: SFMOMA, The Broad, Oakland Museum of California, McLoughlin Gallery. Music Collaborations: Tau (Berlin), Emanative (U.K.), El Paso (Peru), The Pyramids. Bands: Impuritan, Ghosts and Strings, Transient. Drmsound.com.