Arquitectos Coalition at AIA26
When AIA26 came to San Diego this June, it brought more than 5,000 architects and design professionals to my home city. Among the hundreds of sessions on the schedule, one meant the most to help plan and run: "Arquitectos Coalition National: Framework for the Future," an interactive working session built around a simple but overdue question. What would it take to organize a unified Latinx presence in the architecture profession at a national scale?
I helped shape and staff this session alongside representatives from leading Latinx organizations across the country. The goal was not to deliver another panel that ends when the lights come up. We wanted the room to leave with something usable: shared strategy, real relationships, and a roadmap people could act on.
Why this session, and why now
Latinx architects and designers have long done exceptional work, often within organizations that operate locally and independently of one another. That local energy is a strength. It is also a ceiling. Momentum that stays regional rarely compounds into the kind of national visibility, funding, and influence the profession tends to reward.
The Arquitectos Coalition National (ArCoN) exists to change that math. By connecting allied organizations under a shared framework, ArCoN aims to turn parallel efforts into collective ones, so that mentorship in one city, a licensure push in another, and a fundraising win somewhere else start reinforcing each other instead of running in isolation.
If you are part of a Latinx design organization, an emerging professional looking for a path forward, or an ally who wants to help build one, ArCoN is assembling exactly the kind of national infrastructure this profession has needed. I am glad to have had a hand in it, and the work is only getting started.
