About Chuy

Jesus “Chuy” Renteria is an author, artist, dancer, and teacher, but above all, they are a storyteller. Born in Iowa City and raised in West Liberty IA, both sides of his family are from border towns in Mexico that transplanted to meatpacking towns in the Midwest. Growing up in West Liberty, he oscillated between the Mexican, Laotian, and small-town cultures that made up Iowa’s first majority-Hispanic town. Chuy tells stories celebrating the spaces between cultures, of mangled Spanglish and generational clashes, of the messiness of people finding themselves. In addition to his writing, Chuy is a Success Coach with the non-profit RSFIC (Resilient Sustainable Future For Iowa City) where they support community partners looking to create meaningful connections with their neighbors. They write the Substack, “Of Spanglish and Maximalism,” which details, among other things, the trials of being a former DEI professional in upper academia. They were the host of The Englert’s Writers of Color Reading Series podcast. Their first full-length publication, a memoir titled “We Heard it When We Were Young,” released in November 2021 with The University of Iowa Press. He spends his free time with his wife Darcy and their first born Marisol Alana.