2025 True Heroes: Roger Montoya

THERE’S MAGIC IN motion at Moving Arts Española, where at-risk kids are harnessing the healing power of art. Each year, in a building bursting with bright colors, beautiful masks, sculptures, and vibrant murals, more than 700 children from low-income communities in northern New Mexico are learning to thrive. 

But change is afoot. “We have to move from our site,” says Roger Montoya, co-founder and creative director of Moving Arts Española. “It keeps me awake in the most profound way.” After 13 years in the same 16,000-square-foot space, the nonprofit organization is seeking to build its forever home. “We don’t want to leave the valley,” he says. “The need is high.” 

Indeed, the level of adverse childhood experiences—trauma, poverty, and addiction—are “off the charts in Río Arriba County,” Montoya says. “We also have an alarming number of grandparents raising children in this valley—60 percent of children in this valley are raised by grandparents because the parents are dead or living in the streets.” 

Despite the uncertainty, Moving Arts’s work remains paramount. “We’re committed,” says Montoya. But obstacles remain: Few local properties fit their space requirements, which means the organization likely needs to raise $4 million for the land purchase and the retrofit or build-out of a 25,000-square-foot space to ensure its future. “There’s a sense of urgency,” he says. 

Montoya, who co-founded Moving Arts in 2008 with his partner, Salvador Ruiz Esquivel, is familiar with urgency. As his New York City dance career began to flourish in the late 1980s, Montoya not only lost his partner and dear friends to AIDS but also tested positive for HIV himself. At 25, he returned home to Velarde, expecting to die. “I had this slap-in-the face-moment that life is going to be short,” Montoya recalls. He wanted to make a difference with the little time he had left.

Instead, Montoya grew stronger. Looking around his community, he was dismayed. “The schools were devoid of the arts for expression,” Montoya says. He put his passion into building an arts enrichment program in Española’s primary schools, sharing his love for gymnastics, dance, and painting. The program led to the creation of Moving Arts Española, a year-round after-school and summer program for kids ages three to 18. Classes now include science and technology, with students receiving much more than traditional classroom instruction. “Trauma-informed training and care is part of our recipe,” says Montoya, who was recognized as one of 10 CNN Heroes in 2019. Another ingredient is the nonprofit’s Healthy Meals program, which provides 150 free hot meals for students and families every day.

“I grew up in a troubled household,” says Cristian Madrid-Estrada, who started as a student and now works at Moving Arts. “When I was seven, my grandfather committed suicide, and I went into a deep depression. He was my hero. I was getting in trouble, acting out, not processing my emotions.” Moving Arts changed Madrid-Estrada’s life. At age 26, he’s doing the same for others as a gymnastics coach and the head of human resources and operations. “We not only help the kids to heal, but to find their voice, their expression, and to really grow and thrive,” he says. “It’s not only my story, but the story of so many other kids.”