Laura Sáenz

Laura is the founder and lead moderator of Bilingual Bolero. Born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico to a Mexican singer and a Danish-Australian-American educator, she pursued studies both in Communications and the Arts. She was exposed to market research while working in advertising at the Leo Burnett ad agency in both Mexico City and Chicago, IL. Her artistic practice in performance and choreography led her to arts education – which she has continued to practice as a Teaching Artist for CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership in Education), the Chicago Park District and Opportunities for All – organizations that develop arts-integrated curriculum and professional development for students, teachers and parents in Chicago Public Schools. These experiences have kept Laura very alive and present serving and working within the same communities that she explores as a researcher.

Her experience in research has spanned from traditional focus groups to deep ethnographic longitudinal studies in people’s lives. She has helped facilitate spontaneous street interviews in local neighborhoods, parks, schools or community organizations, events and shopping centers and since 2020, virtually.

Laura has been on the board of Street Level Youth Media a non-profit media arts organization that provides inner-city youth with media experience and access to the technology to design and develop their own work. She has been a music producer for her father’s Trio Los Soberanos and is also a bilingual facilitator for Storycorps, a national oral history project that partners with public radio and the Library of Congress to record, share and archive stories of everyday people.