Official Biography.

José Francisco Ávila is a Garifuna/Afro-Latino author, self-publisher, prominent Garifuna/Afro-Latino social justice activist, father, and grandfather. He was born in Honduras and raised in Boston, MA. He is managing Partner of Garifuna Afro-Latino Entertainment LLC and Chairman of the Board of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc.

He lives in New York City with his wife, they have four adult children and two beautiful granddaughters.

José Francisco developed a Life-long love affair with books and reading, beginning in elementary school, in his native Honduras. He attended Bentley University one of the leading business schools in the country, where he received his Bachelor of Science Accounting degree. It was one of his professors who recognized his unique writing style and suggested minoring in Journalism. He went on to make a living as an Accountant in government, public accounting, and private industry. He has been a freelance writer whose work has been featured in various ethnic publications.

Inspired by Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns in the 1984 and the 1988 presidential elections, he was motivated to organize the New York City Garifuna community. As he saw it, the needs of the Garifuna Community were the same as those of the African Americans, therefore, they could serve as role models. That was the beginning of his main mission in life, to inform, empower, and advocate for Garifuna People. On February 5, 1989, he organized the First Garifuna Community organizing meeting in New York City, at the Club Cubano Interamericano located at 671 Prospect Avenue.

When he started his quest for racial, ancestral, ethnic, and cultural identity, there were no Garifuna or Afro-Latino(a) stories at all, they were invisible, he wanted to change that! He wanted Garifunas to become the subjects of their own history, rather than objects of someone else’s. Therefore, he decided to provide a platform by publishing the U.S.A. Garifuna newsletter that would celebrate the accomplishments, achievements, and contributions of the Garifunas.

He had few role models to follow. For guidance, he looked to African American writers, such as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Puerto Rican-Cuban writer Piri Thomas and Ebony Magazine publisher John H. Johnson. He found strength in the way they wrote about being invisible, they wrote about things that had never been written about before. So, he thought to himself, "I can do that, too. No reader has ever been able to read a story like mine".

In the January 1991 issue of his newsletter, he wrote “As a proud Garifuna, I anxiously await the arrival of the twenty first century, because the Garifuna culture will occupy its rightful place as part of its divine nature, “Uwala Busiganu, Garinagu Wagia”, Let us not be ashamed of saying we are Garinagu. It led to the First Garifuna Intercontinental Summit Meeting in New York City in 1991, with the Theme “Uwala Busiganu, Garinagu Wagia”, and the motto “Garinagu’s Path to the twenty first century”.

The Second Garifuna Intercontinental Summit Meeting was held in Los Angeles, California on July 3 - 5, 1992. The theme for the meeting was “Afareinraguni, Awaraüguni, Agibudaguni Liadun Aban” or “Separation, Dispersion, Reunification”, and the motto “We are Garinagu and Proud”. The Garifuna Intercontinental Summit Meetings served as the catalysts for the Commemoration in April 1997 of the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Garifunas to Honduras “The Garifuna Bicentennial”. The Garifuna Bicentennial laid the foundation for the modern Garifuna movement in Central America, as well as the “Afrodescendiente” or African descendant movement in Latin America.

2005 - José Francisco served as Pro bono financial advisor to the Board of Trustees of the Garifuna Communities of Tornabe and Miami, Honduras, in their negotiations with the Honduran Government, which granted the Garifuna Communities, a 7% equity participation in the Los Micos Beach & Resort project (Now Indura Beach & Golf Resort). This is the first time in history that the Garifuna Community of Honduras, has been compensated for the illegal appropriation of their land.

2008 - José Francisco developed a campaign to raise awareness and appreciation of the Garifuna Community and its contribution to the culture and society of New York City. As part of the campaign, he drafted the proposal for the declaration of March 11 to April 12, as Garifuna-American Heritage Month in the Bronx, in commemoration of the Anniversary of the Forcible Deportation of the Garifuna People by the British from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1797, and their Settlement in Central America. On March 11, 2009, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión issued a proclamation declaring March 11 to April 12, 2009, as “Garifuna-American Heritage Month in the Bronx.

2009 - He partnered with the U.S. Census Bureau to organize the Census 2010 Garifuna campaign. He organized the First Garifuna Reunion in St. Vincent and the Grenadines "Yurumein", which launched the Renaissance of the Garifuna Heritage and Culture in the Ancestral Homeland of the Garifuna People.

2010 - Assemblyman Michael Benjamin introduced a Resolution in the New York State Assembly, Memorializing Governor David Patterson to declare March 11- April 12, 2010, as Garifuna-American Heritage Month in the State of New York. The proclamation ceremony is an annual event at the New York State Senate and Assembly.

2013 - José Francisco was the only Descendant of the Victims of the British Empire’s Genocidal crime against his Black Carib Ancestors, to attend the First Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Regional Reparations Conference, in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

These stories, and other lived experiences, informing, empowering, and advocating for Garifuna and Afro-Latino (a) People, for the past thirty-two years, form the essence of his upcoming book’s plotline. His book’s title, Pan-Garifuna Afro Latino Power of Pride: and subtitle, My Quest for Racial, Ancestral, Ethnic and Cultural Identity, reflects his sense of ethnic pride that led him to place the nurturing and promotion of Garifuna Pride at the center of his grassroots social justice advocacy.

José Francisco has written extensively on contemporary Garifuna/Afro-Latino issues, and produced his presentation, Garifuna: from Forcible Deportation to A Thriving Diaspora©.

José Francisco was appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the first New York City Nightlife Advisory Board, he is a member of the Bronx Music Heritage Center Advisory Board.

He is an alumnus of New York Coro’s Immigrant Civic Leadership Program, We Are The Bronx Fellowship Leadership Program. He served a Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. He has done speaking events, keynotes, workshops, panels and lectures at the Interamerican Dialogue events, Hunter College, St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, the University of Maryland College Park, the Global Conference on Microfinance, Remittances and Development in Benin, the Kingdom of Morocco’s Moussem of Tan-Tan, and Afrolatin@ Forum events.

José Francisco is happily retired and dedicates his time to his niche self-publishing company.