Jhonathan F. Gómez (él/he/him), is a human rights defender, documentary photographer, artist, educator, and father from Guatemala City. Currently, he serves as Co-Director at the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN). With a career spanning nearly 20 years, he has collaborated with community and human rights organizations in both Guatemala and the United States. His work is dedicated to the defense of human rights, emphasizing immigrant and indigenous rights, and encompasses the fusion of arts, multimedia, and technology. His documentary photography has been exhibited in local galleries and published in online and print media, including the books ¡Marcha! Latino Chicago and the Immigrant Rights Movement (University of Illinois Press, 2010) and Family Activism, Immigrant Struggles and the Politics of Noncitizenship (Rutgers University Press, 2015).
He has served as an arts youth educator in Chicago and organized with undocumented day laborers at the Latino Union of Chicago. In Guatemala, he held the role of Communications and Technology Manager at the Human Rights observatory UDEFEGUA (Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos – Guatemala). Jhonathan has collaborated with notable human rights organizations such as Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH), the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) and the Guatemala Human Rights Commission in the United States (GHRC). He was recognized with the Voiceless Speak Grant from GHRC for his multimedia projects promoting awareness of human rights violations in Guatemala. He proudly severs on the Advisory Council for AMPT Advancing Nonprofits, the Board of Directors for 18th Street Casa de Cultura, a Spanish-language community center and art gallery on the south side of Chicago, and in various community initiatives and projects throughout Chicago.
In 2023, Jhonathan was a member of the team awarded the HumanitiesX fellowship by DePaul University for their project exploring Historic Memory and Human Rights in Central America. He enjoys time with family, playing with Lego alongside his daughter and son, listening to all types of cumbia, and reading romantic poetry written by Latinoamérica socialist authors.
