Marco Cesar Lizarraga is currently the Director for La Cooperativa Campesina de California where he has worked for the past 21years. La Cooperativa is a non-profit organization representing and providing funding for federally designated Farm Worker Grantees in California who deliver employment and training services to farm workers throughout the State.

Born in Mexicali, Mexico, Marco migrated to the United States of America in 1959 at the age of 13. For many years his family followed the grapes and other seasonal crops as migrant workers. Marco’s family finally settled in the town of Calexico, California. He eventually graduated from high
school and attended two years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he majored in Electronic Engineering. Subsequently he changed his major to Economics and transferred to the University of California Santa Barbara where he finished his B.A in Economics and continued on to graduate school and completed all the graduate course work for economics. In 2004 Marco completed an M.A. in Educational Technology at the California State University of Sacramento.

Marco has had a diverse experience in his professional trajectory but has dedicated his life to employment and training and specifically for farmworkers.He has been an active community activist advocating for, primarily, the Chicanos, Mexicans and other Latinos in the areas where he
has lived.