Raul Montoya Santamaria is the Executive Director of Colectivo Chuhcan since 2011. The Colectivo was the first organization run and managed by people with psychosocial disabilities in Mexico.
Montoya has shared his testimony and spoken about the Colectivo Chauhan’s work at the national and international level. At the international level, Montoya participated in the National Association for the Protection and Defense of Rights Conference, in the fourth Conference of States Parties of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (New York, 2011), in a conference organized by the American University on human trafficking in Mexico (Washington DC, 2011), and in the International Seminar on “Legal Capacity in Matters of Access to Justice and the Inclusion of People with Psychosocial Disabilities” (Argentina, 2012 ). In 2012, Montoya attended a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2013, Raúl was nominated to win the Freedom of Expression award for the documentary The Abandoned made by Channel 4 (London, England) with the Colectivo Chuhcan. Likewise, in 2014, he participated in the evaluation of Mexico before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2023, Raul participated in the Fire That Fuels program in Bogotá, Colombia, where he and his work team received training to improve the capacity building of the Colectivo Chuhcan. Montoya has also participated in a study tour organized by Disability Rights International in several states in the US that focused on community-based services and the integration of people with disabilities into society.
At the national level, Montoya has also participated in conferences and universities in Mexico. Raúl has participated in conferences at the Colegio de México, UNAM, Universidad Anahuac, FES Aragón, and Biblioteca México, among others. He has also given psychiatric testimony and spoken about organizing television and radio programs. Additionally, within the Chuhcan Collective, Raúl has trained other members with psychosocial disabilities to provide peer support.
Raúl Montoya has been a painter since his childhood. In 1993, he graduated as a Professional Technician in Advertising Design from the National School of Graphic Arts. Raúl has participated in different art exhibitions, and his work has been exhibited in places such as the World Trade Center and the El Carmen Museum, both in Mexico City. He recently won first place in an art contest called Sensitivity Without Limits. Additionally, he has been an English teacher since 2008.
Montoya has lived with a psychosocial disability since 1992.