Liliana Macias, a queer undocumented Mexicana, was born in the state of Jalisco and migrated with her family to Chicago when she was four years old. She grew up in Back of the Yards and in her early teens moved to Brighton Park. As a teenager, she went to Kelly Thomas High School (now Kelly Thomas College Prep) where she met Efrain Gonzalez and Martiza Castillo, husband and wife Puerto Rican educators that mentored her and informally adopted her as their daughter.

Liliana is an educator and cultural worker. As an educator, Liliana has informal teaching experience in K-12, curriculum development, and professional development for educators. As a formal educator, she teaches courses at Northeastern Illinois University in Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality studies. As a cultural worker, she previously developed and managed the Chicago Learning Collaborative at the Chicago History Museum. She is the former education program’s manager at the Chicago Architecture Center. Through independent contract work, she has advised and co-curated exhibitions, developed and informed community centered program development, and museums systems strategic planning.

In 2006, Liliana graduated from high school and with no viable pathway to higher education for undocumented students she entered the workforce with the goal to save money and attend community college. In 2013, Liliana proudly obtained her associates in the arts from Harold Washington Community College. In 2016, she obtained her bachelors of arts in Latinos and Latin American Studies with a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality studies from Northeastern Illinois University. In 2018, she obtained her master’s in Latinos and Latin American Studies from the University of Illinois Chicago. In 2020, she was admitted into the History PhD program at the University of Illinois Chicago where she is currently focusing on the cultivation and documentation of Chicago's queer Latine/x cultural histories. 

Liliana is one of the founding storytellers of Raices Chicago Story Coalition. As an undocumented person she understands the deep solitude of being disconnected from your roots. She sees the work of Raices Chicago as a way in which she can help people ward off that solitude through the act of storytelling; a meaningful connector.