Ernestina Juarez was born in a rural Texas town just north of the Rio Grande. She was the first Hispanic principal of Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas. Her screenplay on the Mexican American War, Labyrinth of Destiny, was a 2018 Academy Nicholl Finalist. Her script on the birth of the Republic of Mexico, The Banner, is a semifinalist in the 2024 Academy Nicholl Screenplay Competition. Her script, South Wind Come, a contemporary supernatural/thriller keyed to the poetry of the 16th century Spanish mystic, San Juan de la Cruz, is a finalist in the 2024 Page International Screenplay Competition and a semifinalist in the 2024 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition.
