In The Community
Continuing with our summer series, “Latinas Who Lead,” we bring you another group of impressive Latina activists in the U.S. putting in the work in their communities to improve the lives of those they are representing. Whether you’re looking for Latina women to support and champion, or you need inspiration for your own activism, these women are examples of leadership, resilience, and empowerment. Check out the first installment if you missed it, but if you’re up-to-date, here are 5 Latina activists to keep an eye on:
Juleyka Lantigua
Photo by Juleyka Lantigua
Juleyka Lantigua is a journalist and entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of award-winning digital media studio, LWC Studios, which focuses on making podcasts for clients who highlight stories that matter. LWC Studios also produces original podcasts, many of which are focused on Latino experiences and stories. Lantigua is the producer of the “Latina to Latina” podcast hosted by Alicia Menendez, a TV commentator, host, and author who also works on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” a show that provides analysis of the big events of the week. “Latina to Latina” showcases remarkable Latinas in business, politics, arts, and more, giving a platform to Latinas making an impact across industries.
Her body of work is as diverse as it is award-winning. She also produces the “70 Million: One Jail at a Time” podcast, which focuses on the effects local jails have on people and communities, and sheds light on how communities across the country are addressing jail reform. The podcast was nominated in 2020 for a Peabody Award and won Best Narrative/Documentary Podcast at the New York Festivals Radio Award in 2020.
LWC Studios also recently launched “100 Latina Birthdays,” a documentary podcast that focuses on Latina health. It’s a narrative investigative series that reports on the key health issues Latinas face in the U.S. at every stage of their lives. The first season focuses on issues starting in utero to age 20. The following seasons will continue exploring different age groups through age 100.
Lantigua was born in the Dominican Republic, and her family moved to the U.S. when she was 10 years old. She grew up in the Bronx, went to Skidmore College, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship, which provides grants for U.S. citizens to go abroad and citizens from other countries to come to the U.S. to study, teach, research, and share their talents and skills. Lantigua holds a Master's in Print Journalism and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, which she has used to create platforms that the Latino community can benefit from for over 20 years, and in many ways, this is only the beginning for Lantigua.
Dr. Carmen Rojas
Photo by Dr. Carmen Rojas
Of Venezuelan and Nicaraguan descent, Dr. Carmen Rojas is the President and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, which works for a healthy democracy and a just economy. She has had this role since 2020 when she became the youngest Latina to lead a nationally endowed philanthropic foundation. The foundation’s mission is to help create a country where underrepresented communities are no longer ignored by the government. To achieve this goal, they fund organizations, initiatives, scholars, and leaders who work on shifting the power balance to communities that are constantly excluded from having any say in society.
Under Dr. Rojas’ leadership, the foundation launched the prestigious Freedom Scholars award, a program designed to support scholars with a one-time $250,000 award to further research in areas like feminist prison abolition, Indigenous erasure, global urbanism, alternatives to movement capture, and militarized policing. Since 2020, the program has granted over $130 million in funding to a variety of organizations and individuals including Angélica Cházaro, J.D, co-founder of La Resistencia, a grassroots organization focused on ending immigrant detention, deportations, and the Northwest Detention Center; Lorgia Garcia Peña, PhD, a scholar on Latinx studies, global Blackness, and Dominican diaspora studies; Sarah Haley, PhD, whose work focuses on gender and women’s history, prison abolition, Black feminist history and theory, and more; among others.
Dr. Rojas has dedicated her entire career to working with foundations, nonprofits, and financial institutions to make a difference in the lives of working people all over the U.S. She’s also a member of the boards of Nonprofit Quarterly, Blue Ridge Labs, San Francisco Federal Reserve's Community Advisory Council, and the Confluence Racial Equity Initiative Advisory Committee. It’s not easy being one of the few, but Rojas is an advocate who dreams boldly, is a passionate philanthropist, and is an inspiring figure in the world of philanthropy where systemic change is hard to come by.
Rachel Carmona
Photography by Kisha Bari
Rachel O’Leary Carmona is the current Executive Director at both Women’s March and Women’s March Network. Women’s March is one of the largest political platforms for women and the most impactful grassroots organization on the progressive spectrum. Carmona is a first-generation Mexican American, and she’s dedicated her career to inspiring, mobilizing, and empowering people to have a say in the actions and policies that affect their communities.
Carmona began as the Chief Operating Officer of Women’s March in 2018 and transitioned into her current role in 2019. She helped transform the organization by overseeing the creation of its infrastructure and the incorporation of the Women’s March Network. Carmona also established Women’s March Win, a Super PAC dedicated to empowering and mobilizing women politically.
Under Carmona’s leadership, the Women’s March has grown exponentially, mobilizing thousands of marchers every year, with 2018 boasting an estimated 300,000 marchers across the U.S. The Women’s March voter mobilization efforts played an important role in a national coalition that led to Trump’s loss in the 2020 elections.
Moreover, Carmona spearheaded a change in approach: the Women’s March isn’t just about an annual march in Washington D.C. They expanded their on-the-ground organizing efforts to take action throughout the year, with efforts focused on stopping abortion bans, standing against gun violence, rejecting white nationalism, demanding dignity for survivors, and more. Women’s March has mobilized tens of millions of individuals to work for a more feminist future, and they’re now consistently on the front lines of transformative social change.
Liz Alarcon
Photo by Liz Alarcon
Liz Alarcon is a Venezuelan American communicator, facilitator, social entrepreneur, political analyst, and speaker. She has held a variety of roles in her career, including Director of Strategic Partnerships for The Children's Movement of Florida, Producer and Reporter at Univision, Miami Director of the Leadership Program for the Millennium Campus Network, Debate Teacher at Archimedean Upper Conservatory, and Analyst at Bendixen & Amandi International. There doesn’t seem to be much this powerhouse can’t do.
Alarcon is a proud alumna of the University of Miami and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and is another Fulbright Scholarship recipient. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Pulso, a non-profit media outlet dedicated to sharing news and stories for and about Latinos. Pulso reaches a subscriber base of over 2 million Latinos across their media platforms, across the U.S., and is committed to building community for a population that rarely sees their history told accurately or their experiences reflected authentically.
Alarcon has written and provided commentary for publications like The New York Times, MSNBC, & The Atlantic, among others. One of the main focuses of her work is increasing people’s understanding of Latin America and empowering Latinos in the U.S., making them feel seen while also engaging them so they can increase their political power through civic participation and advocacy.
Irene Godinez
Photo by Vote Run Lead
Irene Godinez is a force in the world of activism, particularly within the non-profit sector. With almost 15 years of dedicated service to her community, she’s left a mark on various organizations at local, state, and national levels. Of Mexican descent, Godinez is committed to causes close to her heart, including immigration, women's health and reproductive rights, civic engagement, and community outreach.
As the founder and executive director of Poder NC Action, Godinez is leading the fight for reproductive and economic justice in North Carolina. With a decade of experience in the abortion rights space, she anticipated the challenges that have now arisen in the space of abortion rights, and she sees them as a rallying cry for action. She’s determined to elect leaders who uphold and champion the rights of women to be whole and independent humans with full bodily autonomy.
Poder NC Action is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building people's power, investing in leadership development, and educating the public about critical issues and elections. At its core, Poder NC Action strives to cultivate a sense of belonging and efficacy among Latino individuals, challenging historical distrust of government and fostering a community rooted in shared values. Godinez envisions a world where political leadership reflects the diversity of its constituents, so she advocates for justice and equality, especially when it comes to reproductive rights for the Latino, Black, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
- 5 Latina Activists Disrupting the Political Status Quo ›
- Latinas in the Chicano Movement: From Dolores Huerta to Today's Activists ›
In a new summer series, “Latinas Who Lead,” we’re highlighting Latinas who are at the forefront of social justice movements in the United States, advocating for change and equality in many different ways. From civil rights to environmental justice to entrepreneurial equity, you can bet passionate Latinas are making a significant impact in their communities and beyond. To give them well-deserved recognition and offer sources of inspiration for your own advocacy and activism, here are the first 5 Latina leaders in our series:
Marisa Franco
Photography courtesy of Marisa Franco
Marisa Franco is a prominent Latino rights advocate and community organizer based in Phoenix, Arizona who fights for immigrant rights. She’s known for organizing campaigns and protests against deportations, detention centers, and discriminatory immigration policies, such as the #Not1MoreDeportation campaign back in 2014. She’s also the co-founder of Mijente, an online organization that serves Latino and Chicano activists, helping them organize their efforts to dismantle systems of injustice and inequity.
The organization has achieved some significant gains against the prison industrial complex, which makes billions of dollars a year through the mass incarceration of Americans and immigrants. Their #notechforice campaign addresses the predatory ways tech companies are making millions of dollars by violating civil rights and allows communities to support the efforts through petitions and other easy actions. They also have a petition tool where anyone can start their own petition for a cause they want to support.
Alejandra Gómez
Photography shared by ywcaaz.org
As a daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, Alejandra Gómez realized very early on how broken the U.S. immigration system is. This planted the seed of passionate activism that eventually led her to become one of a cadre of highly effective and dedicated Latina community organizers in the state of Arizona.
In the wake of the disastrous SB1070 law in 2010, known as the “show me your papers” law, that allowed Arizona law enforcement to stop and detain anyone at all just for “appearing” to be in the U.S. without proper documentation, Gómez joined thousands of activists who refused to allow her community to be terrorized by the state. The law was partially struck down just two years after then-Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law.
Gómez continued to focus her efforts on immigration rights and community justice and helped organize large-scale efforts to empower Latinos to vote and understand that when enough people come together, their collective actions are powerful and influential.
As the Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Empowerment and LUCHA, she’s been involved in many high-profile community wins, including the ousting of controversial Sherrif Joe Arpaio. More recently, through organizing efforts, she helped get abortion protections on the 2024 ballot and helped secure 150 million dollars for the Arizona Trust Fund to address the affordable housing crisis.
Ana María Archila
Photography courtesy of Ana María Archila
Ana María Archila, of Colombian descent, got a lot of national attention back in 2018 during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when she confronted Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator about sexual assault. She’s a dedicated advocate for women’s rights, immigrant rights, worker justice, and LGBTQ rights. She leans heavily on political engagement and grassroots organizing to empower immigrant communities, low-income communities, and women of color.
She’s led several national organizations, including the Center for Popular Democracy and Make the Road New York, where she significantly increased the influence and presence of their members across the United States. As if that wasn’t enough, she ran for Lt. Governor of New York in 2022.
Archilla is now the Co-Director of the New York Working Families Party, where she’s focused on building a multiracial working people’s political party that can enact an agenda that creates real material change for working people in the U.S.
Carmen Perez
Photography shared by gatheringforjustice.org
Carmen Perez is a Chicana feminist and a devoted activist fighting for civil rights, women’s rights, gender equity, community policing, violence prevention, and more. She’s the CEO of The Gathering for Justice, a nonprofit focused on ending child incarceration and the racial disparities that plague the criminal justice system in the U.S. Perez was also one of the co-chairs of the 2017 Women’s March, the largest single-day protest in the history of the country for women’s rights. Women’s March continues to this day, organizing events around the country to create change.
Raised in Oxnard, California, she frequently returns to her roots to help lead or participate in community events that empower local youth and adults alike. She recently told the VC Star, “Good trouble is when you are out there with people that you love making sure that justice prevails.” She punctuated the words with a laugh. “I find myself getting into good trouble often.”
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez
Photography courtesy of Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez
As the co-founder of the Workers Defense Project and founder of Jolt, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez has been a tireless advocate for the rights of immigrant workers and Latino youth her entire adult career. Her activism is focused not only on immigrant rights but also on voting rights, universal healthcare, climate change, economic justice, fair wages, fair working conditions, and more.
She’s led successful campaigns for workers’ protection, immigrant rights, and voter mobilization, driving positive change at a local and national level. Many of these campaigns are notable for their creativity and focus on culture. While at Jolt, she helped lead the #PoderQuince campaign, which helped young quinceañeras use their 15th birthday parties as a platform to register and mobilize Latino voters. It’s well known that quinceañera parties are steeped in culture and community, and by leveraging these gatherings, they were able to register and activate tens of thousands of new Texas voters.
To expand her activism Tzintzún Ramirez co-authored a book, “Presente! Latino Immigrant Voices in the Struggle for Racial Justice” in 2014, and ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020 in her home state of Texas. She’s currently the Executive Director of NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voting rights organization.
These five Latina activists are contemporary examples of resilience, passion, and dedication. Their efforts are a source of inspiration and empowerment in the Latino community, and they’re leading the next generation of Latinas fighting for justice and equality. Keep an eye out for the next installment in the series and join us in getting to know more of these impactful Latinas.
- Pride and Power: LGBTQ+ Latinas Leading Change ›
- Celebrating Dolores Huerta’s Lifetime of Advocacy on her 94th Birthday ›
- Latinas in the Chicano Movement: From Dolores Huerta to Today's Activists ›
- 5 Latina Activists Achieving Transformative Change - Luz Media ›
Today, Dolores Huerta, one of the most important Latino icons within civil rights, is turning 94 years old. This occasion is the perfect opportunity to celebrate not only her robust life but also her immense contributions as a social justice champion. Huerta is a living legend whose tireless efforts have helped transform the landscape of civil rights, feminism, labor rights, farmworkers’ rights, and even environmental justice.
Huerta’s influence has been far-reaching, and her work has inspired generations of activists and advocates both in and outside the Latino community. Her work continues through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which passionately advocates for the rights of underrepresented people and empowers them through grassroots organizing, civic engagement, and education initiatives.
But how did Huerta’s journey begin?
Born on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico, Dolores Huerta was raised in Stockton, California, where she learned the value of activism from her parents. Her father, Juan Fernández, a union activist and politician, showed her the importance of fighting for justice from a young age. Huerta attributes much of her feminist outlook to her mother, Alicia, who was known for her compassion and involvement with the community.
Huerta took her first steps as an activist when she was studying at Stockton High School and joined various groups and organizations. Once in college, she earned a provisional teaching credential from the University of Pacific's Delta College. Her experiences as a teacher actually ignited her passion for addressing economic injustices because she was exposed to the inequalities her students and their families were facing.
It was during her tenure with the Stockton Community Service Organization (CSO) that she started organizing her activism. She founded the Agricultural Workers Association and spearheaded voter registration drives and advocacy for better living conditions for farmworkers. Later on, her collaboration with César Chávez led to the formation of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), later known as the United Farm Workers (UFW), where her organizing skills played a pivotal role in securing landmark victories for farmworkers, including the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975.
During this time, she coined the chant “Si Se Puede,” which President Obama later made central to his first presidential campaign.
Huerta’s activism extends beyond labor rights. She became a fierce advocate for women's liberation within the farmworkers' movement, challenging gender discrimination and fostering inclusivity. She was also known for her commitment to non-violence, which is one of the guiding principles of her advocacy to ensure the safety of everyone involved in the struggle for justice.
Throughout her life and advocacy, Huerta faced many different challenges, such as physical assaults and overall societal pushback. This didn’t deter her, though, and her strength never wavered, which is a big reason why she’s considered a hero within the civil rights movement. Even after her life was threatened by an assault during a protest at the age of 58, Huerta continued advocating, focusing mainly on women's rights and political empowerment.
Today, at 94, Dolores Huerta isn’t slowing down. As the founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she continues to mentor and inspire new generations of activists. Her commitment to grassroots organizing and community empowerment remains as strong as ever. Huerta’s legacy isn’t just a collection of awards, although there are many of them and they’re all well-deserved. More importantly, it’s one of the most inspiring examples of the power of ordinary people coming together to effect extraordinary change.
As we celebrate Dolores Huerta's 94th birthday, let’s honor her activism and reaffirm our own commitment to important social justice causes. Join the Dolores Huerta Foundation in commemorating her life and legacy on social media with the hashtag #VivaDolores. Share your stories, post your favorite quote from her, record a video about how she has inspired you, or simply spread the word about this remarkable woman who has dedicated her life to making the world a better place.