These 5 Latinas Are Helping Latinos Tackle the Wealth Gap

Graphic design that showcases Latina women experts in personal finances
Luz Media

If Latinos in the U.S. were an independent country, their GDP would be 5th in the world, beating the United Kingdom, France, and India. That’s what this study found in 2023, and it speaks to how productive Latinos are in the U.S. That said, the wage gap for Latinos is still a major issue, with them earning 32% less than their white counterparts. Knowing that, it comes as no surprise that the wealth gap between Latino families and white families has surpassed $1 million, according to a recent report from the LA Times.



The Wage Gap

100 U.S. dollar banknotesPhoto by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

For Latinas, the wage gap is quite concerning. On average, they only make 57 cents for every dollar a man makes. That’s fueled by a combination of factors, including systemic oppression, xenophobia, and the need for greater financial literacy. For many Latinas, this combination of factors has reawakened the effects of the generational trauma that comes from financial hardship.

But in the face of these reports and statistics, there’s a growing group of Latinas making space for themselves and other women of color in the personal finance world. While the financial services industry has historically looked white and male, Latinas are showing up on social media platforms to teach other women how to build wealth not only for themselves but for generations to come.

From investing to eliminating debt, these Latinas are tackling a subject that remains taboo in many Latino families out of fear of being considered greedy or too ambitious. Here are five Latinas who are creating financial literacy courses, using social media platforms to connect with their audience, and sharing their own personal finance stories along the way.

​Jully-Alma Taveras​ 

Portrait of Jully-Alma Taveras

Photo by investinglatina on Instagram

Photo by investinglatina on Instagram

Jully-Alma Taveras is the self-described JLo of personal finance. A Dominican raised in New York, Taveras created Investing Latina in 2019 to teach Latinas how to start investing in the stock market. She began investing at age 19, becoming the first person in her family to open a retirement account. Her Youtube channel has nearly 60 videos of free content, including responses to questions that come directly from her followers, and she regularly breaks down complex financial topics into Instagram posts that are easy to understand. As a personal finance expert, she inspires women to spend intentionally and have a minimalist lifestyle so they can invest more. Her focus is on introducing women to investing so they can take their first steps toward financial freedom.

Anna N’Jie-Konte 

Portrait of Anna N\u2019Jie-Konte

Photo by anjiekonte on Instagram

Photo by anjiekonte on Instagram

Anna N’Jie-Konte is a first-generation American of Puerto Rican and Gambian descent. She’s a certified financial planner and fiduciary dedicated to facilitating the economic liberation of people of color. N’Jie-Konte is a native New Yorker who worked in the financial services industry before launching her own firm, Re-Envision Wealth, where she offers wealth management services. She also uses her platform on Instagram to offer insights about finances for small business owners. More recently, she announced “The Financial Powerhouse: The Club,” a no-fluff community for people who want to learn about wealth-building tools and have more in-depth conversations about financial fluency, and more.

Jannese Torres

Portrait of Jannese Torres

Photo by Jannese Torres

Photo by Jannese Torres

Jannese Torres is the host of “Yo Quiero Dinero”, a personal finance podcast created for Latinas and people of color. An engineer by day and self-described side hustle guru, she advises Latinas to build multiple streams of income and teaches money-making strategies to help women succeed. Torres, a first-generation Puerto Rican woman, is also a fierce advocate of investing with the goal of early retirement. Her content on Instagram, TikTok, and the podcast addresses topics from tackling debt to estate planning to financial independence and more. Recently, Torres became an author with “Financially Lit!” the ultimate guide for modern Latinas to become financially powerful.

Delyanne Barros 

Portrait of Delyanne Barros

Photo by Delyanne Barros

Photo by Delyanne Barros

Delyanne Barros went from attorney to money coach, and she’s dedicated to helping investors take the stock market by storm. Barros, who spent her early years in Brazil before growing up as an undocumented immigrant in Miami, first invested about $50K a few months before the pandemic led to a market crash. She overcame that by growing that amount to over $425K – all while paying off over $100K in student debt. Today, Barros advocates for investing for retirement with low-cost index funds. Her following has increased consistently on TikTok and Instagram, where she regularly shares brief videos and posts explaining the stock market, breaking down investing myths and updating her audience on news that may affect their finances. Barros doesn’t gatekeep her knowledge, offering a free class, Invest for Independence®, to introduce people to the stock market in a way that finally makes sense.

Linda Garcia 

Portrait of Linda Garcia

Photo by Linda Garcia

Photo by Linda Garcia

Linda Garcia, a Californian with roots in Mexico, began investing several years into her career as a marketing executive in television and film. She’s dedicated to helping the Latino community restructure their generational beliefs on finance and she introduces people to the stock market so they can achieve their dreams. Her “Wealth Warrior” course not only breaks the stock market down but also helps children of immigrants address their toxic relationship with money. Garcia is the founder of In Luz We Trust, an online community where she shares a wealth of resources. She’s also the co-host of the "Investies" podcast, which offers insights into the current stock market and the state of the economy.

These five Latinas are only a few among a growing community focused on creating generational wealth. But this wave of personal finance Latinidad comes at a time when Latinas and Black women across the United States continue making cents on the dollar that white men earn.

Next time you feel anxious about your finances, look them up to learn how to take control of money and heal your relationship with it. And remember – the wage gap that Latinas and other women of color experience can only be narrowed if we talk about money. So let’s build our emergency savings funds, address our debt, and invest in the stock market so we can build the generational wealth that will help our families for years to come.

This Viral Video Game Is Changing the Face of Voter Outreach

In 2024, voting campaigns have evolved greatly, to say the least. Creativity is now the name of the game and tongue-in-cheek humor is expertly leveraged to drive action. One example of that is Bop the Bigot, a revival of a viral game created in 2016 by Bazta Arpaio, an Arizona activist group, as part of a campaign to unseat Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio lost his re-election to Paul Penzone that year.

The game has now been updated for the current election cycle and relaunched by On Point Studios, with new features added to enable players to find out what’s on their ballot, confirm voter status, and register to vote.

Much like its former 2016 version, the game allows users to take out their political frustrations by virtually “bopping” GOP candidates in the head. It’s very similar to whack-a-mole, except the mole is replaced by former President Donald Trump, Ohio’s Senator J. D. Vance, and Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, which is spearheading Project 2025.

cartoon renditions of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance around a Bop the Bigot logoPromotional image provided by On Point Studios.

B. Loewe, Director of On Point Studios, came up with the concept for this game when working as the Communications Director at Bazta Arpaio in 2016, and is the executive producer of this revamped version. In the first version of the game, Bop the Bigot players used a chancla (flip flop) to “bop” the characters, tapping into Latino culture by leaning on the childhood experience of being set right by a flying chancla from a fed-up mother or grandmother.

This year, the chancla is replaced by a more current element, a green coconut, referencing Kamala Harris’ coconut tree meme. There are also side characters like “the couch,” cat ladies, and more coconuts. All references to jokes about Vice-Presidential candidate Vance, or insults Vance has made about women on the campaign trail.

Another new addition is that Harris’ laugh is immortalized as the game-over sound effect, an unexpected detail that adds even more humor and levity to the game.

cartoon renditions of Donald Trump, Kevin Roberts, and J.D. Vance around a Bop the Bigot logoPromotional image provided by On Point Studios.

Bop the Bigot, which is playable on desktop and mobile, is intended not just as a way to vent political frustrations, but also as a tool for activism and securing voter engagement.

For example, the game supports the work of Mexican Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, Founding Executive Director of the non-profit organization Organized Power in Numbers by using the “game over” screen to prompt players to donate to it and support their efforts.

Organized Power in Numbers is focused on empowering workers in the South and Southwest of the U.S. through collective action and comprehensive campaigns. Their mission is to create a large-scale movement that challenges the status quo and advocates for workers' rights, and racial and economic justice.

Currently, Dominguez Zamorano is leading worker outreach to 2 million working-class voters in the South and Southwest through doorknocking, texting, and calls with the help of local groups in North Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico, and more.

“We have been blown away by the enthusiastic reception for the video game. We knew we wanted to be part of its creative approach because our movement needs more fun and laughter. We need more ways to connect with nuestra gente so we can feel joy among all the absurdity we witness every day,” Dominguez Zamorano shared with Luz Media via email.

“Our people are gente trabajadora and we deserve to feel uplifted even in our toughest moments. We are deeply involved in the South and Southwest so we know what’s at stake in this election and we’re happy this can be a resource to mobilize, raise spirits, and get out the vote," she concluded.

Dominguez Zamorano is a committed activist for immigrants and workers' rights, known for her strategist skills and expertise. She played a key role in the campaign to win DACA and has also held roles in major campaigns, including as Deputy National States Director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. In addition to her work with Organized Power in Numbers, Dominguez Zamorano is serving as a Senior Advisor to Mijente’s Fuera Trump Initiative.

Grassroots efforts like these have taken on new life in 2024, with Bop the Bigot adding to the larger, ongoing fight against political apathy and disinformation. Just as it did during the 2016 race, the video game uses humor to soften the serious task at hand—getting people to the polls.

"We want the game to be a fun and comical outlet for anyone who’s been insulted, frustrated, or harmed by Trump in the past and everyone who is ready to move forward as a country after election day," explained Loewe in a press release. "The proposals in Project 2025 and the beliefs of Trump and Vance aren’t just weird, they’re truly harmful. We wanted to give people a humorous and peaceful way to smack down their racism and sexism. We hope it makes people laugh and also feel empowered and motivated to get to the polls on or before election day."

With a mix of satire, sharp political critique, and nostalgia, the game is a call to action. The upcoming election, which is getting closer by the minute, has sparked fierce activism and creative yet grounded initiatives like these aim to ensure voters are engaged, especially young Latinos and disenfranchised groups.

hands holding up yellow protest signs that say Hands Off Our Bodies
Photo Credit: Gayatri Malhotra via Unsplash

Originally published in Common Dreams. Reprinted with permission.

The Latino electorate will prove decisive in securing reproductive freedom and abortion access through ballot measures around the country, particularly in states where Latinos are a significant portion of the electorate.

In November, abortion rights measures will appear on ballots across ten states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New York, where Latinos make up a significant portion of the electorate. For decades, pundits and politicians have recycled long-held misconceptions about Latino voters and abortion access, citing our conservative and religious beliefs.

Anti-abortion extremists have long fueled these misconceptions through misinformation and disinformation campaigns targeting Latino communities with egregious lies and inflammatory rhetoric about abortion. Yet, polling, focus groups, and direct interactions with Latino communities have debunked these outdated tropes.

The Latino electorate will prove decisive in securing reproductive freedom and abortion access through ballot measures around the country, particularly in states where Latinos are a significant portion of the electorate.

For Latinos, the freedom to decide, a pillar of our American democracy, is critical. Meanwhile, Latinos are being hit directly with anti-abortion efforts that take away that freedom such as the six-week abortion ban put into effect by the Florida Supreme Court and the 1864 abortion ban upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, people of color and Latinas have felt the impact of a lack of abortion access, an element of basic healthcare.

A 2023 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families estimated that nearly 6.5 million Latinas, or 42% of all Latinas of reproductive age in the country, live in a state that either had or was likely to ban abortion. Ironically, it will be abortion access and anti-choice efforts to restrict freedom of choice that will mobilize Latino voters this election.

In a poll conducted by three national reproductive justice organizations, 87% of Latinas named abortion and women’s rights as one of their top priorities as they head to the polls. Another battleground poll conducted by Somos PAC and BSP Research found that 61% of Latino registered voters expressed a more positive/favorable view of Kamala Harris after hearing that she will protect abortion rights, versus only 19% of Latinos who said they had a more negative view of Harris after hearing that.

In key states to secure the White House and both chambers, Latinos make up large chunks of the electorate: Arizona (25%), Colorado (15%), Florida (20%), Nevada (20%), and New York (12%). In the face of unprecedented attacks on basic healthcare access and targeted attempts by extremists to mislead and divide our community on this issue, this November Latinos will be key deciders on abortion access across the country.

Mari Urbina, Managing Director of Indivisible, Battleground Arizona Lead and former Harry Reid advisor.

Héctor Sánchez Barba is president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota (MFV).