Lido Pimienta: A Global Music Sensation on a Social Justice Quest

Lido Pimienta: A Global Music Sensation on a Social Justice Quest

“When you’re not white, you see the world differently, when I’m writing my songs, I feel like this is our everyday lives, this is our everyday pain.”

Photo credit: Dani Murillo

Lido Pimienta had major promotional plans this year for “Miss Colombia”—the widely acclaimed album she released in April—but everything changed when the pandemic suddenly turned the entire world upside down.


“It was scary in the beginning—it was like oh great, I just released an album, oh the tour got canceled,” Pimienta told Luz Collective in a recent phone interview. “But when you see the devastation and the injustice around the world, I’m nothing, I’m just another grain of salt. So I just feel really blessed, and that is motivating me to continue to do work.”

“Where my family’s from, you don’t have water every single day—or electricity even, every single day—so that just adds so much more drama to an already dramatic situation,” Pimienta said. “And in Colombia right now, we have a very complicated political present, I’m not talking about the past, I’m talking about the now—the now that is a result of years of civil war, years of corruption.”

Pimienta said that the pandemic has heightened her frustration with government and corporate “impotencia,” so she has taken matters into her own hands by creating GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for people in need. She launched the first fundraiser in April and generated $6000 to send groceries to Colombian families in La Guajira—the Indigenous-inhabited area where Pimienta’s family is from—and Palenque, which is largely populated by Afro-Colombians since it was the first historical town established for freed slaves during colonial times.

“I honestly thought [the pandemic] was only gonna be six months, and I was like, so with $1000 dollars a month, I can send enough groceries to 40 families in Colombia because it stretches for a lot,” Pimienta said. “And I’ve been doing it, but people are still hungry, people are still in need, so many girls that are pregnant can’t even leave their villages, so they don’t have clothes for their babies,” she said.

The singer of mixed Afro-Colombian and Wayuu ancestry has consequently launched a second GoFundMe effort to collect $20,000 for Colombia’s most marginalized. The money will continue to provide groceries for families, but it will also be used to stock essential items like baby clothes, medicine, emergency supplies, and many other necessities.

“I have to be a little more aggressive because things are getting out of hand, Colombia is going through it right now,” Pimienta said.

Additional efforts from the Polaris Music Prize winner include raising awareness about mass crime and violence afflicting Colombia, such as the recent massacres in August that targeted young people between the ages of 12 and 25. On August 30, Pimienta performed alongside other artists as part of a collective called Un Canto X Colombia for the Hasta Que Amemos La Vida live streamed concert to call for peace and bring international attention to the violence in Colombia.

“Anything that can add to our collective rage, I’m all about it,” Pimienta said.

And Pimienta is no stranger to channeling pain and anger in her creative projects, especially when it comes to her music. “When you’re an artist, you’re always releasing some pain—when you’re an artist, there’s a part of you that is constantly suffering,” she said.

The “Eso Que Tu Haces” singer revealed that she’s never been one to write “happy” songs because she tends to write about critical experiences that have shaped her ideologies and that also continue to impact those closest to her. “Miss Colombia” for example, addresses gender, race, politics, and identity issues, including Indigenous struggles.

“My family is Indigenous, we’re Wayuu from the north coast in Colombia—we’re a people that are surviving still from being a very strong community,” she said. “The Colombian government is continuing to destroy our people by taking away water and other resources, so I’ve grown up with that, that’s a part of my reality, so that’s just what I sing about.”

And in light of the Black Lives Matter protests that have taken place around the world, Pimienta’s music has resonated more than ever before, particularly “Miss Colombia,”which draws attention to anti-blackness in Colombia and Latin America. Pimienta first started writing the album in 2015, and after sitting on the songs for five years, she finally released it just one month before the international Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum. For Pimienta, it’s not surprising that the songs in the album managed to be relevant to the present state of the world.

“When you’re not white, you see the world differently,” she said. “So when riots happen, when things happen, I feel like they’re bursts of things that are happening where we’re able to see injustice a little more amplified, so when I’m writing my songs … I feel like this is our everyday lives, this is our everyday pain.”

And even though the music speaks to current conversations about race and oppression, Pimienta refuses to have her songs co-opted or undermined by being seen as just part of a current trend. Pimienta said a popular Colombian radio station recently tried to do this by invoking her music and tying it to such fads.

“They were like, ‘Who would have thought that Lido Pimienta was gonna be a worldwide sensation, her music is kind of strange, but it’s working out because she sings about Black issues, and those are very trendy right now,’” Pimienta said. “It’s totally not what I’m about, in September it’s gonna be 10 years of me being in the public eye, so if you look at the things that I was doing even before—when I was 11 years old—I was singing about the same issues.”

The singer-songwriter has clearly spent the majority of her career and the bulk of 2020 concentrating on equity and social justice matters, but as she moves forward, she is redirecting and channeling her energy into new territories that reflect her artistic growth. Pimienta says fans should keep an eye out for a project called “Lido TV,” which she is secretive about and avoids describing. She also shared that she is re-arranging the music of her 2010 debut album, “Color,” for the anniversary reissue later this year. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also working on a new record inspired by motherhood and what Pimienta calls, “redemption.”

“Because of my baby, she has given me this new outlook and one that is very hopeful—it’s like seeing life through her eyes,” she said. “I feel as though I am entering a different stage of happiness that I usually don’t connect with. Like I said before, I don’t really know how to write happy songs, so this album, I don’t know yet that there’s happy songs, but they definitely are injected with a lot of hope and a lot of beauty.

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Nathalie Molina Niño has never been one to shy away from breaking barriers, and now, she’s focusing her attention on a new mission: demystifying corporate boardrooms for women, especially Latinas. Molina Niño is the President of Known, an asset management and financial services firm, a veteran tech entrepreneur and builder capitalist, and a board member at the iconic lingerie Brand, Hanky Panky, and others.

Like many corporate boards, Hanky Panky hadn’t publicly disclosed its board composition until recently. After the brand survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Molina Niño decided it was time for more women, specifically more Latinas, to know what it means to be on corporate boards.

Coincidentally, the decision to finally be more vocal about this topic aligned with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which served as the perfect kick-off to the work.

"Something that rarely gets talked about and I think almost gets kept opaque by design is boards,” she explains in a recent Instagram announcement. “[This Latinx Heritage Month], that’s what I’ll be talking about.” Her goal? To equip more Latinas with the knowledge they need to navigate onto for-profit boards, where they can thrive and build multi-generational wealth.

For-profit corporate boards often feel like an exclusive club. And in many ways, they are, especially for Latinas, who hold the smallest percentage of board seats in Fortune 500 companies compared to other racial groups. According to the latest report from Latino Board Monitor, while Latinos hold 4.1% of these board seats (compared to 82.5% held by white people), only 1% go to Latinas. Molina Niño, a first-generation American of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent, is part of this boardroom minority.

When asked about her experience as a Latina board member during a recent Zoom interview, she said, “It’s been lonely. There’s not a lot of Latinas on boards.” She went on to explain that even serving on boards of Latina-founded businesses gets lonely because, “A lot of the times, people who serve on their boards represent their investors and, as a result, [...] you still don’t see a lot of Latinas on those boards.”

This lack of representation drives Molina Niño’s determination to increase Latina presence in corporate boardrooms. By sharing her insights, she hopes to give Latinas a roadmap to claim their seats at the table. “If you don’t know where to go, it’s impossible to figure out how to get there,” she says.

The Road to the Boardroom

Getting onto a for-profit corporate board isn’t an overnight achievement, but it’s not an unattainable dream either. People often think you need to be a CEO or have a certain type of background, but that’s one of the biggest myths about boards in Molina Niño’s experience. What they’re really looking for is expertise — whether that’s in finance, marketing, sustainability, or even technology. If you have that expertise, you’re already an asset. It’s simply a matter of which road you should take.

Understanding what boards are and how they operate is key to unlocking opportunities. For-profit boards serve as the governing body for companies, overseeing direction and financial stability, and guiding CEOs and executives in decision-making. But Molina Niño emphasizes that not all for-profit boards are created equal.

“There are two kinds [of for-profit boards] [...]. There’s the publicly traded business board and then, on the privately held side, there are, I would argue, two types of boards [...] the traditional business board and the venture-backed business board,” explains Molina Niño. Traditional businesses are often family-owned or long-established and may only form boards to meet requirements, like securing financing or transitioning through an ESOP. Venture-backed boards, on the other hand, are typically filled by investors who hold major stakes in the company.

According to Molina Niño, understanding the difference between them is how you can create a successful strategy. With publicly traded business boards, the whole world is privy to them, so, “The way that you get in there is a little bit more transparent. Sometimes those publicly traded companies will hire a recruiter to help them find new board members,” explains Molina Niño. For private companies, on the other hand, there’s no legal requirement to make announcements. As a result, most people don’t know anything about them or their inner workings.

“Usually what happens in traditional businesses that don’t have venture-capital investments is that the Founders, Executives, or the board members, if one existed already, they usually go to their friends,” and people they deem experienced to fill board seats. In other words, it’s the founder’s decision, and that’s an entirely different approach than hiring recruiters. When it comes to venture-backed business boards, the seats on the board are filled by whichever investor writes the biggest check.

This is why an understanding of the different types of boards and acknowledgment of their own strengths is what will help Latinas define a sound strategy. Whether that’s working with a recruiter, networking and connecting with founders to build trust, or making the biggest investment.

The Path for Latinas

For Molina Niño, the key to getting more Latinas into corporate boardrooms is education. Knowing what a board looks like and how it functions is how you can position yourself to get on it. In openly talking about this, without the mystique it’s usually shrouded in, Molina Niño is providing women, especially Latinas, with invaluable insights. “If we had Latinas understanding what are the three types of for-profit boards I think that, on their own, they would be able to figure out what their best chance is and adjust their careers to make themselves more competitive,” states Molina Niño.

When asked about the impact of increased Latina representation in boardrooms, Molina Niño flips the narrative. “Boards don’t help Latinas by offering them seats; Latinas help businesses thrive by being on their boards,” she says. “The whole point of sitting on a board is that you have experience and expertise, and as Latinas, you also have some cultural experience that everyone wants. [...] At the end of the day, we [Latinas] have to realize that we have a ton to offer and we have to be selective about where we put that expertise,” she explains.

As demand for access to the Latina consumer rises, Molina Niño predicts that more Latinas will find themselves recruited into boardrooms. But she’s not content to sit back and wait for that moment. By openly sharing her journey and insights, she’s making sure other Latinas know their worth and have the tools to claim their place at the table. “I realized that quietly being on boards that helped me personally is not helping other Latinas. [...] I was lucky enough to have friends who could advise me and share their experiences, so that’s why I’m doing this,” she stated.

With Hispanic Heritage Month as the backdrop, Nathalie Molina Niño’s mission is clear: “My goal is just to give Latinas enough information so they can make a plan for how to eventually get on a board that they’re paid to be on and that will eventually help them build generational wealth.”

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