You trained for years to become one thing. Then the path bent somewhere you never planned for. Sound familiar, amiga?

Dr. Erika Cavazos started as a physician in Mexico. When she moved to Texas she landed in a public health department, and from there she kept following her curiosity into graduate school, into a hospital administration role, and finally into a field most people cannot even define: biomedical informatics. Today she teaches it as faculty at the same university where she once sat as a student.

In this Laredo conversation she explains what biomedical informatics actually is, how it brings specialists to communities that have few, and how she built all of it while raising three kids.

Patty Kirby owns Madison Avenue Marketing Agency, one of the first female owned agencies in Laredo, a city she says won the geographic lottery on the border. She came up through the 2008 crash, opened her doors in 2019, and watched the business grow right through the years everyone told her it should have closed.

Seven years in, she has the receipts and the canas to prove it. In this episode she shows you how to lead without treating every deadline like a crisis, why collaboration beats competition for small agencies, and what it actually feels like to start over when your only child leaves home

They tell you the border is something to be afraid of. McAllen tells a completely different story. A festival city. A grant written in the area code. A chamber that opens the door for a hundred dollars. The narrative you have been handed about South Texas was never the whole picture, and one day in the 956 makes that obvious.

On this road tour stop, Anjelica Cazares and Monica Vallejo sat down with five of the people who actually run McAllen's events and entrepreneurship machine: Joe Garcia of the McAllen Convention Center, Lee Wooldridge of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Amy De Laos and Carlin Williams from the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, and Yajayda Flores, who directs the entire convention facilities campus. Between them they touch over 500 events a year and the programs that turn an idea into a registered business.

You will walk away knowing how to get funded, how to get on a vendor list, and how a city decides to bet on its own founders. This is the map, amiga.

You're tired. Between running your business, showing up for your family, and constantly fighting against the systemic barriers placed in front of us, it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. The news cycle is exhausting, and sometimes you just want to tune it all out.

Today's guest, the incredible J.C. Frias, gets it. As a fierce community advocate and voice for South Texas Latinas, J.C. has built a platform connecting the dots between pop culture, politics, and our everyday lives—all while learning how to navigate the very real burnout that comes with carrying the torch as a first-generation trailblazer.

In this episode, we're breaking down exactly how to stay civically engaged without emptying your cup. You'll learn how to set boundaries with your activism, why your small business is inherently political, and tactical steps to make an impact right in your local community today.

You called in. No insurance. Private pay. And the quote came back: $10,000. For one test. That number and the fact that it dropped to $1,500 the moment Bobby Pulido asked to pay cash is why a Tejano legend who spent 30 years selling out stages is now knocking on doors in 11 Texas counties asking for your vote. Jose Roberto Pulido Jr. Known across generations as Bobby Pulido, built his career from a two-record-label bidding war at 21 years old. Son of Tejano icon Roberto Pulido, Bobby earned an academic scholarship to St. Mary's University in San Antonio, studied political science, and left 21 credit hours short of his degree when music pulled him in. Grammy recognition, decades of chart success, and songs still sung at every quinceañera and karaoke night across South Texas, that is his resume. Now he is running for U.S. Congress in District 15, a district covering the Rio Grande Valley across 11 counties all the way north toward Gonzales County, and he is bringing the same ganas he carried onto every stage.

In this conversation, Bobby breaks down why the American healthcare system is broken by design, what Citizens United did to political accountability, and why your vote at the city council level matters just as much as the one you cast in November. This is a conversation about structural power for every amiga who has ever done the math on a deductible and decided not to go.

Nobody is sending a camera crew to Harlingen, Texas to ask what the women there are building. Nobody is calling the vendor at Booth 14 of the Harlingen Bazaar to ask how she started. Nobody asked the 19-year-old with a perfume cart what she figured out before she turned 20. That's exactly why we went.

Episode 9 of the Latina Leadership Podcast was recorded live during the Texas Road Tour, deep in the Rio Grande Valley, in a city that runs on ganas, faith, family, and the particular stubbornness it takes to build something when the system is not built for you. Dr. Paulina Sosa Quintanilla, founder of Latinx Voices and holder of a doctorate in public health informatics from Johns Hopkins, opens the conversation on Latino health equity and what it means to pull up your own chair to the decision table. Then Anjelica walks into the Harlingen Bazaar, and the community takes it from there.

By the end of this episode, you will have heard from a health advocate, an anime shop owner, a Bible journaling entrepreneur, a salsa maker who turned trauma into three thriving booths, a 19-year-old who found her wholesale supplier on TikTok, and a tea house owner building the kind of community space she wishes she had. Every single one of them started before they were ready.

We've all been there, sitting on the sidelines of our own communities, feeling like the systems around us weren't built for us, and honestly, wondering if our single voice even matters. It's easy to stay in the comfort of our living rooms, but that comfort often comes at the price of the change we desperately want to see for our children and our neighborhoods. On today's episode, we sit down with Linda Macias, the City Commissioner for District 2 in Brownsville, Texas. After the sudden loss of her mother to COVID-19, Linda transformed her personal grief into a calling for public service, proving that leadership isn't about titles, it's about the radical act of showing up for your neighbors. You are going to learn why local municipal elections are the most powerful lever you have for immediate change and how to find the courage to step into spaces where you feel "uncomfortable" until you finally belong.

Third spaces are becoming a luxury and Latina communities are feeling it most. Monica Vallejo and Anjelica Cazares get into why gathering together is getting harder, what it costs us when it does, and what one road trip through Texas has to do with all of it.

Our Monica, community leader and co-founder of the Cristina Project, gets real about reinventing yourself after your kids leave, choosing joy when the world is heavy, and why 53 feels like 25 when you refuse to let regret run the show.

Latinas don't negotiate because we lack confidence, that's the myth. María del Pilar Casal, who oversaw a $400M brand portfolio at Televisa Univision before leaving at 37 to start her own business, breaks down the one salary negotiation tactic that changes everything, and why building your own table is not a backup plan but a power move. This conversation covers the real reason Latinas leave money on the table (hint: it's not mindset), what 15 years in influencer marketing taught her about power and authenticity, and what she is learning in her first year of founding her own business while raising a newborn.

Share Your Story

Your story matters. Have you reclaimed your voice from a difficult experience? Share it with us. DM us on Instagram: @LatinaLeadershipPodcast or email us at [email protected].

Found this powerful? Please like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to join our community of support and storytelling.

Prefer audio? Find the full podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/latina-leadership-podcast/id1539009007 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1OD36YHq4caQaCY5iYfMO4 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8755c9e9-bba6-4e6a-9283-9fab5696a017/latina-leadership-podcast

Connect With the Community: Don't miss a beat of the Latina Leadership Podcast!

Website: latinaleadershippodcast.com Instagram: instagram.com/latinaleadershippodcast Facebook: facebook.com/LatinaLeadershipPodcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/latina-leadership-podcast

Lucia Mercado knows that room. Born and raised in Riverside, California, she became one of the first — if not the only — person in her family to earn a college degree. She navigated financial aid alone, weathered a CPA internship that ended without warning, and eventually found her footing not in a corporate office but at a Chico pop-up market with five handmade necklaces and a borrowed booth space. Today she runs Mercado Productions, producing 15+ events a year including the Lunar Market, Divine Sundays, and the Día de los Muertos festival that grew from 500 attendees to over 3,000 in three years.

Share Your Story

Your story matters. Have you reclaimed your voice from a difficult experience? Share it with us. DM us on Instagram: @LatinaLeadershipPodcast or email us at [email protected].

Found this powerful? Please like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to join our community of support and storytelling.

Prefer audio? Find the full podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/latina-leadership-podcast/id1539009007 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1OD36YHq4caQaCY5iYfMO4 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8755c9e9-bba6-4e6a-9283-9fab5696a017/latina-leadership-podcast

Connect With the Community: Don't miss a beat of the Latina Leadership Podcast!

Website: latinaleadershippodcast.com Instagram: instagram.com/latinaleadershippodcast Facebook: facebook.com/LatinaLeadershipPodcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/latina-leadership-podcast