Latina to Latina

Caress has provided more than 2.5 million dollars to support and elevate founders in our communities. One of the alums of the Caress Dream Fund, Naibe Reynoso, is an Emmy award-winning journalist and founder of Con Todo Press, a bilingual children's book publishing company. Naibe shares how she applied her journalism skills to entrepreneurship, the realities of publishing, and how to find big money for your big idea. (Sponsored)

To learn more go to caress.com and contodopress.com

The prolific actress and star of Netflix’s musical crime comedy drama, Emilia Perez, shares her fears about being “too famous,” the risk/reward analysis of taking on a wildly ambitious project, and what she learned from sharing space (and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award!) with Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascón and Selena Gomez.

We bring you one of our favorite conversations featuring some of the most inspiring Latina writers we've had on the show. When her parents’ tourists visas expired, and they were no longer allowed entry into the United States, Elizabeth, an American citizen, persuaded her parents to allow her to stay in Arizona solo. She was only 15 years-old. Even as she contended with housing and food insecurity, Elizabeth managed to graduate valedictorian of her high school class, before going on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, we talk about the values tension in wanting to change the world and needing to pay rent, why the responsibilities she carried never allowed her to “let loose” like her peers, and her decision to share her story in her new memoir, “My Side of the River.”

Follow Elizabeth on instagram @lizzycancu and find her book My Side of the River here.  

This week, we continue with one of our most beloved conversations with members of the new literary canon. As if setting out to write a book about the undocumented immigrant experience across the country wasn’t hard enough, Karla Cornejo Villavivencio set a much higher bar for The Undocumented Americans. “I promised everyone in the book, all of my subjects, that I would get Americans to care. And that's a promise that I couldn't guarantee that I could keep,” she tells Alicia in this searing conversation about not wanting to be a political tool, being among the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard University, and not thinking too much about herself to avoid “going into dark places.”

Follow Karla  on instagram @karlarrriott.

Raised in El Paso by a Mexican immigrant mother and a father who worked as a truck driver, this first gen college student started her career at the Republican National Committee. Then dual tragedies, the September 11, 2001 attacks and the sudden death of her father, changed everything. Olivia describes her career pivot to national security; her choice to work for Vice President Pence, her decision to leave and the fall out; and why she, a lifelong Republican, is now openly campaigning for Kamala Harris. 

Administrator Guzman, the fifth Latina to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet, shares how she learned to be “as entrepreneurial as the small businesses” she serves, the growing pains of pivoting from behind-the-scenes player to principal, and her best advice for other Latinas who want to do the same.

At UnidosUS's annual conference in Las Vegas this year, LTL's Juleyka Lantigua moderated a keynote conversation with the founder of the award-winning beauty brand during the event's Latinas Luncheon. Sandra opened up about the creative transition from rock musician to lifestyle entrepreneur, the business acumen and personal evolution required to grow Nopalera, and the powerful ways our choices as Latina consumers can generate community wealth.

This week, we share another one of our favorite interviews from Latinas in the art world. Her poems have gone viral and reached millions. Now the writer behind "Brown Girl, Brown Girl" opens up about finding her way out of an abusive marriage, the decade where her kids became her poems, and the power of putting what you want into words.

Find Leslé's latest book here and follow the author on IG @leslehonore. If you loved this episode, listen to How Coco Illustrator Ana Ramírez González Extends Herself with Her Art and How Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio Maintains Control of Her Narrative. 

For her newest YA book, Solis, Paola teamed up with co-author Abby Sher to tell the story of a near-future  America where undocumented people are forced into labor camps in service of an autocratic regime, and the four courageous rebels who decide to start a revolution. Paola shares the process of co-creating, what she had to say "no" to in order to say "yes" to YA fiction, and reflections on her own quest for freedom.

Follow Paola on Instagram @paolamendoza .  Find her new book Solis, here and her book tour dates here. If you enjoyed this episode, listen to her first episode on Latina to Latina, Paola Mendoza Teaches Us That Joy Is an Act of Resistance. 

The award-winning journalist delves into the reporting behind her new book, Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America; reflects on how being a Latina lesbian informs her storytelling; and shares what her grandfather’s life and death have taught her about the pursuit of individual freedom.

Follow Paola @paoramos on Instagram and find her new book here.