Can you believe it? We have arrived at the last installment of 2024 with Moneda Moves, and thank you for joining us this year! Throughout this season, we continued to cover top Latino entrepreneurs and leaders in the space looking to close capital gaps in our ecosystem, starting with my hometown, Chicago, the wider Midwest, and beyond.

This week, we’re coming back to our roots and talking about how Latino culture is influencing purchasing power. Little Village, a neighborhood in the southwest side of Chicago, is named the "Mexico of the Midwest" and generates over $900 million annually through its Latino-owned businesses. People come from all over the U.S. to experience the very specific type of nostalgia they can usually only find in Mexico. My immigrant parents sure did as I was growing up. It was here where we could find the botanica with medicinal herbs we were looking for or specific ingredients for a dinner with a taste of the motherland on Sunday afternoons.

Customers come for the food, the street vendors, and the experience of feeling at home in a familiar place. This kind of success has the potential to be a blueprint for Latino communities all over the U.S., and this week’s guest is sharing how we can both protect this wealth and strengthen it.

Jennifer Aguilar is the Executive Director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, where she leads the mission to foster the growth and prosperity of businesses in Little Village while harnessing the community's rich cultural heritage to create fresh opportunities. In her role, Jennifer orchestrates the comprehensive planning, coordination, and execution of all facets of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and Little Village Special Service Area #25. This includes staff management, operations, programs, projects, and services. With over a decade of experience, Jennifer has excelled in safeguarding corporate brand image and reputation through adept management of public and private stakeholder relationships.

Authenticity is at the heart of Little Village’s success. With traditional street vendors, quinceañeras, and over 100 restaurants, the corridor's success comes from knowing what its customers want. That includes products that are not only culturally comforting but also good for them. During her time at Nostro Queso, Jennifer found that customers prefer to buy organic, preservative-free products and are willing to pay higher prices for products in places like Little Village than they would in chain grocery stores. She says that customers who come to shop at Little Village would rather pay for traditionally made products than anything else. But when towns like Little Village become popular, large corporations often move in, which can negatively affect the community when not done responsibly.

In this week’s episode, Jen talks about what’s going well in Little Village’s economy and what we can do to protect it. $900 million is just the beginning. There is so much more that the people of Little Village can accomplish if given the opportunity. To make sure they do get that opportunity, Jen is working with the community to ensure they have the chance to own their spaces, limit the negative side effects of gentrification, and thrive in this generation and the next.

No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Jen on Instagram: @jenmydear @littlevillagechamber 

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

What’s up, Moneda Moves community?

No one should be left behind in our mission to achieve equal pay, even for Latinas. Yet, in 2024, the Latina pay gap widened for the first time in 20 years. That's impacting Latinas across the board and in most disparate ways our caregivers, mothers, farmworkers, and people working in hospitality.

My time reporting out of NYC reminds me of a time when I covered farmworkers and activists marching 200 miles to Albany to demand basic workers' rights, including collective bargaining, workers’ compensation, and unemployment benefits. This was finally granted in 2019 via the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act.

This week’s guest is Mónica Ramírez, an attorney, author, and activist. She is the founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, The Latinx House, and Poderistas. Mónica has received numerous awards, including Harvard Kennedy School’s first Gender Equity Changemaker Award, Feminist Majority’s Global Women’s Rights Award, and the Smithsonian’s 2018 Ingenuity Award. She was named to Forbes Mexico’s 100 Most Powerful Women’s 2018 list, TIME Magazine’s TIME100 Next list in 2021, and the Association of Latino Professionals for America’s (ALPFA) Most Powerful Latinas list for 2024.

Now more than ever, it’s so important to be aware of the inequities our communities face at all levels and to call them out. If we are ever going to see the equal pay we deserve, we need to bring marginalized workers on this journey with us. That includes the farmworkers, janitors, and caretakers. At Moneda Moves, we applaud how our community is building generational wealth through entrepreneurship, leading companies, and career progression. But in our interview with Mónica, we discuss how the best way to move forward as a community and to close the wage gap is to respect individuals across industries that power our society in search of equity. There is no room for disparaging the same jobs that gave the next generation a leg up in the first place.

In this week’s episode, Mónica highlights why the pay gap is widening and what we can do to fix it. The fight for equal pay is a long road ahead, but we can start within our own communities. Latinas are making on average 51 cents on the dollar compared to our white, non-Hispanic colleagues. This pay gap is affecting Latinas in white-collar jobs and blue-collar alike. We have a lot of work to do to fix this, and Mónica is here to teach us how.

No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Mónica on Instagram: @activistmonicaramirez 

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

Que tal, Moneda Moves community?

As both an employee and an entrepreneur in the financial industry, Juan knows just about everything there is to know about a business’s finances. He knew exactly what founders would need from a financial program like Lazo in order to grow their businesses, so he built it! Juan created a company that empowers Latino business owners through their finances and ensures they can scale their businesses.

Juan Manuel Barrero, a three-time entrepreneur, hails from Trenque Lauquen, a small town in Argentina, where he grew up in an accounting family business. Now based in Miami, he is building Lazo, a venture enabling him to make a significant social impact and transform his lifelong industry. His efforts benefit countless entrepreneurs while revolutionizing the sector.

Driven by the desire to create a substantial social impact, Juan aims to innovate and disrupt the CFO and legal tech SaaS industry. He recognizes the potential of AI, automation, and standardization in building scalable products. As the CEO of Lazo, he founded and leads the top gateway for Latin American startups in the U.S. Through partnerships with early-stage startups, Juan helps structure their data and provides a comprehensive VC-ready SaaS solution to address their finance, tax, legal, and investor relations needs.

Finances have always been a huge part of Juan’s life. His father was a CPA in a small town in Argentina, and he has been helping his father with the family business since he was a kid. As an adult, he also became a CPA and worked for major corporations for five years before becoming an entrepreneur and creating his own business, just like his father. His dad even became his first partner! It’s because of his experience in leadership positions and his community of Latinos in the financial industry that he created a program to give back to his community.

It hasn’t always been easy! From discovering his company was not sustainable to receiving hundreds of “no’s” from investors, he has experienced all the highs and lows of being a founder. He’s had to let go of businesses he wasn’t truly aligned with and find his true purpose before creating Lazo. Now, after years of recalibrating and redefining his purpose, Lazo is the number one pick for Latin American startups.

No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Juan on Instagram: @joinLazo

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

Welcome back to another installment of Moneda Moves mi gente!

Diana Hernandez Wayne wants you to live your life intentionally; otherwise, what’s the point? I first met her at L’Attitude, the annual conference hosted by the $100 million fund (LAT VC) investing in Latino businesses. 

Diana is an absolute force, and I am so excited to have her on the show. She is a wealth of knowledge and feels like she’s lived a thousand lives! Diana learned early in her career that she would rather live an intentional life than a stagnant one. To do that, she had to learn how to let go of her scarcity mindset.

Diana Hernandez is an executive coach and consultant who advises corporate clients, venture funds, and founders on scaling their businesses. Diana has experience moderating and leading career advancement workshops and uses neuroscience-based practices to drive change. 

Before executive coaching, she spent her career in consumer brands, working for Fortune 500 companies, including Clorox, Brita, and Method Products. She has experience in P&L management and cross-functional roles in finance, sales, marketing, and e-commerce, with expertise in launching and growing multimillion-dollar brands with major national retailers.

Living intentionally comes at a cost. To live the life we want, we have to let go of our fears. 

So many of us stay exactly where we are because we are afraid of failure. The fear of failure almost kept Diana in a financial reporting job she wasn’t aligned with. Once she overcame that fear and requested to switch departments, more opportunities opened up for her.

In this week’s episode, Diana shares the most important lessons she has learned from her years of personal and professional experience. Climbing the corporate ladder has never been easy, especially when she’s usually the only Latina in the room. She was frustrated with her career path but was afraid that pivoting meant quitting. Once she faced the grief of losing two sisters in one year, Diana knew she had to live her life intentionally. She needed to take control of her life and make her decisions from an empowered place and not from limiting beliefs. 

It wasn’t until she left the finance department for the sales department, and then the marketing department, that she began to align with her true purpose. Diana learned that she had to let go of her scarcity mindset and embrace her power. After years of honing her skills, Diana is teaching corporate leaders how to embrace their power, build their brands, and live intentionally.

No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Diana on TikTok and Instagram: @dianalives 

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

This week, we’re highlighting a cross-border trailblazer who is dedicated to bringing financial news in context for Spanish speakers in the United States. Our guest, Enrique Castro, is dedicated to bridging the financial education gap he’s noticed in Latino populations by sharing the knowledge he’s learned firsthand and creating a connection to current affairs. Each week, Enrique empowers his audience by sharing the latest financial news that impacts their families’ economies. He also shares inspiring stories of Hispanics in the United States who are transforming and strengthening the community. By advocating for his community on a local level and an international level, he is bringing financial literacy to those who need it most. 

Enrique Castro is an economist, podcaster, and Director of Membership and Corporate Relations for the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. As a Director, a role he accepted earlier this year (congratulations Enrique!) he uses his position to support Latino businesses in the Greater Austin area. His experience as a multi-hyphenate business owner has helped him understand the challenges of the needs of other small businesses. As host of the Economics and Finance podcast Taco Financiero, he is focused on documenting the Latino community here in the United States and speaking to how current affairs impact this community. 

Before moving to the US, Enrique was born and raised in South Mexico where he studied economics at ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México) and developed economic development policy experience while serving at the Mexican government.

Many external factors affect our personal finances - including upcoming elections, the cost of living, and the rate of inflation. But not everyone knows how to make sense of these external factors in the context of their everyday finances. This is why Enrique has made it his mission to educate the Latino community and let us know exactly what we should expect. 

In this week’s episode, we'll talk about his experience working as an economist and an entrepreneur, his story of how he immigrated to the U.S., the macro trends that he's watching this year, and how the election may impact entrepreneurs. 

No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Taco Financiero on TikTok and Instagram: @tacofinanciero

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

Today we are honoring the Midwest by shining a light on Samara Hernandez, the Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures. Samara and her team are the perfect examples of the incredible talent living in our hometown of Chicago.

Chingona Ventures is an institutionally backed pre-seed stage fund focusing on investing in tech and tech-enabled companies across the U.S. The fund has $60MM in AUM and has made more than 40 investments across technology sectors in Financial, Food, Future of Work and Learning, and Health/Wellness. 

Samara is on the advisory boards for Coolwater, an organization to support the emerging manager community; Angeles Investors, an organization investing in early-stage startups led by Latinx founders; and Venture Forward, a non-profit working to get more diversity in the venture

capital ecosystem.

She started her career at Goldman Sachs where she continually ranked in the top five for selling financial products, providing market insights, advising on portfolio construction, and consulting business practices. From there, she became an investor at Math Venture Partners across two funds where she led investment review, diligence, and execution.

While the Midwest can be overlooked by investors, we have a lot of hustle over here and with Samara’s help, business owners with marginalized backgrounds are starting to get the funding they need to do great things. This is especially important as founders with minority backgrounds find it hard to get funding.

In this week’s episode, Samara shares how her path to investing was a reaction to her environment. As a result, Chingona Ventures focuses on industries that are massively changing and founders whose backgrounds uniquely position them to create businesses in growth markets that are often overlooked. She and her team focus on areas in financial technology, the future of work, the future of learning, food technology, and health/wellness. Chingona Ventures invests in founders with a racial or ethnic minority with both cold and warm intros. She and her team have reviewed over 7,000 cold and warm inbound submissions, averaging five to six deals reviewed per day, at the time, invested in more than 40 different companies. That is such a high volume for such a lean team!

No te lo quires perder.

Follow Chingona Ventures on TikTok and Instagram: @chingonaventures

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Sarah Tulloch and her podcast production company, CCST.

What do Black and Latino entrepreneurs look like, uninterrupted?

That’s the question, Felecia Hatcher, CEO of Pharrell William’s Black Ambition Opportunity Fund, has for the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Hatcher is a White House Award-Winning Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker and Author. The Fund, which she leads, invests in diverse entrepreneurs with capital, mentorship and uninterrupted access to resources and opportunities. There is nothing she can’t do.

In the last three years, the Fund has invested in more than 100 Black and Latino-led companies, all which have gone to raise more than $95 million.

Today we are speaking with Felecia about the capital gaps for Black and Latino entrepreneurs, the big opportunity that comes with investing in POC communities and her own journey as business owners from owning a gourmet popsicle company with her partner to becoming CEO of Black Ambition.

No te lo quires perder.

You were just hearing from Laura Moreno Lucas, a Latina entrepreneur, about the purpose behind her latest initiative Libra Leaders (https://libraleaders.com/). It’s a new platform with a collective $1.2B in investment capital setting out to help founders “scale the capital ladder,” by providing access to a network of influential women at every level of the capital markets, growth opportunities, and the big unlock for the Latino cohort: capital. Her founding team including Carolina Bradili and Anastasia Martinez sets out to build a wholistic ecosystem to uplift the next generation of unicorns. But prior to Libra Leaders, Laura had a history of working in the space from being an entrepreneur at an exiting company, to board member at bath and body brand Nopalera to being a general partner in venture. Before then, we had a pleasure of working together at Nasdaq, the stock exchange, where she was managing director for new listings and capital market.

Today, we speak about the new endeavor to uplift women entrepreneurs, and learnings in her career as one of the few Latinas to rise through the ranks in capital markets. No te lo quires perder.

Notes: This podcast was recorded during Women’s History Month in the lead up to Libra Leaders’ launch which was reported separately via Forbes. Find it here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lyannealfaro/2024/03/08/this-platform-with-a-12b-investment-capital-helps-close-the-latina-founder-investing-gap/?sh=10d90ac55abe

Our podcast host cited that fewer than 12 POC-owned companies had listed on NYSE. Our research suggests that the stat may be even slightly more striking. A recent Marketplace interview in fact cites that “There have only been about 12 ever in all stock exchanges that are minority-owned and controlled companies to reach a stock exchange.” 

Find the interview with Dream Exchange here: https://www.marketplace.org/2023/06/27/first-minority-owned-public-stock-exchange-looks-to-make-its-debut/ 

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

Welcome to the 2024 season of Moneda Moves mi gente. This year, we are speaking with leaders in the Latino entrepreneurship ecosystem who are paving the way. 

And among them is Rocio van Nierop is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Latinas in Tech. For more than 15 years, she has been working in the tech industry and is and advocating for Latinx diversity and inclusion.

Today, Latinas in Tech consists of almost 30,000 women working at more than 100 of the top technology companies worldwide. As We All Grow cites, she now works with lawmakers at the city, state, and federal levels to help change the system from outside the tech ecosystem.

So I saw it fitting to ask her about her take on DEI in this year, a year where diversity equity and inclusion is being challenged by the right. No te lo quieres perder.

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.

On the final episode of Moneda Moves for 2023, we are speaking with Isabel Casillas Guzman, the 27th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

"Everyone is trying to figure out how to target the Latino market," she says. "(Latinos) have an advantage in knowing what the needs and the wants are of this community at scale."

When it comes to speaking about accessing the Latino purchasing power, she’s absolutely right.

Most want a piece Latino market, and it’s a matter of how they can get to it. It’s the $3.4 trillion question — that’s our purchasing power, according to the Latino Donor Collaborative. For this reason among many others, major brands from Netflix to Walmart to Target want to access Latinos. We’re growing and here to stay.

And while we have all this purchasing power, one of the big issues we face as prominent business owners is access to capital. Earlier this year,  we learned that the agency topped $3 billion in SBA-backed loans to Latino-owned small businesses, increasing more than 30% since 2017 (nearly double since 2020). 

In today’s interview, we discuss how the SBA is helping get Latino business owners access to loans, how we tap into our own purchasing power and how the Supreme’s Courts ruling on affirmative action will impact small business owners. We also explore how the SBA responded when the ruling impacted a program of its own, helping nearly 5,000 disadvantaged small businesses secure coveted government contracts.

Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves

Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro

Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat. Our music is from Epidemic Sound.