Peruvians of USA

On this episode, Nathalie chats with Vianna Calderon Lopez. Vianna is currently pursuing a Master's in Applied Behavioral Analysis at Hunter College, has overcome remarkable challenges. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant and facing the complexities of her father's alcoholism, she took on responsibilities beyond her years while pursuing her education. Vianna earned her Bachelor's Degree from CUNY Queens College and Hunter College. With a background in the Early Intervention Program, she now focuses on child behavioral development, researching bilingual (Spanish-English) children and language preference. As a new mother, Vianna deftly juggles a full-time job, classes, and clinical hours while staying unwavering in her pursuit of success. Her journey is a testament to resilience and determination.

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In this episode, Nathalie chats with Stephanie Rupay-Parris (She/Her/Ella): Peruvian-American living on the beautiful island of Aruba. Stephanie is the Mentor Training and Technical Assistance Manager at the "I Have A Dream" Foundation, where she's crafting a sustainable mentoring model for under-resourced students. As a passionate social worker, she champions diverse representation and infuses social justice values into her work.

Stephanie's journey includes coming out as a lesbian later in life, facing family rejection, and overcoming international and legal hurdles to build a family with her wife. Join us in celebrating Stephanie's resilient and life journey. Stay tuned for her inspiring episode! 🎙️💫

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Ashleigh Sisneros is an Information Technology Specialist and an Air Force Veteran. A ‘Network Administrator’ by trade, she has worked in all facets of IT with various government agencies. Having achieved early career success, she has made it her mission to help other Latina women in tech. At 17 she enlisted into the Air Force as a guard member for the State of Louisiana. Having lived through Katrina and other hurricanes, she remembered those in uniform who would hand out water and lifesaving supplies and knew she wanted to be a part of that.  She served for 10 years, had 2 deployments, was activated for hurricane and state missions, and served at the nation’s capital during the 2020 inauguration. Today Ashleigh is currently working at the Department of Defense Educational Activity in Naples, Italy. She spends her free time traveling and trying to achieve her fun goal, to eat Peruvian food in each new country she visits! Ashleigh is first-generation and proud of her heritage as she always is trying to introduce people to Peru’s rich culture and food.

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Adrian Carlos Vaillancourt is a community builder interested in connecting South and Central American adoptees with their first cultures. Born in Peru and adopted at a young age by an American mother and Canadian father, Adrian first connected with his Peruvian culture after high school. Adrian believes that connecting with your first culture can help to create community and provide a better understanding of your identity. He is excited to create spaces for this by offering language classes, cooking classes, and cultural classes

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Alexa Polar is a writer, director, and founder of Female Filmmakers Fuse; a nonprofit that promotes diversity, equality, inclusion, and a safe workplace for women in the film and television industry.  Alexa recently wrote Marilyn Mexico, a feature-length biopic that focuses on Marilyn Monroe’s affinity for Mexican culture and her final trip to Mexico. Loz Dos Studios and BFT Media are in talks with Alexa regarding acquiring the screenplay. 

Alexa is set to direct the currently entitled feature Fons Vivus, a screenplay she wrote about a group of diverse vigilante women who come together joining forces for a greater cause in a deeply flawed legal system. After this, she placed her focus on R Culture, a feature drama that tackles the issues of rape culture in today's society. 

Whenever Alexa is not working on writing, prepping for directing, or directing; she is advocating for social causes against systemic racism, an uneven scale of the patriarch, and supporting causes for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. She often assists with immigration cases as a paralegal. 

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Victor de la Flor was born in Passaic, NJ and partly raised in Orlando, FL to Peruvian parents. He decided to join the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 20 in order to get a change of pace in life and pursue his desire for world travel. He chose the Military Justice job field which he felt would provide him good work experience over time. What was supposed to be a 4-year enlistment, turned into a 20-year Marine Corps career, mainly credited to the exceptional leadership and guidance he’s received. In 2020, Victor took to his art, design, and entrepreneurial skills and invented a uniform item called UnderCoverClip, which is now carried by retail military and tactical stores worldwide. In 2022, he decided to make his passion for art public, when he agreed to do a portrait commission for a friend, which then led to several more art commissions, participation in art shows, presenting at Fleet Week San Diego Art Exhibition, being a featured artist at the Oceanside Museum of Art and now becoming a sponsored artist attending and participating in a veteran and indigenous art exhibition being held in Chicago in 2023.

Art Instagram: @VTDelaflor

UnderCoverClip IG: @UnderCoverClip

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Peruvian immigrant Anaís Azul (they/them) is a California-based composer-performer, Fulbright Scholar, and teaching artist. Described as “stunningly honest and vulnerable,” their artistry engages with music as a tool for community building, cross-genre collaboration, and collective healing.
Last fall, Azul released their debut solo EP “Vulnerable” thanks to the support of the Yerba Buena Garden’s Festival 2022 Seed Commission. Their past releases can be found on all major streaming platforms. One of their past releases, “Mi Piel,” was featured on the Spotify editorial playlist “Best Non-Binary+ Artists of 2020.”
Outside of their performance life, Anaís has been proud to serve as co-curator of the 2022 annual Día de los Muertos exhibition “To Love and be Loved in Return” at SoMarts. Currently, they teach group and private music lessons in Spanish & English and trans-inclusive Spanish classes virtually. In their spare time, they like to go thrifting and read tarot cards for their friends and family.

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Elias Burrell is the founder of Allpa Foods, a specialty retailer of packaged Peruvian food products. The mission at Allpa Foods is to provide wholesome and natural food products that tell a cultural story. Elias had the inspiration for Allpa when traveling in South America for several months back in 2018. Years later he decided to take his experience in E-commerce and entrepreneurship to start his own brand revolving around many of his passions including his Peruvian heritage.

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Cindy Y. Rodriguez is a Peruvian-American entrepreneur and journalist who has worked in media for over a decade for companies like NBC, CNN, Latina magazine, and Vivala.com, which she co-launched. One of her greatest successes was co-launching HuffPost’s LatinoVoices. In 2015, she and her childhood friend co-founded the award-nominated feminist podcast Morado Lens where they discussed sex, culture, and embracing intuition as a form of empowerment, all from a Latina’s perspective. She loves creating impactful and diverse content for English-dominant Latinos, especially on subjects like identity, culture, and race.

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In this conversation, Nathalie and Cindy discuss how our Latinx community can overcome debt and achieve financial freedom. We discuss Cindy's book "Overcoming Debt, Achieving Financial Freedom: 8 Pillars to Build Wealth," where she shares her story of going from a negative six-figure net worth to a positive six-figure net worth.

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Cindy Zuniga-Sanchez is the Founder of Zero-Based Budget, where she offers personal finance education on saving, investing, and strategies for debt repayment. She has been featured in national media, including Good Morning America, Forbes, Business Insider, Kiplinger, and Bloomberg Opinion, and received her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

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